Isis Prepares Novel Treatment for Lou Gehrig’s Disease, BrainCells Is Encouraged by New Drug for Depression, Inovio Raises $30M, & More San Diego Life Sciences News

It might be the dog days of summer, but San Diego’s life sciences companies kept up a busy flow of cool news over the past week. Get your update here.

—Isis Pharmaceuticals, the Carlsbad, CA, biotech that specializes in so-called antisense technology, is getting ready to test a new treatment later this year for patients with an aggressive form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig’s disease. Isis (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ISIS]]) is planning the first clinical trial of a treatment known as ISIS-SODRIX, a drug designed to shut down the genetic RNA machinery that enables the production of disease-causing proteins. Luke reported the treatment also could pioneer a new way of delivering antisense drugs for a variety of neurological disorders.

—San Diego’s TorreyPines Therapeutics (NASDAQ: [[ticker:TPTX]]) has agreed to a reverse merger with Novato, CA-based Raptor Pharmaceuticals. To pull off the deal, however, TorreyPines must get its shareholders to vote to approve the deal. That sounds easy enough, but TorreyPines was unable to muster enough shareholder votes in July to approve a resolution to dissolve the company.

—A Boston-area researcher said a new drug developed by San Diego’s BrainCells Inc. could someday prove effective in treating depression. The drug known as BCI-952, which combines buspirone and melatonin, was not expected to work. But it’s getting a second look after Dr. Maurizio Fava, of Massachusetts General Hospital, presented promising results in a clinical trial of 142 patients diagnosed with major depression.

—San Diego’s La Jolla Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:LJPC]]) plans to seek shareholder approval for a liquidation plan. As Denise reported, the company disclosed in a recent SEC filing that it has discharged substantially all of its obligations to creditors and is working to satisfy those that remain. The biotech also said it has settled a lawsuit with former partner BioMarin Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:BMRN]]) of Novato, CA.

—San Diego’s Inovio Biomedical (AMEX: [[ticker:INO]]) has raised $30 million from the direct sale of 11.1 million shares and 2.8 million warrants to institutional investors. Inovio is focused on the development of vaccines to prevent or treat cancers and chronic infectious diseases. The company’s delivery solutions are based on electroporation, which uses brief, controlled electrical pulses to create temporary pores in cell membranes, which makes it easier for cells to take in a useful biopharmaceutical.

Author: Bruce V. Bigelow

In Memoriam: Our dear friend Bruce V. Bigelow passed away on June 29, 2018. He was the editor of Xconomy San Diego from 2008 to 2018. Read more about his life and work here. Bruce Bigelow joined Xconomy from the business desk of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He was a member of the team of reporters who were awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for uncovering bribes paid to San Diego Republican Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham in exchange for special legislation earmarks. He also shared a 2006 award for enterprise reporting from the Society of Business Editors and Writers for “In Harm’s Way,” an article about the extraordinary casualty rate among employees working in Iraq for San Diego’s Titan Corp. He has written extensively about the 2002 corporate accounting scandal at software goliath Peregrine Systems. He also was a Gerald Loeb Award finalist and National Headline Award winner for “The Toymaker,” a 14-part chronicle of a San Diego start-up company. He takes special satisfaction, though, that the series was included in the library for nonfiction narrative journalism at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. Bigelow graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 1977 with a degree in English Literature and from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1979. Before joining the Union-Tribune in 1990, he worked for the Associated Press in Los Angeles and The Kansas City Times.