San Diego Life Sciences Roundup: Zogenix, Illumina, Sophiris, & More

Image licensed by Depositphotos.com/Christian Delbert.

It’s not all about the IPOs. Two San Diego biotechs took advantage of the continuing favorable market conditions to raise capital through secondary public offerings over the past week. I’ve got details, along with the rest of the local life sciences news.

—Despite an independent panel’s recommendation against approval, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave its OK to San Diego-based Zogenix (Nasdaq: [[ticker:ZGNX]]) for the use of an extended-release formulation of the pure opioid hydrocodone bitartrate (Zohydro). The FDA said the painkiller should be prescribed only for severe pain that requires “daily, around-the-clock, long-term treatment,” and only when other treatment alternatives are inadequate. The FDA said it is concerned about the risks of addiction, abuse, and misuse of opioids.

—San Diego-based Illumina (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ILMN]]) said it has agreed to acquire NextBio, a Cupertino, CA-based company that specializes in clinical and genomic informatics. No financial terms were disclosed. Illumina said acquiring NextBio’s technology would enable the gene sequencing leader to offer “enterprise-level bioinformatics solutions that accelerate the discovery of new associations between the human genome and disease, and, ultimately, enable the application of those discoveries within health care.”

—San Diego’s Sophiris Bio said it has dosed the first patients in a late-stage trial of PRX302, an experimental drug for treating benign prostatic hyperplasia, or enlarged prostate. Sophiris said the trial is designed to enroll 440 patients and is an international, multi-center study. As I’ve previously reported, the drug is deposited by an ultrasound-guided injection in the area where the prostate meets the urethra.

—MEI Pharma (NASDAQ: [[ticker:MEIP]]), a San Diego biopharmaceutical focused on the clinical development of new therapies for cancer, raised about $35 million in gross proceeds from a secondary public offering of nearly 4.4 million shares of its common stock, priced at $8 a share. MEI Pharma said it plans to use net proceeds of the offering to advance work on several anti-cancer drug candidates.

—Another San Diego biotherapeutic company, Sorrento Therapeutics (NASDAQ: [[ticker:SRNE]]), said it raised almost $35 million in gross proceeds from a secondary public offering of 4.8 million shares, priced at $7.25 a share. The company has been developing biotherapeutics for inflammation, cancer, and other diseases. Sorrento Therapeutics moved to the Nasdaq from the over-the-counter market several weeks ago.

—Frazier Healthcare, the San Francisco-based venture capital firm that invests in healthcare companies, named former Calistoga Pharmaceuticals CEO Carol Gallagher as a venture partner. Gallagher lives in San Diego, but plans to work at Frazier’s Bay Area headquarters several days a week. She serves on several biotech boards, including AnaptysBio and Atterocor, which are both Frazier portfolio companies.

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.