San Diego’s Human Engines Makes Commercial Debut with Mobile Visualization Tool

A San Diego startup founded by a couple of Qualcomm alums yesterday introduced its first commercial product, a system for Android-based mobile devices that organizes the daily flood of e-mail, calendar notices, alerts, text messages, and social media messages. Baback Elmieh and Rachid El Guerrab founded Human Engines in 2008, initially providing customized user-interface technologies … Continue reading “San Diego’s Human Engines Makes Commercial Debut with Mobile Visualization Tool”

Adventrx Shares Plunge After FDA Nixes Revised Application for Anti-Cancer Drug

San Diego’s Adventrx Pharmaceuticals (NYSE Amex: [[ticker:ANX]]) has sprung back from the dead before, but it will be hard for the biotech to recover from the plunge in its share price in after-hours trading yesterday—after Adventrx said the FDA has refused to accept its latest new drug application for the anti-cancer drug vinorelbine injectable emulsion … Continue reading “Adventrx Shares Plunge After FDA Nixes Revised Application for Anti-Cancer Drug”

SG Biofuels Plans Jatropha Initiative in India

SG Biofuels, an Encinitas, CA-based startup developing biofuels says it has formed an alliance with Bharat Renewable Energy to produce hybrid varieties of Jatropha that can be grown in India and used to produce biodiesel. SG Biofuels says it is optimizing crop species by using environmentally friendly biotechnology to develop elite hybrids of crops with … Continue reading “SG Biofuels Plans Jatropha Initiative in India”

Qualcomm Gets Active with Wireless Fitness Challenge: Q&A with VP Don Jones

Qualcomm, the San Diego wireless technology giant, launched an internal “wireless fitness challenge” almost four weeks ago for a group of its employees—testing the idea of using similar workplace competitions to promote awareness of wireless health technologies. When vice president Don Jones kicked off the challenge on July 14, he wrote in a Qualcomm blog … Continue reading “Qualcomm Gets Active with Wireless Fitness Challenge: Q&A with VP Don Jones”

ViaCyte Names CTO Robins as Acting CEO

ViaCyte, a San Diego preclinical cell therapy company focused on diabetes, says today the company’s chief technology officer, Allan Robins, has been named acting CEO following the departure of chief executive John West, who resigned for personal reasons. The company, which is partly funded by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, also promoted Kevin D’Amour … Continue reading “ViaCyte Names CTO Robins as Acting CEO”

San Diego’s ServiceNow Driving Hard as Revenue Soars; Expands to Silicon Valley

[Updated 8/9/11, 7:20 am. See below.] ServiceNow co-founder Fred Luddy told me in January that the San Diego-based provider of Web-based IT management services was on a fast-growth track, and he saw a “clear path” to $1 billion in annual revenue. I wouldn’t say it looked clear to me then, but the company’s trajectory is … Continue reading “San Diego’s ServiceNow Driving Hard as Revenue Soars; Expands to Silicon Valley”

Gilead Buys Genentech Biologics Plant

Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ: [[ticker:GILD]]) of Foster City, CA, has agreed to purchase a clinical biologics manufacturing facility from Genentech in Oceanside, CA, about 36 miles north of San Diego, according to a statement today. The company says it plans to offer jobs to 55 Genentech employees now working at the 70,000 square-foot plant, which Genentech … Continue reading “Gilead Buys Genentech Biologics Plant”

Pfizer Adds UC San Diego to its Network of Innovation Centers

Pfizer has extended its chain of drug discovery innovation centers in Boston, New York, and San Francisco to include San Diego. UC San Diego Health Sciences says today it signed a partnership agreement with Pfizer that could be worth as much as $50 million in funding from the New York pharmaceutical giant over the next … Continue reading “Pfizer Adds UC San Diego to its Network of Innovation Centers”

Actus Medical Raises $1M

San Diego’s Actus Medical, which was founded earlier this year with technology for improved mapping of heart arrhythmias, has raised $1 million in initial funding from private investors and Index Ventures, which has offices in Geneva, London, and Jersey. In a statement, Index Ventures says the technology provides cardiologists with instantaneous and precise visualization of … Continue reading “Actus Medical Raises $1M”

Moore Starts a Mini VC Fund, TakeLessons Lands $6M, Chumby Partners with BestBuy, & More San Diego BizTech News

San Diego’s innovation community saw some new startups and new money emerge last week. We’ve got it all wrapped up for you, and our briefing begins now. —Following a global-and-local Web 2.0 strategy, San Diego-based Eventful is now hosting roughly 5 million local events for roughly 20 million users, who can search the website by … Continue reading “Moore Starts a Mini VC Fund, TakeLessons Lands $6M, Chumby Partners with BestBuy, & More San Diego BizTech News”

San Diego’s Wellaho Prescribes Social Networking For the Chronically Ill

A new health IT startup built around an intriguing idea will begin operating in San Diego next month. What’s the idea? Prescription-based social networking for the chronically ill. The startup, called Sanitas, was founded in San Diego last year and made its debut yesterday at “Take This Pill and Tweet Me in the Morning,” a … Continue reading “San Diego’s Wellaho Prescribes Social Networking For the Chronically Ill”

Amylin & Takeda Halt Obesity Drug Development

[Updated 8/4/11, 6:55 pm. See below.] San Diego’s Amylin Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:AMLN]]) and Japan’s Takeda Pharmaceutical threw in the towel today, saying they are discontinuing development of pramlintide/metreleptin for the treatment of obesity. [Updated 8/4/11, 6:55 pm to clarify explanation] Observers feared something like this might happen in March, when Takeda and Amylin suspended a … Continue reading “Amylin & Takeda Halt Obesity Drug Development”

FDA OKs Changes in Santarus Heart Study

The FDA has agreed to protocol changes in a late stage clinical trial of a new heart drug being developed by San Diego-based Santarus (NASDAQ: [[ticker:SNTS]]) and the Netherlands-based Pharming Group under a special protocol assessment (SPA). The FDA sought modifications to the study of a recombinant human C1 inhibitor (Rhucin) as a treatment for … Continue reading “FDA OKs Changes in Santarus Heart Study”

$6M Sweet Music for TakeLessons

After taking $20,000 as the winner of the San Diego Venture Group’s Pitchfest Biz Plan Competition in December, San Diego-based TakeLessons said it has raised $6 million in venture funding led by San Francisco-based Crosslink Capital. SoftTech VC of Palo Alto, CA, and angel investors joined in the early stage round. Founded in 2006 by … Continue reading “$6M Sweet Music for TakeLessons”

Vertex Sales Much Bigger Than Expected, Amylin Re-Submits Exenatide, Mini VC Fund Debuts, & More San Diego Life Sciences News

If there’s a common thread in San Diego’s biotech news over the past week, it would be perseverance. If you can persist with our briefing, you’ll see what I mean. —Cambridge, MA-based Vertex, (NASDAQ: [[ticker:VRTX]]), which has a sizable presence in San Diego, said it generated $74.5 million in second-quarter sales of telaprevir (Incivek), its … Continue reading “Vertex Sales Much Bigger Than Expected, Amylin Re-Submits Exenatide, Mini VC Fund Debuts, & More San Diego Life Sciences News”

BrainCells Raises $1M, Moving Ahead Without CEO Schoeneck or CSO Barlow

At this time last year, Luke reported that San Diego’s BrainCells Inc. had acquired the compound sabcomeline from London-based Proximagen, and planned to study the drug as a treatment for depression. Just a couple of months earlier, we reported that BrainCells was at a crossroads after a clinical trial showed that its lead compound for … Continue reading “BrainCells Raises $1M, Moving Ahead Without CEO Schoeneck or CSO Barlow”

San Diego’s Eventful Looks to Put Consumers in Charge, with Backward Glance at eBay

[Corrected 8/8/11, 11:35 am. See below.] Eventful CEO Jordan Glazier likes to describe the San Diego Web-based startup as an “eBay for local events and entertainment,” and there are more than a few similarities. One of them is Glazier himself. Before joining Eventful in 2006, he spent five years as a general manager at the … Continue reading “San Diego’s Eventful Looks to Put Consumers in Charge, with Backward Glance at eBay”

SD’s iHub Expanded to Riverside

A state initiative intended to facilitate technology commercialization by designating regional iHubs (or innovation hubs) has expanded San Diego’s iHub to include much of Southwest Riverside County. The California Governor’s Office of Economic Development established the San Diego iHub last year, enabling a local consortium to apply for federal economic stimulus funding in three focus … Continue reading “SD’s iHub Expanded to Riverside”

San Diego’s Moore Venture Partners Seeks a Niche Amid Local VC Decline

Can a small venture firm make much of a difference in stemming the general decline that has marked venture capital funding in San Diego’s innovation economy over the past five or six years? A one-person firm created last year may not exactly fill the void in San Diego, but founder Terry Moore argues that he … Continue reading “San Diego’s Moore Venture Partners Seeks a Niche Amid Local VC Decline”

Fallbrook Names President

San Diego’s Fallbrook Technologies, which has been developing a continuously variable transmission, today named Al Kammerer as president, a newly created position. Kammerer, who spent 34 years with the Ford Motor Co., will report to William G. Klehm, Fallbrook’s chairman and CEO. Kammerer, who has been a Fallbrook board member since 2009, will oversee the … Continue reading “Fallbrook Names President”

CMEA’s Jain on San Diego’s Innovation Economy, E&Y Reports on IPO Activity, Wildcat Discovery Gets $7.5M, & More San Diego BizTech News

We saw a potpourri of tech news in San Diego last week, which included funding for an emerging cleantech startup, new technology from Tealium, and an acquisition by Qualcomm. Our briefing begins now. —CMEA Capital’s Sumeet Jain offered his perspective on what’s missing, besides capital, from the tech sector of San Diego’s innovation community. Jain, … Continue reading “CMEA’s Jain on San Diego’s Innovation Economy, E&Y Reports on IPO Activity, Wildcat Discovery Gets $7.5M, & More San Diego BizTech News”

Trius and Bayer Sign Deal, Brooks Buys Nexus Biosystems, Wildcat Discovery Gets $7.5M Financing, & More San Diego Life Sciences News

Against a backdrop of rising worries over the U.S. economy, we saw San Diego life science companies forming new partnerships, raising new funding, and closing some new deals over the last week. We also saw drops in share prices at two of our biggest life science companies. Your briefing is ready now. —San Diego’s Trius … Continue reading “Trius and Bayer Sign Deal, Brooks Buys Nexus Biosystems, Wildcat Discovery Gets $7.5M Financing, & More San Diego Life Sciences News”

A Bay Area VC Sees Some Missing Ingredients in San Diego’s Innovation Community

As we saw in the venture activity surveys that came in last week, the capital deployed by VC firms in startups developing innovative technologies has been returning to pre-recession levels in key technology hubs throughout the United States. In San Diego, however, venture funding has taken a decided turn for the life sciences. Of the … Continue reading “A Bay Area VC Sees Some Missing Ingredients in San Diego’s Innovation Community”

Brooks Acquires San Diego’s Nexus Biosystems for $79M

Brooks Automation (NASDAQ: [[ticker:BRKS]]), the biomedical equipment maker in Chelmsford, MA, says today it paid $79 million to acquire Nexus Biosystems, a suburban San Diego provider of compound sample management systems. Based in Poway, CA, about 19 miles north of San Diego, Nexus makes automated equipment for handling chemical and biological samples in a variety … Continue reading “Brooks Acquires San Diego’s Nexus Biosystems for $79M”

IPO Activity Returns to Pre-Recession Levels in Second Quarter

The economic deep freeze is thawing for IPOs on U.S. exchanges, according to a quarterly report issued today by the Ernst & Young accounting firm. The number of companies in registration for an initial public offering increased to 140 during the three months that ended June 30, according to the latest the “Ernst & Young … Continue reading “IPO Activity Returns to Pre-Recession Levels in Second Quarter”

Wildcat Discovery Raises $7.5M to Develop Advanced Cleantech Materials

Wildcat Discovery Technologies, a five-year-old San Diego startup applying high-throughput screening technologies in cleantech materials development, has raised $7.5 million through a combination of equity, convertible debt, and securities, according to a recent regulatory filing. The total includes $685,000 in warrants convertible to preferred shares. Wildcat’s work is focused on identifying and developing new materials … Continue reading “Wildcat Discovery Raises $7.5M to Develop Advanced Cleantech Materials”

San Diego’s Tealium Unveils New System to Manage Tracking Code in Web Pages

Tealium co-founder Ali Behnam tells me their San Diego startup began three years ago as an IT consulting firm, and soon ran into a lot of clients who needed their help to address a variety of headaches associated with managing all the page tags on a company website. The tracking code that makes up these … Continue reading “San Diego’s Tealium Unveils New System to Manage Tracking Code in Web Pages”

CareFusion Gets Exclusive 5-Year Deal for ResMed Ventilators

Two of San Diego’s biggest medical device companies, CareFusion (NYSE: [[ticker:CFN]]) and ResMed (NYSE: [[ticker:RMD]]), today announced a five-year agreement that gives CareFusion exclusive rights to distribute two ResMed non-invasive ventilators and accessories in the United States. ResMed said the deal enables it to use CareFusion’s extensive sales network of U.S. hospitals, long-term acute care … Continue reading “CareFusion Gets Exclusive 5-Year Deal for ResMed Ventilators”

Qualcomm’s GestureTek Deal Signals New Possibilities for Qualcomm Atheros

Qualcomm (NASDAQ: [[ticker:QCOM]]), the San Diego wireless technologies giant, said today it has acquired certain assets related to gesture recognition technology from Sunnyvale, CA-based GestureTek—a move that points to new capabilities at its new Atheros unit. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. GestureTek, founded in 1986, specializes in machine vision technology that enables … Continue reading “Qualcomm’s GestureTek Deal Signals New Possibilities for Qualcomm Atheros”

Life Sciences Firms Grab VC Dollars, ViaSat-1 Ready for Launch, EarthRisk Offers 40-Day Forecasts, & More San Diego BizTech News

While venture capital activity remained relatively constant in year-over-year funding for San Diego companies, most of the capital went to local life sciences companies. It was a big week for VC news, and our briefing begins now. —A regional breakout of venture activity from the MoneyTree Report shows that 29 startups in San Diego received … Continue reading “Life Sciences Firms Grab VC Dollars, ViaSat-1 Ready for Launch, EarthRisk Offers 40-Day Forecasts, & More San Diego BizTech News”

Dow Jones Shows Slight Decline in Venture Deals, Dollars, Since Last Year

More or less correlating the results of two previous venture capital surveys, Dow Jones VentureSource says today that venture investors throughout the United States put $8 billion into 776 deals during the second quarter that ended June 30. In terms of absolute numbers, that’s fairly close to venture data we reported Wednesday from the MoneyTree … Continue reading “Dow Jones Shows Slight Decline in Venture Deals, Dollars, Since Last Year”

Biotech is Biggest Winner in Second-Quarter VC Funding, Zogenix Strategy Unfolds, Intellikine Builds Clinical Trial Capabilities, & More San Diego Life Sciences News

There’s been a deluge of venture capital news over the past week, and a flash flood of VC cash during the second quarter went mostly to San Diego’s life sciences sector. Our briefing begins now. —San Diego venture firms invested a total of $198.2 million in 29 local startups during the second quarter that ended … Continue reading “Biotech is Biggest Winner in Second-Quarter VC Funding, Zogenix Strategy Unfolds, Intellikine Builds Clinical Trial Capabilities, & More San Diego Life Sciences News”

San Diego Chalks Up $198M in Venture Capital, But Where Have All the Software Deals Gone?

[Corrected 7/21/11, 2:45 am. See below.] The single largest technology sector in San Diego today is software. According to the Connect First Quarter 2011 Innovation Report, San Diego’s software industry accounted for 35 percent of the region’s 5,900 private technology companies, while the combined number of private biotech and medical device companies accounted for just … Continue reading “San Diego Chalks Up $198M in Venture Capital, But Where Have All the Software Deals Gone?”

Is Lady Gaga’s Backplane Based in San Diego? Inquiring Minds Want to Know

[Updated 8/24/11, 8:35 pm. See below.] Here’s a tantalizing tidbit for all the Little Monsters and online celebrity gossip mongers: In a breakout of data from the MoneyTree Report on venture capital investments that were made in San Diego during the three months that ended June 30, there is an interesting entry for a $1 … Continue reading “Is Lady Gaga’s Backplane Based in San Diego? Inquiring Minds Want to Know”

VC Dollars Rise Above Pre-Recession Level in MoneyTree’s Second-Quarter Survey

Venture capital activity improved slightly year-over-year, with a total of $7.5 billion invested in 966 new companies nationwide during the quarter that ended June 30th, according to the MoneyTree Report released today. Investment levels represented the highest quarterly total since the pre-recessionary second quarter of 2008, according the report, which is prepared by the National … Continue reading “VC Dollars Rise Above Pre-Recession Level in MoneyTree’s Second-Quarter Survey”

Waring Succeeds Bicker as CEO at CleanTech San Diego

Lisa Bicker has tendered her resignation as CEO of CleanTech San Diego, the non-profit industry group that has helped organize and focus regional efforts to stimulate sustainable business practices and build on San Diego’s emerging capabilities as an innovation cluster in cleantech and renewable energy technologies. Bicker, who was the group’s first CEO, wrote in … Continue reading “Waring Succeeds Bicker as CEO at CleanTech San Diego”

Report Shows San Diego’s Innovation Economy Strengthening, Except in Venture Capital

Private research organizations employ almost 31,000 people in San Diego County, more than the number of similar employees in any other California county, according to a new quarterly innovation report from Connect, the local non-profit group for technology and entrepreneurship. Researchers teased that statistic from U.S. Department of Labor data for the third quarter of … Continue reading “Report Shows San Diego’s Innovation Economy Strengthening, Except in Venture Capital”

Zogenix Strategy Unfolds as it Unveils Plans for Next Drug-and-Device Combo

When I talked to Zogenix CEO Roger Hawley last summer about the San Diego company’s development of a needle-free drug delivery device, he said the startup’s plan hadn’t changed much since Zogenix (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ZGNX]]) was founded in 2006. The company began selling its first product, a needle-free device with a fast-acting painkiller for migraines, early … Continue reading “Zogenix Strategy Unfolds as it Unveils Plans for Next Drug-and-Device Combo”

Venture Activity Rises Nationwide, Daylight Solutions’ Infrared Technology Heating Up, Smaller Startups Are Hiring Fewer, & More San Diego BizTech News

The venture news was flying last week like beach chairs in a hurricane, and the Xconomy forecast calls for more venture activity data this week. Get your biztech briefing quick, before I think up any more metaphors. —We got the early returns on quarterly venture capital activity, and more surveys are expected to follow in … Continue reading “Venture Activity Rises Nationwide, Daylight Solutions’ Infrared Technology Heating Up, Smaller Startups Are Hiring Fewer, & More San Diego BizTech News”

Ormet Raises $1.7M

Ormet Circuits, a San Diego company with proprietary technology for printing circuit patterns on a variety of materials, has raised more than $1.7 million from equity investors, according to a recent regulatory filing. On its website, Ormet says its technology can print circuits with high electrical and thermal conductivity and good solderability on cardboard, plastic, … Continue reading “Ormet Raises $1.7M”

Encouraged by Early Work on Anti-Cancer Drug, Intellikine Hires New Head for Clinical Trials

San Diego’s Intellikine will be four years old in another month, and CEO Troy Wilson tells me he’s feeling very excited about the venture-backed biotech’s progress so far in developing its pipeline of anti-cancer drugs, including its lead candidate designated INK128. As Luke has reported previously, Intellikine’s research is focused on PI3K, shorthand for a … Continue reading “Encouraged by Early Work on Anti-Cancer Drug, Intellikine Hires New Head for Clinical Trials”

Aptera Motors Raises $2.2M

Carlsbad, CA-based Aptera Motors, developer of a teardrop-shaped three-wheel electric vehicle called the Aptera 2e, has raised more than $2.2 million in equity and rights, according to a recent regulatory filing. The cleantech automaker, which has been awaiting a key federal loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy, said in May that it plans … Continue reading “Aptera Motors Raises $2.2M”

Assay Depot Creates Online Market for Pfizer, Advanced BioHealing Expands, Organovo Finds Market for Bio-Printing Technology, & More San Diego Life Sciences News

Bio-engineering tissue for use in humans seems to be gaining ground in San Diego, with Organovo and Advanced BioHealing reporting progress on separate fronts. We have that and more as part of our weekly review of local life sciences news. —After developing an Amazon.com-like site that connects biotech scientists with clinical research organizations (CROs) that … Continue reading “Assay Depot Creates Online Market for Pfizer, Advanced BioHealing Expands, Organovo Finds Market for Bio-Printing Technology, & More San Diego Life Sciences News”

Geppert Named Interim CEO of Economic Development in San Diego

William “Bill” Geppert, who retired just five months ago as the head of Cox Communications in San Diego, has stepped in to serve as interim CEO of the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corp. (EDC). Geppert, a Cox senior vice president and general manager, agreed to serve until the end of 2011. He is not … Continue reading “Geppert Named Interim CEO of Economic Development in San Diego”

Second-Quarter VC Activity: Wish They All Could Be California Deals

Venture capital activity that surged during the first three months of 2011 continued to rise through the second quarter, as funding for Internet startups soared by 69 percent over the same quarter last year, according to CB Insights, a New York information and data services firm. In its quarterly venture capital activity report, CB Insights … Continue reading “Second-Quarter VC Activity: Wish They All Could Be California Deals”

Organovo’s Bio-Printing Technology Yields Unanticipated Revenue from Pharma Partners

When I met Organovo CEO Keith Murphy last year, he was searching for commercially viable products the San Diego startup could use to support its business while advancing its long-term goal of using living cells to create kidneys and other vital organs. More recently, a visibly excited Murphy told me he’s discovered an unmet need … Continue reading “Organovo’s Bio-Printing Technology Yields Unanticipated Revenue from Pharma Partners”

Qualcomm Promotes Grob to CTO

San Diego’s Qualcomm (NASDAQ: [[ticker:QCOM]]), the world’s largest developer of wireless chips used in mobile devices, says today that Matt Grob has been promoted to executive vice president and chief technology officer (CTO). The company says Roberto Padovani decided to transition out of his role as CTO. As the wireless giant’s technology leader, Grob will … Continue reading “Qualcomm Promotes Grob to CTO”