SD Life Sciences Roundup: Celladon, Vertex, MediciNova, & More

Massachusetts’ Vertex and San Diego’s Celladon are advancing some promising gene therapy treatments. Here’s our roundup of life sciences news over the past week.

—San Diego’s Celladon, which is developing a gene therapy to treat patients with a certain type of heart failure, extended a recent investment round by $10 million. Two new investors, MPM Capital and LSP Life Sciences Partners, increased Celladon’s current round to $53 million. Celladon’s gene therapy is intended to restore a key enzyme that helps a healthy heart maintain a normal heartbeat.

—Cambridge, MA-based Vertex (NASDAQ: [[ticker:VRTX]]), which has operations in San Diego, reported that a combination of its ivacaftor (Kalydeco) therapy and an experimental drug called VX-809 significantly improved lung function for adult patients with the most common genetic mutation (F508del) in cystic fibrosis. The FDA approved ivacaftor in January for treating CF patients with a different mutation (G551D).

—San Diego’s MediciNova (NASDAQ: [[ticker:MDNV]]) says it is nearing completion of a mid-stage trial of its lead drug candidate, bedoradrine sulfate. MediciNova licensed the compound from Japan’s Kissei Pharmaceutical, and has been advancing the drug as an intravenous treatment for treating acute asthma attacks. MediciNova expects to report results of its latest trial in the next six weeks or so.

—Luke voiced support in his BioBeat column for legislation known as the Generating Antibiotic Incentives Now (GAIN) Act. The bill would provide antibiotic developers an additional five years of market exclusivity for their products.

—Just in time for the Hologic acquisition, San Diego’s Gen-Probe (NASDAQ: [[ticker:GPRO]]) said the FDA cleared its new molecular diagnostic platform, the Panther system. Gen-Probe says its technology can initially be used to test for the common sexually transmitted infections Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae. Hologic disclosed its plans to acquire Gen-Probe in a $3.7 billion deal earlier this month.

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.