West Coast Biotech Roundup: Otonomy, Oncothyreon, Gilead, & More

NASA-GOES-Satellite-image-shows series of December storms affecting the Pacific Northwest U. S.

Life sciences news pummeled the West Coast last week like a series of storms barreling out of the North Pacific. Here’s our roundup:

—Otonomy (NASDAQ [[ticker:OTIC]]), a San Diego biotech developing new treatments for diseases and disorders of the ear, said Friday the FDA approved its antibiotic gel for treating ear infections among children. It’s the company’s first drug to win FDA approval. Otonomy’s ciprofloxacin otic suspension (Otiprio) was approved as a single-dose, physician-administered treatment among children undergoing tympanostomy tube placement.

—Oncothyreon (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ONTY]]), a Seattle microcap developing new cancer therapeutics, got a lesson in writing clearly last week, after releasing results from ongoing trials of its drug for treating HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer. Oncothyreon’s share price fell over 25 percent as analysts struggled to understand what was described as a “muddled press release” and “confusing data.” Oncothyeron’s stock was trading around $3.13 a share before the announcement and around $2.35 at the end of week.

—Cerberus Capital Management invested $105 million for a majority stake in Redwood City, CA-based PaxVax, a specialty vaccine company focused on infectious diseases. The deal enables PaxVax to eliminate debt, and allows the company to grow its business for Vivotif, an FDA-approved typhoid vaccine licensed in 27 countries, and to launch Vaxchora, its vaccine for cholera. Cerberus plans to retain the PaxVax management team and says it supports the company’s R&D strategy and commitment to expanding access to vaccines in the developing world.

—Laguna Pharmaceuticals, which relocated to San Diego from Cleveland, OH, in February with $30 million in new venture funding, shut down after safety concerns emerged in a Phase 3 clinical trial for its drug, intended to treat atrial fibrillation. The drug—a 1,4-dialkylpiperazine derivative (Vanoxerine)—was the only drug Laguna had under development.

—The La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology and San Diego’s HardTech Labs have formed a joint venture called HTL Life to operate a accelerator program for healthtech startups developing next-generation technologies in

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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.