Illumina Campus Is Bigger and Better as Part of Firm’s Growth Plan
Biotechnology Column
Right on the edge of the Interstate 805 is the latest addition to the sprawling Illumina Inc. campus: a spanking-new athletic complex and corporate amphitheater that seats 1,750.
WeMonitor Wants to Put Your House in Order Energywise
TECH: Series A Funding Brings $5.3M To Local Startup
It’s hard to pinpoint how much, say, charging a laptop might add to a person’s utility bill. But, thanks to San Diego’s WeMonitor Inc., there’s an app for that.
Arena’s Weight Loss Drug Hits Shelves
PHARMA: Move Brings $65M Payment; Analysts Remain Cautious
San Diego’s Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc. recently launched its much-anticipated weight-loss drug, Belviq — triggering a $65 million milestone payment from its marketing partner, Japanese drugmaker Eisai Co. Ltd.
Neurelis’ Epilepsy Work Draws Potential Buyer
PHARMA: Biotie Deal Covers Development and Option to Buy
Neurelis Inc., a small San Diego pharmaceutical company with a storied biotech executive at its core, recently announced that it may be acquired by Finnish drugmaker Biotie Therapies Inc. for a total of $9.75 million.
San Diego Biotech Companies See Growth as Funding Heats Up
Biotechnology Column
Biotech. It’s hot. On a local level, as widely reported, there’s been a string of IPOs and secondary public offerings across San Diego’s biotech landscape — as well as new funding announcements and heavy-hitting milestone payments.
PremloCare Offers Doctor, Patient Video Consultation Service
HEALTH: Telemedicine Market Expected to Reach $27.3 Billion in 2016
A San Diego company is entering the burgeoning telemedicine market, launching a service that now remotely connects patients to about 800 physicians in the San Diego area.
Insurance Changes Are Coming Into Focus
LAW: Small Businesses Can See Hint of What Reform Is Bringing
The 13 insurers participating in the state’s individual exchange, Covered California, were recently announced — and business owners ought to pay close attention, said Diana Twadell, a principal in the small business unit of San Diego brokerage Barney & Barney LLC.
Apricus to Focus on Sexual Dysfunction Therapies
PHARMA: Secondary Public Offering Provides Cash for Development
Apricus Biosciences Inc., a maker of drugs treating sexual dysfunction, has joined the cadre of San Diego biotechs making waves on the stock market with its recent $17.1 million secondary public offering.
Hurdles Are Hindering the Development of Algae-Based Biofuels
ENERGY: Regulatory Push Is Seen as Vital; Technical Focus Is on Basics
A refurbished research agreement between La Jolla-based Synthetic Genomics Inc. and Irving, Tex.-based ExxonMobil Corp. is reflective of the many challenges ahead in bringing algae-based renewable biofuels to market.
Health Care Billing Needs Its Own Reform
MEDICINE: Cost Fluctuations, Actual Payments Hard to Decipher
Recent data from Medicare shows that hospital costs differ significantly across the country — and that health care billing in San Diego happens to be on the higher end.
New Implanted Device Is Transforming the Treatment of Scoliosis
MEDICINE: UCSD Surgeons, Firm Develop Corrective Magnetic Rods
Implanted, growing magnetic rods — they sound like something out of a sci-fi movie.
Key Ingredients
BEVERAGE: Suja Juice Assembles Right Recipe For Success in the Sector
The rapid growth of San Diego’s Suja Juice Inc. is testament to the trendiness of juicing — tapping raw vegetables and fruits for belly-flushing cleanses.
Lumena Secures $23M to Advance Trials for Liver Disease Drug
BIOTECH: PwC Reports Q1 2013 Drop In Dollars and Deals
Lumena Pharmaceuticals Inc., a San Diego-based manufacturer of liver disease drugs, recently secured $23 million in Series A financing.
Company Offers Mobile Patient-Controlled Health Record Access
HEALTH: Software Fills An Important Need, Reduces Medical Error
Patients are often shuttled from physician to physician, resulting in a quagmire of confusing medical records when they’re generated at different sources. This can lead to medical error, if doctors aren’t given a comprehensive account of a patient’s history at the get-go.
Ambrx Closes New Deal With Bristol-Myers
BIOTECH: Funding Allows Firm Flexibility for Development
In rapid succession San Diego’s Ambrx Inc. has received sizable payouts from sizable drug companies, most recently penning a cancer drug development deal with New York-based Bristol-Myers Squibb.
Evidence-Based Design Drives SYHC Facilities Renovation
HEALTH CARE: Clinic Interior Promotes Healing; ‘Not Just a Decorating Job’
San Ysidro Health Center is using what’s called evidence-based design to inform the renovation of its new three-story clinic and urgent care center in Chula Vista — and streamlining health care in the process.
Local Biotech Activity Hints at Sector’s Post-Recession Pickup
Biotechnology Column
It’s been a busy few weeks for San Diego’s biotechs. Acquisitions, partnership payouts and a number of IPOs are in the works—all signs that the sector, somewhat sluggish post-recession, is picking up its pace.
Qualcomm Acquires Medical Software Maker
HEALTH CARE: Firm Doubles Employment in Its Qualcomm Life Unit
One of the hottest buzzwords of health care reform is the ACO — the accountable care organization. San Diego’s Qualcomm Life, the health sciences subsidiary of telecommunications giant Qualcomm Inc., has made a bold move to enter the ACO space — by acquiring San Diego IT company HealthyCircles Inc.
Scripps Health Wins With Bid for Hospice
HEALTH: Bankrupt Facility Will Still Be Used as Hospice
A heated auction in federal bankruptcy court last week culminated in Scripps Health making a winning $16.55 million bid for San Diego Hospice’s eight-acre Hillcrest property.
Firm’s Small Modular Fuel Plants Can ‘Sprout Up’ Where Needed
ENERGY: Oberon’s Units Produce Fuel On-Site, Using Local Sources
A San Diego clean energy company is making strides in changing the way power plants are set up — by making them modular.
Warburg Pincus-Backed Sophiris Biosciences Plans $75M IPO
BIOTECH: Former Canadian Firm Developing BPH Treatment
Sophiris Biosciences Inc.’s story is one of immigration and, in a way, the pursuit of the American dream: It’s a Canadian-turned-American pharmaceutical company that’s using its newfound San Diego base to restructure and ramp up development plans for its drug that treats prostate enlargement.
Skin in the game
RESEARCH: Biotech Innovations Are Fueling Cosmeceutical Competition
A handful of San Diego companies are competing in the lucrative high-end skincare market, using a grounding in real science to produce and promote their beauty wares.
OncoSec Uses Social Media Forums to Improve Clinical Trials
Biotechnology Column
Social networking helps patients with life-threatening conditions find both valuable information and peer counsel — and drug companies are finding these forums highly useful in developing clinical trials and treatments.
Avalon, GSK Team Up to Be Creative Force in Drug Innovation
MEDICINE: Venture Will Find and Further Promising Research
In a unique deal that will create and bankroll 10 new San Diego drug companies, La Jolla investment firm Avalon Ventures has teamed up with British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline Plc to funnel up to $495 million into new startups over the next three years.
‘Garage Laboratory’ Concept Is Experiment in Reaching Out
BIOTECH: Carlsbad Facility Plans to Open Field to Citizen Scientists
Kevin Lustig has an eye for slogans. He’s the CEO of what he calls “the Amazon.com of biotechnology,” and his latest venture is opening “the world’s largest garage laboratory.”
Pharmaceutical Industry Leaders Soak Up San Diego’s Story
Biotechnology Column
A group of pharmaceutical heavy hitters recently convened in San Diego for the annual meeting of industry trade group PhRMA. The roster included National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins, Eli Lilly and Co. CEO John C. Lechleiter, and California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, among others.
Finding Long-Term (Care) Solutions
INSURANCE: Policies Are An Attractive Job Benefit, But Can Be Complicated
Employers continue to explore long-term care insurance to pad their benefits packages, in large part to attract and retain key talent. This is because long-term care insurance can be a boon to employees who foresee caring for aging family members, or who want to protect their own assets as they age.
Thermo Fisher Bids High for Life Tech
BIOTECH: Massachusetts Firm Offers $76 Per Share
In a deal that outpaced analysts’ most generous estimates, Life Technologies Corp. will be acquired by Waltham, Mass.-based Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. for a resounding $13.6 billion.
BRAIN Initiative Will Tap Our Best Minds
RESEARCH: Local Firms, Scientists Already Researching
The new BRAIN Initiative, recently announced by the White House as an effort to comprehensively map brain processes, has a cadre of backers in San Diego and could have important implications on brain research locally.
Isis’ Path to Success is Creative Interaction and Innovation
BIOTECH: Firm Organizes Workspace To Foster Collaboration
The key growth strategy for San Diego drug developer Isis Pharmaceuticals Inc. is to … not grow. At least, not grow too much.
ResMed’s New CEO Aims to Grow Global Sleep Apnea Market
MEDICAL DEVICES: Firm’s Strategies Include Targeting Other Conditions
Mick Farrell, the new CEO of San Diego’s ResMed Inc., thinks the market is ripe for growth for his company’s devices that treat sleep-related breathing disorders. In an interview, he weighed in on the direction he plans to take the company, which was founded by his father, Peter Farrell, in 1989. Mick Farrell took the helm of ResMed on March 1.
Accelrys Builds Data ‘Bridges’ for Sharing Research
TECH: Software Allows Real-Time, Secure Collaborations
The drug development landscape is in flux, with pharmaceutical companies making in-house cuts and outsourcing their research to independent firms, called contract research organizations.
Sharp Joins MinuteClinic For Retail-Based Care
MEDICINE: Clinics Provide More Basic Treatments, Referrals
Sharp HealthCare has teamed up with MinuteClinic, the retail health care division of CVS Caremark Corp. Sharp physicians will now help oversee patient treatment in the 10 walk-in medical clinics that are located in CVS pharmacy stores around San Diego County. They are designed to be highly accessible: They’re open seven days a week and in the evenings, and patients can be seen without an appointment.
Royal DSM Builds on Verenium Partnership in Sorrento Valley
BIOTECH: New Office Will Expand DSM’s Move to Biofuel
Exactly one year after it purchased $37 million worth of food processing and oil extracting assets from San Diego-based Verenium Corp., Netherlands-based Royal DSM N.V. has christened a new outpost in Sorrento Valley.
Firm’s Stem Cells Play Offense In Fight Against Parkinson’s
MEDICINE: Aim Is To Regenerate Affected Regions of the Brain
The Carlsbad-based International Stem Cell Corp. is making strides in developing a cure for Parkinson’s disease, a devastating degenerative brain disorder most common in the elderly.
Brain Researchers Gather in San Diego for Annual Conference
Health Care Column
San Diego recently hosted the 2013 annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology, attracting thousands of brain researchers from around the country. Several San Diego companies made key announcements during the conference, including San Diego’s International Stem Cell Corp.
Oil Refiner Agrees To Buy Sapphire’s Output
BIOFUEL: Commercialization Is First Big Deal for Green Crude
It might just seem like a drop in the bucket — but San Diego-based Sapphire Energy Inc.’s first steps to commercialize its algae-based crude oil speaks volumes.
Interoperability Could Cut Health Care Costs, Study Finds
HEALTH: Firms Look for Ways to Integrate Systems
More than $30 billion could be saved each year in health care costs by improving the way that medical devices and health care systems communicate, according to a new analysis from San Diego’s West Health Institute. Hospital rooms have multiple medical devices from various manufacturers, and coordinating data from so many sources into one electronic medical record can be both costly and complicated.
Acquisition Puts SynteractHCR in Position for Global Trials
MEDICINE: Firm Is In 16 Countries, Expects To Expand to Asia
One of Southern California’s largest contract research organizations Synteract Inc. recently doubled in size after acquiring Munich, Germany-based Harrison Clinical Research Group GmbH. The move has formed a new multinational company called SynteractHCR, with headquarters in Carlsbad.
Health Care Providers Prepare for Patient Influx
HEALTH: Competition For Primary Care Physicians Is Fierce
Large health care providers in the county are bracing for an influx of new patients, as the Affordable Care Act comes into full effect next year.
Pathway Taps Avenue For Sharing Genetic Data
HEALTH: Alliance Is Formed With Large Medical Records Firm
San Diego’s Pathway Genomics has been ramping up its presence in the field of personalized genomics, as evidenced by its most recent collaboration with Practice Fusion Inc., a San Francisco-based electronic health record developer.
New Firm Founded to Pursue Biologics of Bone Treatments
BIOTECH: PUR Gets A Good Head Start With Histogen’s Technology
Before it became a leading hair-loss treatment, Rogaine was used to lower blood pressure. Scientists found, however, that in addition to controlling blood pressure, the drug made patients markedly hairier.
Acquisition Rumors Remain a Part of Life
BIOTECH: Carlsbad Firm’s Sequencing Work Stokes Suitors’ Interest
Media reports continue to circulate that Life Technologies Corp. is in play for possible acquisition. As the San Diego Business Journal reported in January, global investment firm KKR & Co. and Boston pharmaceutical company Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. are still said to be among the top contenders for a takeover of the $10.7 billion life sciences company.
Hospice Field Presents Many Challenges to the Players
Healthcare Column
As evidenced by the recent closure of San Diego Hospice, coordinating end-of-life care can be a tricky business. All around the country, hospices are increasingly facing scrutiny from Medicare as federal regulators bore in to cut costs in an overtaxed health care system.
Companies Find Treatments, Profits in ‘Orphan’ Drug Research
MEDICINE: Local Firms Tackle Market Worth $50B in 2011
A seminal breakthrough in the treatment of cystic fibrosis, a rare and devastating disease, began with a crack team of scientists at San Diego’s Aurora Biosciences Corp. This is a critical example of how private companies have begun to successfully, and profitably, target rare diseases with what are called “orphan drugs.”
Sharp Pioneers Patient Eligibility Process
HEALTH: Study Found That 80 Percent Were Covered
In a fractured health care market, hospitals struggle to find ways to recoup the heavy costs of treating the uninsured. But San Diego’s Sharp HealthCare has pioneered a simple approach to increase its rate of insurance reimbursements, resulting in $5 million regained — through a 90-second quiz.
Fast-Track Status Given To MediciNova Drug
MEDICINE: Move Encourages Investors, Increases FDA Contact
A drug treating methamphetamine addiction from San Diego pharmaceutical company MediciNova Inc. has been fast tracked for review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Deal With Harvard Is Part of Firm’s Stem Cell Strategy
BIOTECH: Life Technologies Test Would Evaluate Cells Usefulness
It’s costly and time-consuming to gauge whether stem cells are actually able to perform in a lab setting, and transform into other kinds of cells — but Life Technologies Corp. is developing a series of tests to make it easier.
Japanese Company Buys Althea Technologies Inc.
MEDICINE: Ajinomoto to Expand Pharmaceutical Efforts
Japanese food additive maker Ajinomoto Co. has made its first major foray into the U.S. biopharmaceutical industry by purchasing San Diego’s Althea Technologies Inc. for about $175 million.
Biotech Launches Subsidiary to Produce Cloned Synthetic DNA
Biotechnology Column
Synthetic Genomics Inc. in La Jolla has launched a new, wholly owned subsidiary called SGI-DNA that will allow customers to request custom sequences of DNA, and the company will synthesize the molecules for them.
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