offers 5 million shares at a price between $14 and $16 a share. Celladon wants to expand its full-time employee base and hire more consultants and contractors. Celladon is targeting a family of calcium-regulating enzymes using gene therapy that has potential therapeutic uses in heart disease, diabetes and neurodegenerative conditions.
—San Diego’s Tandem Diabetes Care, which has developed innovative insulin pump technology for insulin-dependent diabetics, set the terms for its IPO. The company plans to raise $100 million by offering 7.1 million shares at a price range of $13 to $15. Trading in Tandem Diabetes would take place on the Nasdaq market under ticker symbol TNDM.
—Speaking of IPOs, Luke noted in his Biobeat column that 45 U.S. life sciences companies have raised a combined $3.9 billion from IPOs so far this year. By sorting those IPOs according to geography, he created a measure of the relative strength of the life sciences sector in various regions. While San Diego ranked third, there are at least four IPOs still pending.
—After completing a reverse merger with a defunct public company, San Diego’s Ignyta said it has proposed private offering of 7.8 million shares of its common stock that would raise about $47 million in gross proceeds. Ignyta expects to use the proceeds from this private offering primarily to advance its oncology precision medicine drug-and-diagnostic (Rx/Dx) products that recently were licensed from Nerviano Medical Sciences. Ignyta said it will trade on the over the counter market under the symbol IGASD until December 2, when its ticker symbol changes RXDX. I profiled Ignyta almost a year ago.
—AutoGenomics, a genetics test maker based in Vista, CA, about 42 miles north of downtown San Diego, officially withdrew a proposed IPO filed more than a year ago, according to a regulatory filing. AutoGenomics filed plans for a $65 million initial public offering in September 2012, and said it would withdraw its registration five months later, after missing a Feb. 15 deadline to file its fourth-quarter 2012 financials with federal regulators. The genetics-test maker didn’t give a reason for the withdrawal, but said it may undertake a subsequent private offering. This is the second time AutoGenomics has withdrawn an IPO registration.
—New research published by a research group at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) indicates that gabapentin, a generic drug already widely prescribed for epilepsy and some types of pain, could be used as a safe and effective treatment for alcohol dependence. The findings represent a big new opportunity for generic drugmakers because the drug is off patent and already has FDA approval. Barbara J. Mason, co-director of TSRI’s Pearson Center for Alcoholism and Addiction Research, led the research, which was published in the Nov. 4 issue of JAMA Internal Medicine.
—NanoCellect, a San Diego startup developing innovative technology for microfluidic cell analysis technology, said it has landed a $700,000 Small Business Innovative Research grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences. The company, previously called NanoSort, was founded in 2009 with technology developed at UC San Diego. In a statement, the company says it’s now seeking industrial partners and investors to advance development of its technology, which works much like a coin sorting machine for cells.
