Genomatica Files for IPO, Tandem Diabetes Raises $12M, Zogenix Looks to Raise Almost $50M, & More San Diego Life Sciences News

The big news for San Diego life sciences companies over the past week fell into two categories, raising money and winning regulatory approval. Either way, it’s all good news.

—Genomatica, which genetically engineers microorganisms to produce industrial chemicals from renewable raw materials, has applied to raise $100 million through an IPO. The proceeds would be used for research and development, capital projects and other purposes. Genomatica plans to produce commercial quantities of butanediol, used to make spandex and resilient plastics, by the end of 2012. The company also disclosed plans to make butadiene, one of the seven basic chemicals at the core of the chemical industry, and an important ingredient used to make products such as tires, engineering polymers and latex products.

—Tandem Diabetes Care has raised $12 million of a financing round that could eventually total nearly $13.7 million. Tandem Diabetes is waiting for the FDA to respond to its application to market its wearable insulin pump in the United States.

—Zogenix (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ZGNX]]) plans to raise roughly $50 million from a secondary offering of nearly 13.8 million new shares of its common stock. The company, which has developed a needle-free injection device, plans to use the proceeds as it seeks regulatory approval to sell its second therapeutic drug, an extended-release painkiller, and to begin clinical trials of its third drug for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

—Gen-Probe (NASDAQ: [[ticker:GPRO]]) said Canadian regulators approved a medical device license for a new molecular diagnostic device that tests whether a biopsy for prostate cancer is warranted. The company said it also won approval in Canada for another molecular diagnostic system that tests urine for the presence of chlamydia and gonorrhea.

—Apricus Biosciences (NASDAQ: [[ticker:APRI]]) said the FDA has cleared it to sell two reformulated over-the-counter drugs for topical treatments. The first was for Tolnaftate-D, a topical treatment for foot fungus that combines the tolnaftate used in existing products such as Tinactin and Lamisil with a proprietary compound that helps to increase absorption through the skin. The company also won FDA approval for Hydrocortisone-D, a reformulation of the over-the-counter anti-itch compound.

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.