San Diego Life Sciences Roundup: Acadia, Zogenix, Isis, & More

It was a big week for news from San Diego’s public life sciences companies. We have all the deals, dollars, and developments wrapped up here.

—San Diego’s Acadia Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: [[ticker:ACAD]]) said it’s raising $86.4 million through a private stock placement that is expected to close Monday. As Xconomy recently reported, Acadia reported encouraging results last month in a pivotal, late-stage clinical trial of pimavanserin, a new drug intended to control hallucinations associated with advanced Parkinson’s disease. Proceeds of the private stock placement will be used mostly to complete final clinical studies of pimavanserin.

—San Diego-based Zogenix (Nasdaq: [[ticker:ZGNX]]) said the FDA’s Anesthetic and Analgesic Drug Products Advisory Committee (AADPAC) recommended that health regulators reject its new drug application for an extended-release formulation of hydrocodone without acetaminophen (Zohydro). Zogenix had proposed the drug for managing moderate-to-severe chronic pain when a continuous opioid analgesic is needed around the clock. The FDA is expected to issue a final decision by March 1, 2013.

—A Texas drug holding company agreed to buy San Diego’s Somaxon Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: [[ticker:SOMX]]) in a stock deal valued at $25 million. Pernix Therapeutics Holdings (NYSE: [[ticker:PTX]]) said Somaxon’s insomnia drug doxepin (Silenor) would broaden its line of branded drugs. Somaxon was under pressure from generic drug makers that were seeking FDA approval to sell generic versions of doxepin for insomnia.

—Carlsbad, CA-based Isis Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: [[ticker:ISIS]]) said it had struck some lucrative partnerships. Isis signed one

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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.