Sequenom Starts Over After Purge, Patent Lawsuits Flying Over Gene Sequencing Technologies, Zogenix Prepares for Needle-Free Injections, & More San Diego Biotech News

Sequenom had the big story for San Diego’s life sciences community this week. We have the latest developments about that, as well as other biotech news.

—Sequenom (NASDAQ: [[ticker:SQNM]]) now faces a long rebuilding process after the San Diego medical diagnostic company ousted president and CEO Harry Stylli and a senior vice president of research and development over mishandled data in the development of a prenatal test for Down Syndrome. Five others also left the company after a five-month internal investigation invalidated studies that said Sequenom’s test, which uses a simple blood draw from pregnant women, was 100 percent accurate at detecting Down’s in a developing fetus. Now those tests will have to be re-done.

—A legal dispute over genetic-sequencing technologies and products is beginning to look more like a free-for-all. Carlsbad, CA-based Life Technologies (NASDAQ: [[ticker:LIFE]]) has filed a patent suit against San Diego rival Illumina (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ILMN]]) which is already engaged in similar litigation with Affymetrix (NASDAQ: [[ticker:AFFX) of Santa Clara, CA.

—San Diego-based Zogenix has collected $36 million in a $51 million equity financing round intended to fund the company’s January launch of its needle-free system for delivering a pain drug for migraines. Zogenix says its delivery system releases a quick increase in pressure to penetrate the skin and then injects liquid medicines—without needles.

—Fate Therapeutics CEO Paul Grayson says the San Diego biotech startup is in advanced talks about partnerships with several large pharmaceutical companies about partnerships. Luke says the fast-growing company is using genetically engineered proteins and small molecule compounds to nudge ordinary adult cells into becoming pluripotent stem cells, which have the potential to turn into any cell type.

—Juliet Singh knows how to rub it in. Singh, who oversaw efforts to Irvine, CA-based Allergan (NYSE: [[ticker:AGN]]) to get FDA approval for botulinum toxin (Botox), is now the CEO of Transdel Pharmaceuticals, a La Jolla, CA-based company. Transdel intends to develop ketoprofen, a common pain reliever used in pills, into a topical cream.

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.