cited the difficulty of getting biologists, physicians, and computer scientists to pool all their talents in a productive way.
—Sometimes when people ramble along in a PowerPoint presentation, I check my BlackBerry a few times out of boredom, then jump to action when the speaker lets loose some new information. That happened at the OVP Tech Summit when managing director Gerry Langeler talked about how an IPO is in the works at one of the firm’s companies; how VLST has inked a second pharmaceutical industry partner in addition to Novo Nordisk; and that stealthy Allozyne’s clinical trials are going well. Langeler wouldn’t say which company is teed up to go public, but the obvious bet would be on Mountain View, CA-based Complete Genomics, the company that’s ushering in the era in which scientists will sequence entire human genomes for $5,000 or less.
—Bothell, WA-based SonoSite (NASDAQ: [[ticker:SONO]]) formed a deal with another local medical device leader, Physio-Control in Redmond. The deal calls for Physio-Control’s sales reps to help pitch SonoSite’s ultrasound diagnostic tools to emergency medicine workers. Terms of the arrangement weren’t disclosed.
—Carl Weissman, a managing director with OVP and the CEO of Seattle-based Accelerator, wrote an editorial for the launch of Xconomy’s new Detroit website about what Michigan can do to maximize its life sciences research base to become more of a commercial biotech hub. He leads with a bold statement that Seattle is the No. 3 biotech hub in the country behind the clear leaders in Boston and San Francisco. If you have a different view on this, you’re always welcome to leave a comment at the bottom of the story. I personally think San Diego is quite a bit ahead of Seattle as a biotech cluster, but that’s just me.
—If you’re looking around for signs of life in the economy, the Husky Union Ballroom was a good place to start last week. That’s where I served as a judge for the UW’s 13th annual Business Plan Competition. I saw a really impressive variety of young global citizens tackling global problems in IT, biotech, and clean energy here in Seattle. I will be watching to see which of these teams can get enough momentum to get that critical seed funding to pursue their dreams.
