San Diego Life Sciences Roundup: Aragon, Santarus, Tocagen, and More

retrovirus to produce the enzyme cytosine deaminase (CD) in the brains of patients with brain cancer, including those with the aggressive malignancy known as glioblastoma multiforme. The CD enzyme converts an extended-release formulation of a widely used antifungal drug into 5-fluorouracil, an FDA-approved anticancer drug. The approach has the potential to produce higher concentrations of the anticancer drug in tumor cells.

—San Diego’s MediciNova (NASDAQ: [[ticker:MNOV]]) said an early stage trial of its experimental compound for treating drug addition, known as MN-166 (ibudilast), is safe and suggests that MN-166 reduces the neurotoxic inflammation caused by methamphetamine abuse. Long-term meth use can lead to memory loss, aggression, psychotic behavior, and other medical problems. The FDA granted “fast track” status earlier this year to ibudilast for treating methamphatamine dependence, after MediciNova had a setback with its lead drug compound.

—Verdezyne, an industrial biotechnology company based in Carlsbad, CA, said it has entered into collaboration with Malaysian Biotechnology Corp. to establish its first biochemical production facility in Malaysia. The two companies disclosed no financial terms when they announced the deal at BIO’s 10th Annual World Congress for Industrial Biotechnology in Montreal. In a statement, Verdezyne said it is optimistic that its presence in Malaysia will open new opportunities with a variety of potential partners in the palm oil industry.

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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.