Zogenix Goes Public, Amira Restructures, Apricus Gets Boost From FDA Agreement on Cancer Drug Trial, & More San Diego Life Sciences News

Most of the news from San Diego’s life sciences companies in the week before Thanksgiving was focused on funding deals. And you have our best wishes over the holiday.

—After setting the price for its IPO between $12 and $14 a share earlier this month, San Diego specialty drug developer Zogenix (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ZGNX]]) priced its initial public offering at $4 a share, a markdown of at least 67 percent. Zogenix also increased its offering from 6 million to 14 million shares, raising a total of about $56 million for the company, which had been shooting for something closer to $84 million. The company is developing drugs for use with its needleless injector.

—Access Scientific, a San Diego startup developing a device for inserting a peripherally inserted central catheter line, has raised an additional $2 million from investors.

—San Diego’s Amira Pharmaceuticals laid off half its staff, leaving 25 employees to concentrate on discovery research and administration as the company reorganizes into more of an early-to-mid-stage drug developer. Founders Peppi Prasit, Jilly Evans, and John Hutchinson are all leaving their jobs, although Prasit will continue as chairman of Amira’s scientific advisory board.

—Shares of San Diego’s Apricus Biosciences (NASDAQ: [[ticker:APRI]]) gained about 24 percent after the drug development company said it had reached an agreement with the FDA on a plan for conducting a pivotal clinical trial for a potential new treatment for liver cancer. Apricus closed Monday at $3.35 a share after ending Friday at $2.70.

—Vertex (NASDAQ: [[ticker:VRTX]]), the Cambridge, MA, drug developer with operations in San Diego, filed a new drug application with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to begin selling telaprevir as a treatment for hepatitis C. The company is seeking a faster-than-usual six-month regulatory process.

—Cambridge, MA-based Genzyme (NASDAQ: [[ticker:GENZ]]), which has operations in San Diego, disclosed plans to sell its diagnostic products business to Japan’s Sekisui Chemical for $265 million in cash.

—San Diego’s ImThera Medical, which is developing a neuro-stimulation device for treating sleep apnea, has raised $1 million of a planned $2.2 million round from investors.

—San Diego’s BeneChill, which has been developing a portable device that emergency workers can use to lower the temperature of heart attack victims, raised about $600,000 of a planned $1.2 million in debt.

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.