the companies’ patent filings. The patent infringement allegations formed the core part of SkinMedica’s case, but its complaint also includes other allegations, such as misappropriation of trade secrets and breach of contract.
Brandt says the issues that remain constitute “a very small piece of the case that does not affect our ability to do business or provide skin care services.” Still, it’s unclear whether SkinMedica intends to appeal the ruling or press ahead on other aspects of its complaint. SkinMedica’s lawyers did not immediately respond to my queries earlier today.
Histogen, which was founded in 2007, was still in startup mode when SkinMedica filed its patent suit in early 2009. At that time, Histogen’s CEO told me the allegations prompted a group of angel investors to withdraw their planned $2.4 million investment, triggering a funding crisis that forced Histogen to lay off all 36 of its employees.
Histogen’s workforce is now back to 21 employees, Brandt says, and the company has restarted negotiations with potential strategic partners. She says Histogen also has restarted early stage clinical trials of its treatment for hair loss in Asia, but she’s reluctant to say how long it will be before the company is ready to launch a hair restoration product in the U.S. market. Because Histogen’s product must be injected in the scalp, Brandt says the experimental hair loss treatment would be regulated as a biologic that requires FDA approval.
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.
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