Histogen, Back in Startup Mode, Launches Skin Care Products

Our last installment concerning Histogen ended in a cliffhanger. As I reported in February, Histogen CEO Gail Naughton was scrambling to raise funding after a patent infringement lawsuit was filed against her biotech company by SkinMedica, a rival based in nearby Carlsbad, CA. The lawsuit led a group of angel investors to back away from … Continue reading “Histogen, Back in Startup Mode, Launches Skin Care Products”

Qualcomm and Broadcom End Patent War, Ink $891M Settlement and Cross-Licensing Deal

San Diego wireless giant Qualcomm (NASDAQ: [[ticker:QCOM]]) and Irvine, CA-based Broadcom (NASDAQ: [[ticker:BRCM]]) said last night they have agreed to end their wide-ranging patent war and enter a broad cross-licensing deal. As part of the global settlement, which terminates litigation in federal court as well as formal disputes before trade commissions in Europe and South … Continue reading “Qualcomm and Broadcom End Patent War, Ink $891M Settlement and Cross-Licensing Deal”

Cleantech Venture Investors See Potential Boon in Federal Stimulus Funding

If there was a theme in the first session of the Cleantech Capital Summit that convened in San Diego yesterday, it’s that government spending on cleantech projects in 2009 will easily dwarf whatever investments in “green” deals the VC industry can muster. No surprise there. As we reported over the weekend, total U.S. venture investing … Continue reading “Cleantech Venture Investors See Potential Boon in Federal Stimulus Funding”

Sequenom Reorganizes its Genetic Analysis Business, Trims Workforce

San Diego-based Sequenom said today it’s laying off 30 employees, or 12 percent of its workforce, as part of a broader cost-cutting initiative in the company’s genetic analysis business. The company, which has developed a proprietary, high-performance system for precisely analyzing genetic material, says the restructuring was necessitated by the “continuing weak outlook in 2009 … Continue reading “Sequenom Reorganizes its Genetic Analysis Business, Trims Workforce”

San Diego’s Receding Tide of Venture Funding Reveals Ailing VCs

Venture investors like to talk about transformative change. But it’s becoming increasingly evident that San Diego’s venture capital community is itself in a period of transformative change. The figures we reported this week on local venture investments for the first three months of 2009 were gloomy enough, with $194.6 million going into 15 deals, according … Continue reading “San Diego’s Receding Tide of Venture Funding Reveals Ailing VCs”

Qualcomm in Settlement Talks With Broadcom, Postpones Q2 Financials

Qualcomm (NASDAQ: [[ticker:QCOM]]) said today it is in advanced IP settlement discussions with rival chipmaker Broadcom of Irvine, CA, and the San Diego wireless giant postponed the release of its second-quarter financial results that was scheduled today. “Hopefully, this is a good thing,” says James Brehm, an information and communications technologies analyst with Frost & … Continue reading “Qualcomm in Settlement Talks With Broadcom, Postpones Q2 Financials”

Maxwell Gets Work for Hybrid Electric Bus

San Diego-based Maxwell Technologies (NASDAQ: [[ticker:MXWL]]) said today it has begun supplying its energy-storage devices to three transit bus makers in China under purchase orders totalling $13.5 million. Maxwell says its BoostCap ultracapacitors will be used to boost the energy efficiency of the hybrid diesel-electric buses. According to Maxwell’s president and CEO David Schramm, deliveries … Continue reading “Maxwell Gets Work for Hybrid Electric Bus”

Zenobia Therapeutics, Inspired by Warrior Queen, Focuses on Developing Drug for Parkinson’s Disease

Zenobia Therapeutics is an example of San Diego’s great biotech circle of life. Vicki Nienaber, Zenobia’s founding president and chief scientist, started the specialized drug discovery company almost 11 months ago, after learning that Japan’s Rigaku Americas Corp. was closing ActiveSight, its San Diego-based biotech research division. Nienaber found lab space at the La Jolla … Continue reading “Zenobia Therapeutics, Inspired by Warrior Queen, Focuses on Developing Drug for Parkinson’s Disease”

Two Internet Entrepreneurs and Their Yet-to-be-Named Online Resale Marketplace

The best description of the San Diego Web-based business that Jan Anton and Brendan Boyd have developed may be a symbolic cloud that includes the corporate logos for eBay, Amazon, Craigslist, and other online markets. For the time being, that image also happens to be the current logo for their startup, which was known until … Continue reading “Two Internet Entrepreneurs and Their Yet-to-be-Named Online Resale Marketplace”

Jet-Powered Predator UAV Unveiled by GA-Aeronautical Systems

San Diego’s General Atomics Aeronautical Systems said it has begun flight testing a jet-powered version of its Predator unmanned aircraft system (UAS) with a stealthier design and with the ability to operate aboard Navy aircraft carriers. Dubbed the “Avenger,” the jet-powered version of the armed surveillance aircraft can fly as high as 60,000 feet and … Continue reading “Jet-Powered Predator UAV Unveiled by GA-Aeronautical Systems”

Looking For Signs of Life in San Diego’s VC Deals

The evaporation of venture deals involving San Diego’s software, wireless, and related IT startups was probably the most surprising revelation that jumped out of the regional first-quarter venture data released Friday. The survey by Dow Jones VentureSource reported that 15 startups in the San Diego region got a total of $194.6 million during the first three … Continue reading “Looking For Signs of Life in San Diego’s VC Deals”

First Quarter Venture Investments Plunge 50 Percent Nationwide

There was a time when venture capital partners used to tell me that venture investing is unaffected by the overall economy, because it takes five to 10 years to realize returns in startup investments. In January 2008, Deepak Kamra of Menlo Park, CA-based Canaan Partners said, “Most venture-backed companies don’t have a lot of debt, so they’re not … Continue reading “First Quarter Venture Investments Plunge 50 Percent Nationwide”

Using Zigbee Mesh Networks, Awarepoint Ready to Catch Wave of Healthcare Innovation

Stephen Tomlin has a succinct way of explaining the significance of the technology that San Diego-based Awarepoint has developed over the past five years. Hospitals are just always looking for their stuff, says Tomlin, who is a managing member of San Diego’s Avalon Ventures and a member of Awarepoint’s board of directors. Sometimes medical equipment … Continue reading “Using Zigbee Mesh Networks, Awarepoint Ready to Catch Wave of Healthcare Innovation”

Sapphire Energy Hikes Green Crude Production Estimates

[Update: This report was updated at 6:10 PT with a statement from Sapphire Energy president C.J. Warner] Citing a breakthrough, San Diego’s Sapphire Energy, a startup developing algae-to-fuel technology, today doubled its estimated production for 2011, saying that by then the company will be capable of producing 1 million gallons of diesel and jet fuel … Continue reading “Sapphire Energy Hikes Green Crude Production Estimates”

Sempra Expanding Solar Plant

San Diego’s Sempra Energy, (NYSE: [[ticker:SRE]]) says its Sempra Generation subsidiary is expanding its 10-megawatt solar power-generation facility near Boulder City, NV, by adding a 48-megawatt photovoltaic system. Sempra hired First Solar (NASDAQ: [[ticker:FSLR]]) of Tempe, AZ, to engineer, procure, and install nearly 830,000 thin-film solar panels at the site, which is about 40 miles … Continue reading “Sempra Expanding Solar Plant”

Founder of EasyTaxFix Finds Online Property Tax Service Less Appealing, More Complicated, Than Expected

The day after April 15 may not be a time when many folks want to think about taxes, but what if the subject is reducing your taxes? EasyTaxFix launched its online business last September in a bid to help homeowners throughout San Diego County lower their property taxes. The concept was simple enough. Home prices … Continue reading “Founder of EasyTaxFix Finds Online Property Tax Service Less Appealing, More Complicated, Than Expected”

Taking (Photo) Stock: BrightQube Seeking Venture Funding to Enlarge Burgeoning Web Picture Business

Lee Corkran has spent most of his life working in photography, graphic design, and online media. He’s participated in changes that have transformed his industry as he moved from jobs at the former Sigma photo agency, a news photo provider, to Kodak, Yahoo, and Hewlett-Packard’s San Diego-based Imaging and Printing Group. Based on the insights … Continue reading “Taking (Photo) Stock: BrightQube Seeking Venture Funding to Enlarge Burgeoning Web Picture Business”

Amid Worsening Economy, Software Startups Look to San Diego’s DaggerBoard Advisors for Different Kinds of Help

Dennis Clerke says the kernel of the idea behind DaggerBoard Advisors formed in his mind years ago, while he was still the CEO of Cardiff Software, a business in Vista, CA, he co-founded to automate business forms processing. “When I was CEO, I’d just get parts of my board members’ time and attention,” Clerke told … Continue reading “Amid Worsening Economy, Software Startups Look to San Diego’s DaggerBoard Advisors for Different Kinds of Help”

New Wave-Making Technology Touches Off San Diego’s Wave War

Bruce McFarland has a long-standing relationship with waves. He learned to surf while he was growing up in Manhattan Beach, CA, a classic Los Angeles-area beach community and home of what is believed to be California’s first surfboard shop. He studied mechanical engineering and fluid mechanics at UC Santa Barbara, and after graduation worked for … Continue reading “New Wave-Making Technology Touches Off San Diego’s Wave War”

Departed Amylin Co-Founder Greene Says Company in ‘Perfect Storm,’ But Confident in Management

Amylin Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:AMLN]]) co-founder Howard E. “Ted” Greene, long a leading figure in San Diego’s biotech community, said today that Amylin has encountered a “perfect storm” of events that have caused its share price to drop precipitously and unleashed a proxy battle—but that he’ll seek other ways to help the company since he has … Continue reading “Departed Amylin Co-Founder Greene Says Company in ‘Perfect Storm,’ But Confident in Management”

Prometheus Adds Cancer Diagnostics

San Diego’s Prometheus Laboratories says it has signed a licensing and collaboration deal with Rosetta Genomics, an Israeli company that does commercial molecular diagnostic tests at its lab in Philadelphia, PA. Under the agreement, Prometheus will make an $8 million equity investment in Rosetta and gets rights to three micro-RNA-based cancer diagnostic tests. In addition, … Continue reading “Prometheus Adds Cancer Diagnostics”

Amylin Braces to Battle Carl Icahn, Calit2’s Network for Institutional Innovation, Sangart Ponders Its Next Move, & More San Diego BizTech News

Perhaps the week before Easter was a good time for San Diego’s technology innovators to be taking stock. Amylin is busy weighing how best to fend off dissident investors Carl Icahn and Eastbourne Capital before next month’s annual shareholder meeting. Other San Diego startups, such as Trius Therapeutics and Sangart, are considering how best to … Continue reading “Amylin Braces to Battle Carl Icahn, Calit2’s Network for Institutional Innovation, Sangart Ponders Its Next Move, & More San Diego BizTech News”

Surfin’ Safari at the MIT Enterprise Forum

Bruce McFarland, an engineer and lifelong surfer, founded American Wave Machines to develop his concept for a new type of patented wave machine. But his startup company faces a variety of challenges as it tries to break into a market with already-established technologies. A panel of experts review the company as a business case study. … Continue reading “Surfin’ Safari at the MIT Enterprise Forum”

San Diego’s Sangart Readying for Clinical Trials of ‘Oxygen Therapeutic’

When I reported last month that San Diego-based Sangart had raised $50 million in additional venture funding, CEO Brian O’Callaghan was eager to discuss how the biopharmaceutical has progressed in a field where others ran aground. But O’Callaghan, who is every bit as Irish as his name sounds, was unavailable at the time. So I … Continue reading “San Diego’s Sangart Readying for Clinical Trials of ‘Oxygen Therapeutic’”

Amylin Braces for Proxy Battle Amid Flurry of Filings

Amylin Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:AMLN]]) became one of San Diego’s Cinderella success stories in 2005, when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved two of its diabetes drugs—some 18 years after the biotech was founded. But the company has been buffeted by some unusual challenges in recent months. Demand for exenatide, Amylin’s lead diabetes drug, has slumped … Continue reading “Amylin Braces for Proxy Battle Amid Flurry of Filings”

Former UC President Dynes Views CalIT2 as a New Paradigm for Innovation

At a luncheon that followed the La Jolla Research and Innovation Summit on Friday, I sat with Bob Dynes, the former President of the University of California system, who began talking about the formation of CalIT2 (Cal-IT-squared) almost a decade ago. These days, the research center also known as the California Institute for Telecommunications and … Continue reading “Former UC President Dynes Views CalIT2 as a New Paradigm for Innovation”

Google CEO Suggests Micropayments, Subscriptions Might Take Off for Online News

The Associated Press did some saber-rattling in San Diego yesterday at the annual convention of the Newspaper Association of America, and today Google CEO Eric Schmidt delivered his riposte. In a keynote speech, AP chairman William Dean Singleton had vowed to more aggressively enforce the AP’s intellectual property rights. He said the wire service will … Continue reading “Google CEO Suggests Micropayments, Subscriptions Might Take Off for Online News”

Moving Fast, Trius Therapeutics Assesses Capital Needs for Late-Stage Clinical Trials

When Luke checked in at Trius Therapeutics almost six months ago, he reported that the San Diego life sciences startup was on a roll, but not quite ready to talk about results of its early stage clinical trials. These days, CEO Jeff Stein says Trius is assessing how best to move ahead in its development … Continue reading “Moving Fast, Trius Therapeutics Assesses Capital Needs for Late-Stage Clinical Trials”

Qualcomm’s Irwin Jacobs is Retired, But Not Retiring

When Qualcomm co-founder and longtime chairman and CEO Irwin Jacobs stepped down as chairman of the wireless giant last month, he said he was taking another shot at retiring. Jacobs, who turned 75 in October, told The San Diego Union-Tribune after Qualcomm’s annual shareholders meeting that his first attempt at retiring didn’t take, presumably because … Continue reading “Qualcomm’s Irwin Jacobs is Retired, But Not Retiring”

Wireless Medicine Gets $45M Booster Shot, Arena’s Weight-Loss Trial Underwhelms Wall Street, Venter’s Synthetic Genomics About to Ramp Up, & Other San Diego BizTech News

We saw first-hand the increasing convergence of advanced information technologies and the life sciences here in San Diego last week. The trend was evident in the formation of a new institute for wireless healthcare, and in a roundtable discussion about personal medicine at UC San Diego that highlighted the need for easy access to electronic … Continue reading “Wireless Medicine Gets $45M Booster Shot, Arena’s Weight-Loss Trial Underwhelms Wall Street, Venter’s Synthetic Genomics About to Ramp Up, & Other San Diego BizTech News”

Venter Outlines Progress in Engineering Microbes to Make Fuels

Connect CEO Duane Roth says that when he was organizing an “innovation summit” to showcase San Diego’s prowess in advanced research and innovation, he wanted to start each session of the two-day event with a scientific headliner as keynote speaker. And J. Craig Venter, who gained fame for his sequencing and analysis of the human … Continue reading “Venter Outlines Progress in Engineering Microbes to Make Fuels”

San Diego Seeks to Remedy Scarcity of Homegrown Venture Capital

Since the Berlin Wall fell 20 years ago, San Diego has morphed from a Navy town into a capital of innovation that is renowned for its wireless industry, burgeoning biomedical community, and research institutions set like a city on a hill. Yet it seems like there has always been a dearth of homegrown venture capital … Continue reading “San Diego Seeks to Remedy Scarcity of Homegrown Venture Capital”

Healthcare Leaders Lay Groundwork for Wave of Innovation in Medical Information Technologies

While San Diego learned yesterday it is the new home of the nation’s first wireless health care research institute, a vision of the sweeping changes that such technologies pose was taking form in a UC San Diego conference room. The high-level meeting was organized by federal health officials in an effort to help guide the … Continue reading “Healthcare Leaders Lay Groundwork for Wave of Innovation in Medical Information Technologies”

Avaak Technology Lets Users Create Their Own Personal Video Networks

When San Diego-based Avaak made its debut earlier this month at the spring DEMO conference in Palm Desert, CA, chief executive Gioia Messinger offered a grand description of the company’s personal video technology.”It’s like your own personal Google Street View, except it’s live, expandable, sharable, and easy—very, very easy,” Messinger told the Demo audience. The … Continue reading “Avaak Technology Lets Users Create Their Own Personal Video Networks”

The Obama Bounce & San Diego’s Cleantech Innovators, Zeebo Steps Onto A Global Stage, Hollis-Eden Axes Its Namesake Founder, & More SD BizTech News

It was a busy week for San Diego’s innovation economy, with reports on new products, new deals, and some insights into how startup companies can survive virtually. So read on! —Zeebo, a new San Diego-based company, launched its game console, entering a multi-billion dollar industry dominated by the Wii, Xbox, and Playstation. Backed by Qualcomm, … Continue reading “The Obama Bounce & San Diego’s Cleantech Innovators, Zeebo Steps Onto A Global Stage, Hollis-Eden Axes Its Namesake Founder, & More SD BizTech News”

Venture Investors See A Few Opportunities Too Big To Ignore

A panel discussion about what’s happening on Wall Street sponsored yesterday morning by the San Diego Venture Group made it clear that venture investors are looking for pockets of light among the remains of last year’s market collapse. The general tenor of the conversation was that capital remains scarce and it’s going to take a … Continue reading “Venture Investors See A Few Opportunities Too Big To Ignore”

Salk Forms Stem Cell Partnership With Sanofi-Aventis

The Salk Institute says it has formed a new stem cell research partnership with Sanofi-Aventis, the international pharmaceutical giant based in Paris. Financial terms of the five-year alliance were not disclosed, and some details of the deal remain to be worked out, Salk spokesman Mauricio Minotta told me this afternoon. The Sanofi-Aventis regenerative medicine program … Continue reading “Salk Forms Stem Cell Partnership With Sanofi-Aventis”

Biotech CEOs Discuss the Virtues of Going Virtual

San Diego serial entrepreneur John Dobak got the best quip off right out of the starting gate yesterday when Biocom, the local life sciences trade association, held a panel discussion on the “virtual company” as a new model business model for startups. Dobak, a featured speaker who was late for the breakfast meeting, told the … Continue reading “Biotech CEOs Discuss the Virtues of Going Virtual”

New DriveCam CEO Is Focused on the Road Ahead

It’s been a little over six months since Brandon Nixon moved into the driver’s seat as CEO at San Diego-based DriveCam, a venture-backed company that uses a combination of technologies to help reduce risky driving behaviors. That seems like enough time for a new boss to get up to speed, so I stopped in recently to … Continue reading “New DriveCam CEO Is Focused on the Road Ahead”

San Diego Biotech Hollis-Eden Terminates CEO

Hollis-Eden Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:HEPH]]) said in a government filing yesterday that a special committee of the biotech’s board of directors has fired Richard Hollis, the company’s namesake and founding CEO. In its notice, the San Diego company disclosed only that Hollis was terminated on March 18 pursuant to the section of his 1996 employment contract … Continue reading “San Diego Biotech Hollis-Eden Terminates CEO”

Adventrx Pharma Shutting Down

San Diego’s Adventrx Pharmaceuticals, which had 32 employees a year ago, plans to reduce its full-time workforce to five executives and “substantially end” its drug development and business operations as of April 3. The biopharmaceutical company was developing drugs to treat cancer and infectious disease; its lead candidates were novel emulsion formulations of currently marketed … Continue reading “Adventrx Pharma Shutting Down”

Charting Startups in the Downturn, San Diego’s Biotech Survival Index (Part Deux), Court Dismisses Federal Patent Suit Against Qualcomm, & More SD BizTech News

If there’s a theme to be found in the innovation news for San Diego last week, it might be comings and goings. While some companies are making layoffs or even shuttering their doors, we also found a number of new startups taking root here (although not as many as a year ago). —In a report … Continue reading “Charting Startups in the Downturn, San Diego’s Biotech Survival Index (Part Deux), Court Dismisses Federal Patent Suit Against Qualcomm, & More SD BizTech News”

In Latest Expedition, J. Craig Venter Partners With Life Technologies

A 95-foot sailboat named the Sorcerer II will set sail today from San Diego’s Shelter Island Marina on what its owner, the J. Craig Venter Institute, bills as “a global ocean sampling voyage of genomic discovery.” Yesterday afternoon, the irrepressible Venter himself was barefoot as he hosted a dockside bon voyage party while an enormous … Continue reading “In Latest Expedition, J. Craig Venter Partners With Life Technologies”

Former Infrasonics CEO Breathing New Life Into Cancer Detection Technology

Sometimes entrepreneurship isn’t the provenance of the young and the quick— and sometimes innovation just won’t go gentle into the night. Jim Hitchin, for example, is a 66-year-old San Diego entrepreneur who is working to revive biomedical technology acquired in 2004 from the bankruptcy of a Minneapolis, MN, medical device company. Hitchin previously served on … Continue reading “Former Infrasonics CEO Breathing New Life Into Cancer Detection Technology”

A Snapshot of San Diego’s Innovation Economy

San Diego’s spirit of entrepreneurship remained resilient in 2008, despite a credit crisis that precipitated one of the worst financial periods in U.S. history, according to Connect, a San Diego nonprofit group that promotes technology innovation and entrepreneurship. Connect says 73 new technology companies were started in the San Diego area during the last three … Continue reading “A Snapshot of San Diego’s Innovation Economy”