San Diego’s Zogenix Moving Fast to Commercialize Drug-and-Device Combo

It took centuries for the basic concept of a syringe—a plunger that fits tightly in a tube—to evolve into the medical hypodermic syringe, which uses a hollow needle to inject medication beneath the skin. The founders of San Diego’s Zogenix say they have developed a faster and simpler method for subcutaneous injections—and on a much … Continue reading “San Diego’s Zogenix Moving Fast to Commercialize Drug-and-Device Combo”

Market for Space-Based Internet Service Heats Up for ViaSat

It appears that the competition to provide satellite-based Internet service is heating up for ViaSat, the Carlsbad, CA-based defense contractor, at least judging from an account today by Susanna Kim in the New York Times. As I reported earlier this year, ViaSat has placed a billion-dollar bet on creating space-based Internet service as a new … Continue reading “Market for Space-Based Internet Service Heats Up for ViaSat”

Reva Medical Files for IPO

San Diego-based Reva Medical, which is developing bioabsorbable stents for treating arterial disease, has filed for a $63 million IPO on the Australian Stock Exchange, according to PE Hub. Inteq Ltd., a boutique investment bank in Sydney, is serving as the lead underwriter. The company has raised about $57 million in venture capital funding from … Continue reading “Reva Medical Files for IPO”

ISE Files Chapter 11 Bankruptcy, West Wireless Offers Incentive Prize, Psilos Group’s Suennen Scouts Health IT, & More San Diego BizTech News

Summertime, and the livin’ is easy. ISE’s bankruptcy filing marked the only bit of pain in what was another serene week of tech news and unseasonably cool summer temperatures in San Diego. Get caught up on everything you need to know here. —ISE Corp. the Poway, CA-based maker of hybrid-electric drive trains for buses and … Continue reading “ISE Files Chapter 11 Bankruptcy, West Wireless Offers Incentive Prize, Psilos Group’s Suennen Scouts Health IT, & More San Diego BizTech News”

Latterell Thinking: Ken Widder, Latterell Venture Partners’ Man in San Diego, on Early Stage Life Sciences Investing

Before he joined San Francisco-based Latterell Venture Partners almost four years ago, Ken Widder says the VC venture firm was trying to recruit a partner willing to work full time in Latterell’s Embarcadero Center headquarters. “I’ve known Pat for 24 years,” Widder says, referring to Pat Latterell, the namesake founder who started the life sciences … Continue reading “Latterell Thinking: Ken Widder, Latterell Venture Partners’ Man in San Diego, on Early Stage Life Sciences Investing”

Institute Offers $10K for Mobile Health App

In a bid to advance mobile health technology through a standardized social network platform, San Diego’s West Wireless Health Institute has announced a $10,000 incentive prize open to software developers around the world. In guidelines announced yesterday, the institute is challenging developers to design a secure “mechanism” that can be standardized and will integrate personalized … Continue reading “Institute Offers $10K for Mobile Health App”

Prometheus Labs Updates its IPO Filing

San Diego-based Prometheus Laboratories, a specialty pharma and diagnostics company, has filed an amendment to its plans for an initial public offering, which has been in registration for nearly three years. The regulatory filing offers a wealth of new insights into the company. Prometheus says it generated first-half profits of $28.9 million and $259.6 million … Continue reading “Prometheus Labs Updates its IPO Filing”

CareFusion Trims Workforce, Undeterred Ramius Still Wants to Buy Cypress Bio, Biotech Entrepreneurs Want “Virtual Incubator,” & More San Diego Life Sciences News

There wasn’t a lot of life science news over the past week, but what we had was pretty interesting. Judge for yourself. —There’s a cat-and-mouse game underway between New York’s Ramius Value and Opportunity Advisors and San Diego’s Cypress Bioscience (NASDAQ: [[ticker:CYPB]]). Ramius, which offered $160 million to acquire Cypress last month, renewed its call … Continue reading “CareFusion Trims Workforce, Undeterred Ramius Still Wants to Buy Cypress Bio, Biotech Entrepreneurs Want “Virtual Incubator,” & More San Diego Life Sciences News”

ISE Corp., Maker of Heavy Duty Hybrid Electric Drive Systems, Files for Bankruptcy Reorganization

Poway, CA-based heavy-duty hybrid-electric drive systems maker ISE Corp. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization yesterday in San Diego—less than six months after the 15-year-old company went public on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The company makes hybrid-electric drive trains and energy storage systems for buses and other heavy-duty vehicles. In a statement issued yesterday, the … Continue reading “ISE Corp., Maker of Heavy Duty Hybrid Electric Drive Systems, Files for Bankruptcy Reorganization”

Ramius Sweetens Offer for Cypress Bio

New York’s Ramius, which made last month’s unsolicited offer to acquire San Diego’s Cypress Bioscience (NASDAQ: [[ticker:CYPD]]) for $160 million, pushed again today to meet with the biotech, and even sweetened its offer slightly. A statement issued by Ramius Value & Opportunity Advisors includes a letter to Cypress saying, “We…are extremely disappointed that the company … Continue reading “Ramius Sweetens Offer for Cypress Bio”

Insights From St. Bernard’s CEO on Red Condor Acquisition

When San Diego’s St. Bernard Software announced last week that it was acquiring the assets of Rohnert Park, CA-based Red Condor, CEO Lou Ryan was not available to explain the deal, which was a somewhat-involved transaction. When I finally caught up with Ryan by telephone, he explained that in addition to buying Red Condor’s e-mail … Continue reading “Insights From St. Bernard’s CEO on Red Condor Acquisition”

San Diego’s Scientist-Entrepreneurs Look to “Virtual Incubator” to Help Life Sciences Startups

A grassroots group of local life sciences entrepreneurs—frustrated by their inability to get the resources they need to start new companies—has formed a working group to develop a “virtual incubator” to help seed-stage biotech startups get established in San Diego. Scott Struthers, a co-founder of the San Diego Entrepreneurs Exchange (SDEE), which was formed by … Continue reading “San Diego’s Scientist-Entrepreneurs Look to “Virtual Incubator” to Help Life Sciences Startups”

MabVax Gets $1.1M Grant

MabVax Therapeutics, a San Diego clinical stage biotechnology company developing vaccine and antibody-based therapies as a way to prevent recurrent cancer, says it has received a follow-on grant of $1.1 million under the Small Business Technology Transfer Program from the National Cancer Institute. Privately held MabVax is developing a human monoclonal antibody therapy to target … Continue reading “MabVax Gets $1.1M Grant”

Who Are You? Part 2: Gender and Education Backgrounds of Venture-Backed Internet Startups

As we reported last week, there wasn’t much to surprise the sociologists of innovation in Part 1 of the data CB Insights gleaned about the race, age, and experience of the founders at 165 Internet startups that raised venture capital funding during the first half of 2010. But there are some interesting, and perhaps unexpected, … Continue reading “Who Are You? Part 2: Gender and Education Backgrounds of Venture-Backed Internet Startups”

Angels Launch New Seed Capital Fund, DoCoMo Acquires PacketVideo, St. Bernard Gets Red Condor, & More San Diego BizTech News

A couple of deals topped the tech news last week, but the development most worth watching might be the formation of a new type of fund by Southern California’s Tech Coast Angels. Find out why, and catch up on the rest of San Diego’s tech news here. —The angel investor group Tech Coast Angels is … Continue reading “Angels Launch New Seed Capital Fund, DoCoMo Acquires PacketVideo, St. Bernard Gets Red Condor, & More San Diego BizTech News”

Cypress Bio Rejects Buyout Offer, Shutting Down Commercial Business

Here’s one solution to a suitor’s unsolicited buyout offer: Make yourself ugly, at least to that suitor. San Diego’s Cypress Bioscience (NASDAQ: [[ticker:CYPB]]) got a $160 million cash buyout offer last month from Ramius Value and Opportunity Advisors, part of the New York-based, $7.8-billion Ramius hedge fund group. Ramius, which had accumulated a 10 percent … Continue reading “Cypress Bio Rejects Buyout Offer, Shutting Down Commercial Business”

Venture-Backed IPOs Recovering but Weak: We Compare Results for San Francisco, Boston, Seattle, & San Diego

Amid an overall improvement in IPOs, a survey by Menlo Park, CA-based VentureDeal shows 21 venture-capital backed technology or life sciences companies went public in the U.S. during the first six months of 2010, raising a total of $1.9 billion in gross proceeds. VentureDeal’s IPO activity report is focused on a specific subgroup of technology … Continue reading “Venture-Backed IPOs Recovering but Weak: We Compare Results for San Francisco, Boston, Seattle, & San Diego”

SG Biofuels Building Greenhouse Here

Another greenhouse is going up in the neighborhood. SG Biofuels, Inc., which is cultivating a Jatropha-based biofuels business, says it is establishing an advanced Jatropha research and development center in the San Diego area that will include a 42,000 square-foot greenhouse. A few weeks ago, synthetic Genomics held an open house at its greenhouse, where … Continue reading “SG Biofuels Building Greenhouse Here”

Conatus Gets Idun, Trius Goes Public, BrainCells Gets Sabcomeline, & More San Diego-Area Life Sciences News

Either I have too much time on my hands, or the first half of today’s headline is pretty close to a Haiku in English. Don’t grade me. Let’s just move on with the roundup of life sciences news. —We briefly noted that San Diego’s Conatus Pharmaceuticals acquired Idun Pharmaceuticals for an undisclosed sum from Pfizer, … Continue reading “Conatus Gets Idun, Trius Goes Public, BrainCells Gets Sabcomeline, & More San Diego-Area Life Sciences News”

St. Bernard Buys Red Condor Assets

San Diego’s St. Bernard Software, which provides the iPrism network security appliance, said today it has acquired the e-mail security technology and substantially all other assets of Red Condor, a six-year-old startup near Sonoma State University. St. Bernard (OTCBB: [[ticker:SBSW]]) says the acquisition of Red Condor’s spam-and-bot filtering technology enhances and expands its security offering, … Continue reading “St. Bernard Buys Red Condor Assets”

San Diego Takes Center Stage as Ecotality Works Ahead of Electric Vehicle Rollouts

San Diego utility executives and transportation planners, together with Ecotality CEO Jonathan Read, yesterday unveiled a blueprint for deploying electric vehicle charging stations throughout the region—making San Diego the beginning point for a new era of rechargeable transportation. “It’s a milestone on the road to the mass-marketing of electric cars,” decreed Ron Roberts, a San … Continue reading “San Diego Takes Center Stage as Ecotality Works Ahead of Electric Vehicle Rollouts”

Tech Coast Angels Forms New Fund to Make Collective Startup Investments

Southern California’s Tech Coast Angels (TCA) says today it is forming a new fund that will allow non-members to collectively participate in startup investments, a move that should add some firepower to TCA deals and could smooth out the funding process for entrepreneurs. The formation of the Angel Capital Entrepreneurial Fund (ACE Fund) comes at … Continue reading “Tech Coast Angels Forms New Fund to Make Collective Startup Investments”

Trius Ends First Day Trading at $5 a Share

San Diego’s Trius Therapeutics (NASDAQ: [[ticker:TSRX]]), which is developing technology for making a new class of antibiotic compounds, ended the day as it began this morning—at its initial public offering price of $5 a share. Trius was forced to cut its price to $5 a share yesterday (from a range of $12 to $14 per … Continue reading “Trius Ends First Day Trading at $5 a Share”

Hercules Provides $52M, Including $17M for San Diego’s Althea Technologies

Hercules Technology Growth Capital, (NASDAQ: [[ticker:HTGC]]), the Palo Alto, CA-based provider of venture debt and equity financing to technology, cleantech, and life sciences companies, says it closed on $52 million in new loan commitments in July—including $17 million for San Diego-based Althea Technologies. In a statement today, Hercules says it provided $15 million in financing … Continue reading “Hercules Provides $52M, Including $17M for San Diego’s Althea Technologies”

Pfenex Gets $19M for Anthrax Vaccine

The federal Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) has awarded funding that could be worth as much as $18.8 million to San Diego-based Pfenex to help develop an anthrax vaccine. The authority was established within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to manage the procurement and development of advanced medical countermeasures for … Continue reading “Pfenex Gets $19M for Anthrax Vaccine”

Who Are You? Charting the Demographics of Venture-Backed Internet Startups

Our friends at CB Insights, a New York information services firm that tracks investments in private companies, have been busy gathering new insights about the demographics of venture-backed Internet companies. They’ve put together a report based on data about the founders of 165 early stage Internet companies that raised their first round of institutional venture … Continue reading “Who Are You? Charting the Demographics of Venture-Backed Internet Startups”

DivX in TVs Made by China’s Skyworth

San Diego-based DivX (NASDAQ: [[ticker:DIVX]]), which is being acquired by Sonic Solutions (NASDAQ: [[ticker:SNIC]]) of Novato, CA, says today that one of the largest TV manufacturers in China, Skyworth, will integrate the DivX codec into its line of 2010 digital TVs. DivX technology allows digital videos to be compressed to a fraction of their original … Continue reading “DivX in TVs Made by China’s Skyworth”

Trius Chops IPO Price, Offers More Shares

In a page taken from the discount retailing playbook, San Diego’s Trius Therapeutics slashed the proposed price of its pending IPO by roughly 60 percent and increased the number of shares it is offering by 67 percent. Trius now plans to offer at least 10 million shares at $5 apiece, after initially planning to sell … Continue reading “Trius Chops IPO Price, Offers More Shares”

Qualcomm Gets its Technology in EV Chargers, Aptera Makes Finals in $10M Automotive X Prize, & More San Diego BizTech News

It wasn’t a busy week for news about San Diego technology innovation, but it wasn’t a slow week either. It was jus-s-s-t right. And here is our summary. —You’re going to start hearing a lot about Ecotality in coming months. The San Francisco-based company is heading efforts to install electric vehicle charging stations throughout San … Continue reading “Qualcomm Gets its Technology in EV Chargers, Aptera Makes Finals in $10M Automotive X Prize, & More San Diego BizTech News”

Japan’s NTT DoCoMo Pays $112M to Buy Remaining Stake in PackeVideo

Japanese communications provider NTT DoCoMo, which acquired a 35 percent stake in San Diego’s PacketVideo last year for $45.5 million, says it is acquiring the remaining 65 percent from holding company NextWave Wireless for $111.6 million. Under terms of the deal, PacketVideo will become a wholly owned subsidiary of NTT DoCoMo. It will operate autonomously, … Continue reading “Japan’s NTT DoCoMo Pays $112M to Buy Remaining Stake in PackeVideo”

Connect Adopts New Measures to Boost the Innovation Economy

Connect, the San Diego nonprofit group for technology and entrepreneurship, said its board has approved a series of initiatives intended to stimulate the long-term formation of technology startups. The initiatives, which will be supervised by Connect CEO Duane Roth, are supposed to attract more early stage investment capital, and influence innovation policies set by the … Continue reading “Connect Adopts New Measures to Boost the Innovation Economy”

Trius IPO Idling

San Diego’s Trius Therapeutics has again delayed its long-planned $78 million initial public offering, which was scheduled to go out this week, according a report today by Bloomberg News. Renaissance Capital, which listed Trius among the expected IPOs this week, continues to list the Trius offering as “day to day.” Trius, founded in 2004, has … Continue reading “Trius IPO Idling”

California Startup Carmakers, Aptera and Zap, Finalists in Automotive X Prize

And then there were nine. What began in April as a field of 136 experimental cars and 111 teams with their eyes on the $10 million Automotive X Prize has been winnowed to just nine cars and seven teams. Track testing was completed Tuesday at the Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, MI. The nine finalists … Continue reading “California Startup Carmakers, Aptera and Zap, Finalists in Automotive X Prize”

Illumina Buys Helixis, Genzyme Shares Soar on Buyout Report, & More San Diego Life Sciences News

There wasn’t a lot of San Diego life sciences news over the past week, but what we got was big. Here’s our summary. —San Diego-based Illumina (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ILMN]]), which makes high-speed gene sequencing equipment for biomedical laboratories, acquired Carlsbad, CA-based Helixis for at least $70 million, with an additional $35 million tied to meeting certain … Continue reading “Illumina Buys Helixis, Genzyme Shares Soar on Buyout Report, & More San Diego Life Sciences News”

Under The Radar Financings in San Diego: Envision Solar, Zacharon Pharmaceuticals, & More

Every month, New York-based CB Insights casts its net for “under-the-radar deals” that provide less than $1 million in capital for technology and life sciences companies, and shares its catch with Xconomy editors in the five cities where we operate. In its survey for June, the private company intelligence firm brought up seven deals in … Continue reading “Under The Radar Financings in San Diego: Envision Solar, Zacharon Pharmaceuticals, & More”

Qualcomm’s Technology Inside Ecotality’s Electric Vehicle Chargers

At the Xconomy Smart Energy Forum in San Diego just a couple of months ago, Qualcomm’s Manuel Jaime emphasized that 100-percent electric vehicles (EVs) like the Nissan Leaf will need to be integrated with EV charging stations—and the charging stations have to be integrated with a local power grid. Once they’re integrated, Jaime explained, EV … Continue reading “Qualcomm’s Technology Inside Ecotality’s Electric Vehicle Chargers”

A Natural History of the Scentsa: Fragrances Publisher Gets Huntington Capital Financing to Expand Technology Platform

Just as Greg was reporting the $5 million in financing that San Diego’s Huntington Capital arranged for custom publisher RPI in Tukwila, WA, the firm was providing similar financing for Crescent House Publishing of Carlsbad, CA. Both deals came out of Huntington Capital Fund II, the $78 million fund the boutique lender and private equity … Continue reading “A Natural History of the Scentsa: Fragrances Publisher Gets Huntington Capital Financing to Expand Technology Platform”

Sapphire Energy Moving Fast on Genetically Engineered Algae

After reading Andy Pollack’s reportage on biotechnology for years in the New York Times, I finally got a chance to meet him a couple of weeks ago in San Diego, at a briefing to update reporters and VIPs on the $300-million partnership that Synthetic Genomics and ExxonMobil formed to develop algae biofuels. Today Pollack published … Continue reading “Sapphire Energy Moving Fast on Genetically Engineered Algae”

Memjet To Unveil Innovative Printing Technology, Energy Innovations Moves into Poway, Skinit Gets $60M, & More San Diego BizTech News

So many innovations, so little time. It’s a good thing you don’t have to choose between Memjet’s superfast printing technology and Energy Innovations’ supercool concentrating photovoltaic solar modules. You can have it all, and you can get it now. —Memjet, the San Diego-based startup with new inkjet printing technologies, is getting ready to step on … Continue reading “Memjet To Unveil Innovative Printing Technology, Energy Innovations Moves into Poway, Skinit Gets $60M, & More San Diego BizTech News”

Speculation Intensifies Over Future of Qualcomm’s Flo TV

Uncertainty concerning the future of Flo TV triggered a flurry of media reports this week pegged to Qualcomm’s recent quarterly earnings call, although the San Diego wireless giant didn’t say much beyond what it’s been saying: that it is exploring a lot of different possibilities. As we reported during the Uplinq conference earlier this month, … Continue reading “Speculation Intensifies Over Future of Qualcomm’s Flo TV”

Q&A With Wireless Entrepreneur Hiep Pham on San Diego’s Changing Startup Landscape

When I met recently with San Diego entrepreneur Hiep Pham to talk about his latest startup, a Web-based restaurant marketing tool called TipCity, I was reminded that this area was once a healthy hotbed for networking and telecommunications startups. I later wondered if Pham had any insights into the climate for tech startups in San … Continue reading “Q&A With Wireless Entrepreneur Hiep Pham on San Diego’s Changing Startup Landscape”

Solar Startup Energy Innovations, Funded and Incubated by Idealab, Begins Production in San Diego

Energy Innovations, a solar energy company founded by entrepreneur Bill Gross, opened the doors of its new headquarters and manufacturing facility today in the suburban San Diego community of Poway, CA, after gestating since 2001 at Idealab, the business incubator Gross runs in Pasadena, CA. Energy Innovations has raised a total of $60 million in … Continue reading “Solar Startup Energy Innovations, Funded and Incubated by Idealab, Begins Production in San Diego”

Cypress Bio Gets Buyout Offer, Trius Prepares for IPO, Arena Gains Following Vivus Setback, & More San Diego Life Sciences News

San Diego’s life sciences companies continued to raise big money, which is a good thing, since a survey shows that venture funding for biotech and medical device companies accounted for more than 80 of all second-quarter VC deals in San Diego. We’ve rounded up all that and more for you here: —San Diego’s Cypress Bioscience … Continue reading “Cypress Bio Gets Buyout Offer, Trius Prepares for IPO, Arena Gains Following Vivus Setback, & More San Diego Life Sciences News”

Man Charged with Murder in Death of San Diego Angel Investor

San Diego authorities are adding a murder charge to the case against a 59-year-old man who was jailed last month on identity theft charges, which stemmed from the illegal transfer of $7.5 million from the account of a biotech investor who was found dead June 8. Kent Thomas Keigwin will be arraigned for murder tomorrow … Continue reading “Man Charged with Murder in Death of San Diego Angel Investor”

San Diego, Pond Scum, and Crude Oil: Our Mayor Issues an Invitation to Sloganeers

Sometimes in this job, the stuff you hear just seems too good to be true. Like when the mayor of San Diego invites members of an audience to suggest a slogan more exciting than the one he came up with: “When you think of pond scum, think of San Diego.” It’s not often that the … Continue reading “San Diego, Pond Scum, and Crude Oil: Our Mayor Issues an Invitation to Sloganeers”

EngEx 2010 Conference Cancelled

EngEx 2010, a cleantech conference that intended to draw 10,000 attendees to the San Diego Convention Center next week, has been cancelled, according to Steve Johnson, the convention center’s vice president of public affairs. The conference, which had included a presentation on thousands of electric vehicle charging stations to be installed throughout San Diego this … Continue reading “EngEx 2010 Conference Cancelled”

Auspex Pharma Raises $12M

Vista, CA-based Auspex Pharmaceuticals has raised $12 million from investors, according to a recent regulatory filing. As I noted when the company arranged a $2 million financing in March, Auspex is developing deuterium-based analogs of clinically validated drugs in multiple therapeutic areas. The deuterium replaces metabolically sensitive hydrogen atoms to create novel therapeutics with “very … Continue reading “Auspex Pharma Raises $12M”

Skinit Raises $60M

Skinit, a San Diego company that sells branded vinyl skins for cell phones, game consoles, laptops, and other personal electronic devices, has raised $60 million from ABS Capital Partners and Norwest Equity Partners, according to PE Hub. Using its licensing agreements with Disney and other entertainment brands, Major League Soccer and other sports leagues, The … Continue reading “Skinit Raises $60M”