Biotech is Biggest Winner in Second-Quarter VC Funding, Zogenix Strategy Unfolds, Intellikine Builds Clinical Trial Capabilities, & More San Diego Life Sciences News

There’s been a deluge of venture capital news over the past week, and a flash flood of VC cash during the second quarter went mostly to San Diego’s life sciences sector. Our briefing begins now.

—San Diego venture firms invested a total of $198.2 million in 29 local startups during the second quarter that ended June 30, according to a breakout of regional data from the MoneyTree Report. The single biggest deal was the $50.4 million for San Diego’s Sangart, but in fact, 24 of the 25 deals were categorized as life sciences deals, accounting for roughly $193.1 million—or more than 97 percent of the $198.2 million total invested here.

—San Diego’s Zogenix (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ZGNX]]) said it signed an agreement with Durect (NASDAQ: [[ticker:DRRX]]) of Cupertino, CA, to develop Durect’s long-lasting reformulation of the anti-psychotic drug risperidone (Risperdal) for use with the Zogenix needle-free injector. Zogenix says its collaboration with Durect is a good example of its unfolding strategy, and could lead to the first long-lasting formulation of the anti-psychotic drug available in a needle-free injector for once-a-month use.

—Intellikine, a San Diego startup developing new anti-cancer drugs, hired former Celgene vice president Greg Berk as chief medical officer responsible for overseeing Intellikine’s clinical trials. Intellikine CEO Troy Wilson says he’s encouraged by the company’s progress in developing INK128, a compound that blocks a mutated kinase linked to a variety of cancers from wreaking its havoc in what he calls the PI3K/mTOR signaling pathway.

—In his BioBeat column this week, Luke makes his case for resisting the pressure for life sciences companies to rush into mergers and acquisition deals with Big Pharma. He argues that

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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.