San Diego Life Sciences Roundup: Orexigen, Accelrys, Otonomy, & More

Drug development and deals continued apace as the Christmas holiday draws near. Here’s the latest in San Diego’s life sciences news.

—-Orexigen Therapeutics (NASDAQ: [[ticker:OREX]]) said it has resubmitted its application with the FDA for its new weight-loss drug, a sustained release formulation of bupropion that’s being marketed as Contrave. Orexigen said last month it would be renewing its request for FDA approval after additional analysis showed its drug did not increase heart-related risks to patients.

—Accelrys (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ACCL]]), the San Diego developer of scientific software, made its fifth acquisition in two years, paying $50 million in cash to acquire Qumas, an Irish specialist in compliance and quality management software. The acquisition will add about 100 Qumas employees to the 640 Accelrys staffers around the world, including 152 at its San Diego headquarters.

—San Diego-based Otonomy said it was dosing the first patients in a late-stage trial of an experimental drug for treating children with middle ear drainage requiring a shunt. The company expects to enroll about 500 patients in two related trials of its experimental drug for treating ear infections. In a separate statement, In a separate statement, Otonomy said it also has began to enroll its first patients in a pivotal Phase 2b study of an experimental drug that is intended to reduce vertigo in patients with unilateral Ménière’s disease.

—CareFusion (NYSE: [[ticker:CFN]]), the medical equipment manufacturer based in San Diego, said it plans to invest $100 million to acquire a 40 percent stake in Israel’s Caesarea Medical Electronics, a global infusion pump systems manufacturer. The two companies have

Pages: Page 1, Page 2

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.