San Diego Life Sciences Roundup: Fate, Ligand, BioNano, and More

Sirenas Marine Discovery, was named a MacArthur Fellow “genius grant” recipient for 2013. Baran and 23 other recipients around the country will each receive $625,000 over the next five years, according to the MacArthur Foundation of Chicago. The awards are intended to honor creative and accomplished individuals in any field with strong potential for future achievements. The foundation noted that Baran recently developed an affordable, elegant method for synthesizing cortistatin A, an unusual, marine-derived steroidal alkaloid that has shown strong potential in treating conditions that range from macular degeneration to cancer.

—San Diego-based Pfenex said the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) has exercised an option that adds $8 million to an $18.8 million contract awarded in 2010 to develop a vaccine for anthrax. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services established BARDA to develop countermeasures against biological, chemical, and other pervasive deadly agents.

—Ligand Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:LGND]]) said it earned a $425,000 milestone payment from Pfizer after the FDA gave its approval to conjugated estrogens/bazedoxifene (DUAVEE) to relieve certain symptoms associated with menopause. Ligand developed the drug under a broad research collaboration with Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, now a Pfizer subsidiary.

—San Diego-based Sequenom (NASDAQ: [[ticker:SQNM]]) said it has submitted a Premarket 510(k) notification to the FDA for its IMPACT Dx System and a related genetic analysis test. Sequenom said it is finalizing plans to commercialize its IMPACT Dx System in a number of European countries that require CE marking.

—San Diego’s Sanitas, a health IT startup operating a social networking platform for use by the chronically ill, their caregivers, friends, and families, said it is introducing a free online program to help ordinary people predict their future health risks. Sanitas said its Family Healthware system helps identify a user’s genetic predisposition to chronic health conditions, such as diabetes, stroke, and cancer. The system also provides a personalized prevention plan to help people minimize their future health risks.

—The San Diego Tech Coast Angels gave its grand prize award in its annual quick pitch competition to OvaPal, a San Diego startup that developed wireless technology that enables a woman to optimize the odds of getting pregnant by tracking her temperature. The award included a check for $20,000 from the John G. Watson Foundation.

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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.