to invest in late-stage biotech companies that have cleared their riskiest stage of development.
—After reporting the failure of its Riquent drug candidate for lupus, La Jolla Pharmaceutical (NASDAQ: [[ticker:LJPC]]) says it is evaluating its strategic options for selling or unwinding the business. The biotech says it’s laying off an undisclosed number of employees to reduce costs.
—The unmanned Predator aircraft that General Atomics Aeronautical Systems developed for the CIA and military surveillance was put on a new course in 2005, when the U.S. Department of Homeland Security selected it to patrol U.S. borders. Predators have been flying the boundary with Mexico for years, and now the mission has entered a new phase, as U.S. Customs and Border Protection said last week said it has begun Predator air patrols along the North Dakota border with Canada.
—After gaining decades of experience in aquaculture, Kent BioEnergy is shifting its focus on developing algae for renewable energy, water remediation and other uses. President Jack Van Olst told me the company is pursuing a multipurpose strategy that emphasizes a systems approach and seeks to maximize efficiencies by using algae in many different ways.
—Verenium (NASDAQ: VRNM), a Cambridge, MA, startup that has about 180 employees in San Diego has established a joint venture with BP to build commercial-scale biofuel plants in the United States. Verenium, which was formed in the 2006 merger of Boston’s Celunol and San Diego’s Diversa, uses proprietary microbes to break down sugar cane and other high-cellulose material into ethanol.
—San Diego’s 4-D Neuroimaging, which specializes in magnetoencephelography, or MEG, to detect bio-electric fields in the brain, ceased operations last week—putting an estimated 38 employees out of work. The company’s machines, used mostly in diagnostic imaging of patients with epilepsy, are in hospitals around the world.
—Hercules Technology Growth Capital (NASDAQ: [[ticker:HTGC]]), a specialty finance company based in Palo Alto, CA, has closed its San Diego office and laid off three employees who were employed here.
