four programs, paying Zymeworks as much as $110 million for each. No other terms were disclosed.
—Symic Biomedical of San Francisco corralled a $25 million Series A-2 round led by Lilly Ventures. The cash will help Symic move its pipeline forward, including a drug meant to reduce inflammation suffered by patients after undergoing treatment for peripheral arterial disease.
—Mountain View, CA-based Complete Genomics is laying off 186 people, or more than half its staff, according to GenomeWeb. The firm was bought by Chinese sequencing giant BGI two years ago.
—San Diego-based Sequenom (NASDAQ: [[ticker:SQNM]]) says a federal appeals court denied the company’s request to reconsider the validity of a patent that underlies its prenatal test for Down’s syndrome. Sequenom said the decision would have “little business impact,” since it has been operating for two years despite a previous ruling that invalidated the patent. But Sequenom also said it might appeal to the Supreme Court.
—UCSF spinout Neurona Therapeutics said Tuesday it has raised a $23.5 million Series A round led by The Column Group to advance treatments comprised of transplanted neurons that aim to fix neurological diseases.
—XOMA of Berkeley sold rights to its XMeta diabetes program to Novo Nordisk for $5 million upfront and up to $290 million in milestones.
—[This item replaces a previous item that mistakenly included news from 2014. We apologize for the error.] Universal Cells of Seattle has inked a collaboration with Adaptimmune (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ADAP]]), a British cancer immunotherapy developer, that pays Universal $5.5 million upfront and up to $41 million more in downstream payments. The companies will work together on “off the shelf” allogeneic T cell immunotherapies to treat cancer.
—San Diego’s MabVax Therapeutics said Tuesday it has filed papers with the FDA to begin clinical trials of its lead program, an antibody meant to fight pancreatic cancer. If the FDA accepts the application, MabVax said it would begin a Phase 1 trial early next year.
Xconomy San Diego editor Bruce Bigelow contributed to the roundup.
“Golden Gate Bridge And Fog” courtesy of Anthony Quintano.
