Steve Sinovic
Phone: 858-277-6897
Recent Stories
Whistleblower Laws Call for Sound, Clearly Defined Policies
LAW: Proliferation of Lawsuits Emphasizes Scope of the Problem
A tidal wave of new lawsuits claiming retaliation against so-called whistleblowers has been hitting business owners in recent years.
Professionals Find a ‘Primer’ on the Life Sciences Industry
BIOTECH: Course Gets Variety of Students Up to Speed on Terms, Technology
Karin Lucas enjoys seeing the eyes of her students light up. The San Diego classroom she leads meets only for one day each year, but the knowledge she imparts could make a difference for business professionals working and investing in San Diego’s life sciences industry.
Connect Forum Tackles Issues of Advancing Wireless Health Care
GOVERNMENT: Reform Helps Bridge Gaps Between Innovation, Implementation
As Congress works through the details related to financing health care reform, a little-known part of President Barack Obama’s plan could provide an opening for local companies trying to get a foothold in the wireless patient-monitoring market.
HEALTHY IMPACT
STAFFING: Health Care Reform Likely
Health care reform may be a permanent fix to provide every American with basic medical services, but look to temporary staffing firms to do a lot of the heavy — and challenging — lifting on the patient care recruitment front.
Cadence Makes Big Addition to Pain-Relief Arsenal
HEALTH CARE: Firm’s Injectable Acetaminophen Aids Postoperative Patients
Befitting the company’s name, San Diego-based Cadence Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s sales staffers are marching to appointments to get a share of the pain-relief business at the nation’s hospitals.
Regional Life Sciences Group Thinks Globally
Biocom’s top executive has high hopes for the organization’s first Global Life Science Partnering Conference.
Verve Wireless Names New CEO, Opens Office in Washington, D.C.
TECHNOLOGY: Firm Secures $7 Million in Venture Capital Funding
Verve Wireless, which operates from corporate headquarters in Encinitas, has hired a new CEO.
FedEx to Use CryoPort Technology in Frozen Shipping Service
San Diego-based CryoPort Inc. said that FedEx Corp. has launched a frozen shipping product using CryoPort’s technology. Financial terms of the business deal were not disclosed.
Many Hospitals Are Feeling the Pain of Financial Difficulties
HEALTH CARE: Mandate On Seismic Standards Adds To Their Funding Problems
As one San Diego hospital gets ready to lay off nearly a quarter of its work force, California’s relentless fiscal crisis is creating a daunting challenge for all of San Diego County’s hospitals, which could affect their staffing levels.
Hospital’s New $40M Energy Plant Circulates Benefits for Patients, Staff
When Chris Van Gorder looks out at the new central energy plant at Scripps Mercy Hospital, he sees more than just a structure that will provide power, plumbing, heating and air conditioning for the hospital’s 111,000 patients each year.
Life Technologies Speeds Test for Egg Producers
Carlsbad-based Life Technologies Corp. said it has developed with the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine a detection kit to test for salmonella in poultry eggs, providing a tenfold reduction in waiting time for accurate results.
Clean-Tech Benefits From Global Climate Study
ENVIRONMENT: Scripps Joins $25M Research Effort With Commercial Potential
UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography is the beneficiary of research funding that’s part of an East Coast company’s $25 million plan to build a greenhouse gas observation network around the world.
Products Lighten Load for Life Sciences Shipping
TECHNOLOGY: Dry Ice Substitute Keeps Contents Cool for 10 Days-Plus
The top executive of a San Diego-based business expects the company’s frozen shipping transportation solution will meet with a warm reception from potential life sciences customers this year.
Collaborative Genome Project Could Lead to Cheaper Cancer Treatments
A GT Life Sciences Inc. executive sees great potential unfolding from the work of its research partner in China, which completed for the first time the sequencing of the Chinese hamster ovary, or CHO, genome. The collaborators believe this event will provide useful information that could potentially cut the costs of producing therapeutic proteins.
Financing Demonstrates Faith in Surgical Sleep Apnea Treatment
HEALTH CARE: Device Maker Attracts $8M-Plus, Prepares for U.S. Trials
A San Diego device maker has put to bed more than $8 million of funding to test and develop a pacemakerlike device that could help some sleep apnea sufferers get relief without relying on air masks.
Hospital Poised to Pare Staff, Enlarge Emergency Room
HEALTH CARE: Income Woes Hammer Alvarado Hospital; $25M Budgeted for Upgrades
Alvarado Hospital said it will lay off nearly one-fourth of its work force and implement operational restructurings by March 13 in an attempt to deal with multimillion-dollar reductions in state and federal payments.
Firm Makes Gene Sequencing Faster, More Affordable
LIFE SCIENCES: $1.5 Billion Market for Hardware Might Hit $100 Billion in 20 Years
Faster and more affordable gene sequencing is the hallmark of a device manufactured by a business unit of Life Technologies Corp. The product is being marketed to scientists, physicians and researchers at hospitals and institutes working in the area of genomic medicine.
$200M Proton Therapy Centers to Deliver Cancer-Fighting Benefits
HEALTH CARE: Scripps Project Set to Open in 2013; UCSD Facility Seeks Funds
The battle for future proton therapy market share could shape up to be a highly competitive undertaking in the local health care economy if two projects come to fruition.
Sharp and Kaiser Are Putting Big Construction Plans Into Action
Construction projects planned by two local health care systems are promising to bring a major economic stimulus jolt to the San Diego region this year.
Virtual Drug Development Becomes Reality
BIOTECH: Keeping Size of In-House Staff Small Makes Sense for Some Local Firms
For some local biotechs, building the classic drug company with bricks and mortar and lots of personnel doesn’t square with today’s economic realities.
Life Sciences Industry to Face Challenge of More Global Competition
BIOTECHNOLOGY: Firms Deal With Funding Issues And Regulatory Hurdles
While San Diego’s life sciences companies look to the future, they must watch their back. There is an increasing amount of competition and investment coming from Asia and Europe, adding to the challenges the firms will face at home in these difficult economic times.
Life Sciences Industry to Face Challenge of More Global Competition
BIOTECHNOLOGY: Firms Deal With Funding Issues And Regulatory Hurdles
While San Diego’s life sciences companies look to the future, they must watch their back.
Reform Adds Up to Less Revenue for Health Care Groups
HEALTH CARE: Hospitals Still Investing Billions in Local Construction Projects
Overhauling the nation’s health care system will cause reductions in revenues — in the form of reimbursement cuts by the government and insurers likely to reduce payments to providers — for the county’s major health care organizations, local executives say.
Clean-Tech Has Ample Support Systems to Thrive Locally
ENVIRONMENT: Report Highlights Sector’s Ability To Attract Jobs, VC Funds
San Diego’s clean technology leaders say the sector will continue to be a bright spot for the local economy in 2011 as companies work to develop products and services and add jobs to area payrolls.
Incubator Program Nurtures Startup
TECHNOLOGY: Independa Joins ‘Exclusive’ Group
Independa Inc., a startup that’s looking at developing wireless monitoring devices for the caregiver market, is getting a little care of its own as it works to stretch its investment dollars.
La Jolla Institute’s Work Might Prove Crucial to Drug Developers
RESEARCH: Database Helps Local Companies Developing Vaccines
Computer modeling could be giving some researchers a head start on how to better proceed in drug development.
Expansion-Minded Biotech Looks to Locate Headquarters Locally
RESEARCH: HemaQuest Advancing Development of Sickle Cell Disease Drugs
After being headquartered in two other cities in the space of three years, HemaQuest Pharmaceuticals Inc. is touching down in San Diego, a situation which brings the company — which is focusing on therapeutics to treat hemoglobin diseases — into the path of greater investment opportunity, according to its new chief executive officer.
CEO Seeks to Make Connections With Hospitals
TECHNOLOGY: Firm’s Medical Tracking Systems Show Potential for Growth
Growing market share in the year ahead is at the top of the priority list for Jay Deady, who on Dec. 1 was hired as president and chief executive officer at Awarepoint Corp., the San Diego-based provider of tracking systems for equipment and patients.
Firm Charged Up About Its Ability to Make Batteries Last Longer
TECHNOLOGY: Startup Raises Funds, Works With Automaker, Research Lab
Wildcat Discovery Technologies is fast tracking methods to develop better battery materials and sell them to a wide variety of customers.
Bovine Virus Test Kit Aims to Help Cattle Industry
BIOTECH: Life Technologies Strives to Detect Disease That Takes $2 Billion Toll Annually
If current sales efforts go as planned, Life Technologies Corp.’s new detection kit for a bovine virus could potentially be a cash cow for the Carlsbad-based company, which manufactures biotech tools for customers across a wide spectrum of industries.
UC San Diego Receives $6.5M To Decipher Protein Interactions
BIOTECH: Effort Could Shine Light on Diseases; Big Pharma Takes Notice
Before drugs can be put into the pipeline in the future to battle diseases with a genetic component, pharmaceutical companies first “need to know how different proteins talk to different proteins,” said San Diego scientist Trey Ideker, who is leading up an effort to crunch data in the study of biological networks, an effort that recently got the backing of the federal government.
Hospital Performs Area’s First Robotic Surgeries on Oral Cancers
HEALTH CARE: Technique Could Reduce the Length Of Patients Hospital Stay
The first transoral robotic surgeries in San Diego have been performed at Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center and all three patients who underwent those procedures are recovering well, said the surgeon who is leading up the effort to help patients beat early-stage oral cancer.
Natural Forms Offer Potential for Product Designers
TECHNOLOGY: Local Innovation Cluster Would Focus on ‘Biomimicry’
Nature is one of the best R&D labs available, according to a local group exploring the potential of the business of biomimicry as a future economic driver in the San Diego region.
Aetna Changing Compensation for Brokers, Agents
INSURANCE: Use of Direct Service Fee Model Creating Sea Change
Because of changes wrought by health reform legislation, the idea of health insurance brokers and agents collecting commissions for their work will soon be a thing of the past.
S.D.’s Clean-Tech Profile Grows Globally
CLEAN-TECH: Innovative Work Leads Group to Select City for U.S. Launch of Worldwide Partnership
San Diego clean-tech luster shone a little brighter when the city was chosen as the site of the U.S. launch of the Global Cleantech Cluster Association, a partnership consisting of more than 20 of the world’s leading clean-tech clusters.
Scientists Map Genetic Network’s Response to DNA-Damaging Agents
Using a new technology called “differential epistasis maps,” an international team of scientists, led by researchers at the UC San Diego School of Medicine, has documented for the first time how a cellular genetic network completely rewires itself in response to stress by DNA-damaging agents.
Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center to Expand its Emergency Department
Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center’s Emergency Department is undergoing a multimillion dollar expansion that will more than double its current capacity.
Optimer Files New Drug Application With FDA
San Diego-based Optimer Pharmaceuticals Inc. said it has filed a new drug application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for fidaxomicin to treat patients with Clostridium difficile infection.
Connecting With the Past and the Present
TECHNOLOGY: Company Makes It Possible for Public To Join Scientific Expedition
San Diego has a long tradition of being a creative hub for digital media, and one local company has profited by contributing technical and artistic expertise to a business venture in which the National Geographic Society and UC San Diego academics play pivotal roles.
A New Day for Fundraising Thanks to Personalized Product
MARKETING: Calendars Are Customized, Giving Groups a Way to Profit
The “Calendar Guy” is turning a new page as a new year approaches. San Diego entrepreneur John Conover, the self-proclaimed Calendar Guy who’s known on both coasts for his regional tide calendars featuring ocean photography and easy-to-read tide charts, is charting a new business direction.
UV Light-Based Device Disinfects Health Facilities
HEALTH CARE: PPH An Early Adopter of Tool That Combats Infections
Palomar Pomerado Health has seen the light — ultraviolet light, that is — when it comes to the business imperative of disinfecting surfaces at one of its hospitals and one skilled nursing facility.
Health System’s Programs Merit ‘Blue’ Rating
The UC San Diego Health System has been designated as a Blue Distinction Center for Spine Surgery as well as for Knee and Hip Replacement.
Zogenix Shares Go Out at $4
San Diego-based biotech Zogenix Inc. on Nov. 23 launched its initial public stock offering of 14 million shares at $4 apiece, which was below prior projections. They closed the day at $3.98.
New Hospital At Center of $2B Project
Scripps Health will build a $2 billion regional medical campus in La Jolla as part of a 25-year master plan. In a Nov. 17 announcement, the San Diego-based nonprofit community health system said it will rebuild the existing Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla, as well as construct research labs and physician offices.
Health Centers Make Leading Commitment to Green Design
CONSTRUCTION: Sustainable Environments Impact Quality of Life
When officials at La Maestra Community Health Centers started planning a new facility in the City Heights neighborhood, they had a directive for designers and construction crews: Make it as green as possible.
Qualcomm, Institute Have Sense of Moms’ Health Needs
TECHNOLOGY: Device in Wireless Pregnancy Remote Monitoring Kit Creates Buzz
A new San Diego-based collaboration focused on mobile health in remote parts of Mexico is looking to better connect health care providers to expectant mothers dealing with high-risk pregnancies.
Firm Gives Used Lab Equipment a Second Chance
LIFE SCIENCES: Marketer Plays Role in BioSurplus’ Efforts to Expand Sales
BioSurplus Inc., which sells used laboratory equipment such as microscopes and centrifuges, has hired a veteran San Diego marketing professional to help the company scope out new business opportunities.
Clean Cluster
CLEAN-TECH: Ranked 7th Globally, Trade Association To Host International Event Nov. 30 on USD Campus
San Diego’s clean-technology business owners and supporters will find themselves in good company Nov. 30 at an international summit of high-power attendees from four countries working in a range of fields, including water, solar, transportation and biofuels.
UC San Diego Plans $269M Addition to Medical Campus
The University of California Board of Regents has approved the budget for capital improvements and external financing for the Clinical and Translational Research Institute building, to be constructed on the medical campus of UC San Diego in La Jolla.
Success Stories: Minority Business Groups Share Their Experience
Work Force: Valuable Guidance Is Given to Individuals, Companies
Minority-owned businesses may not be using all the resources — such as professional associations — that can help them succeed. Expanding a business is always difficult and never more so than in the midst of a long-running economic slump.
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