An appellate court ruling could spell relief for the heartburn that Santarus has been feeling over the past couple of years. We have the latest developments, along with the rest of San Diego’s life sciences news.
—San Diego-based Santarus (NASDAQ: [[ticker:SNTS]]) said it partially won a federal appeals court ruling regarding patents Santarus had asserted for omeprazole sodium bicarbonate (Zegrid). Santarus CEO Gerald Proehl welcomed the ruling, which sent the case back to the trial court. Santarus cut more than a third of its workforce two years ago after a competitor started selling a cheaper generic version of the drug, which is used to treat chronic heartburn.
—Shire (NASDAQ: [[ticker:SHPG]]), the Irish drug giant, said the lead product of its new San Diego-based regenerative medicine division (previously known as Advanced BioHealing) has made its first move in a global commercialization strategy. The company said Canadian regulators have approved Dermagraft, a skin graft derived from human fibroblasts, for the treatment of diabetic foot ulcers. In June, Shire unveiled plans to build a campus in San Diego for the business known as Shire RM.
—San Diego-based Histogen, a regenerative medicine startup, said the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office has issued the company’s first patent. The patent covers Histogen’s method of growing cells under low oxygen and suspension conditions to produce naturally secreted proteins. It represents a milestone for Histogen, which is
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.
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