Advanced Liquid Logic, which has proprietary microfluidics technology that uses voltage to manipulate droplets through a sealed “Lab-on-a-chip” is an example of the kind of smaller M&A deal that Illumina would be doing in coming years.
—Carlsbad, CA-based Isis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ISIS]]) reported more encouraging results from a mid-stage trial of its antisense drug candidate ISIS-APOCIII Rx. In a study of 26 patients at very high-risk for cardiovascular disease and pancreatitis, Isis said its drug resulted in a 70 percent reduction in a dangerous protein, apolipoprotein C-III, and as much as a 64 percent reduction in triglycerides. The drug is meant for patients with extremely high levels of both compounds, which are closely associated with heart disease. Isis released the first batch of results for the drug about a month ago.
—San Diego-based MediciNova (NASDAQ: [[ticker:MNOV]]) said the NIH has awarded a grant that will enable the company to continue with a mid-stage trial of MN-166 (Ibudilast) in patients with progressive multiple sclerosis. MediciNova said the study will be led by Robert Fox, a staff neurologist at the Cleveland Clinic’s Mellen Center for Multiple Sclerosis, and is part of a collaboration that includes the National MS Society and MediciNova.
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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