The Foster City, CA-based biopharmaceutical giant Gilead (NASDAQ: [[ticker:GILD]]) reaps about $8 billion a year from its daily drug regimens that keep the HIV virus in check. Gilead’s Bay area neighbor, San Rafael, CA-based BioMarin Pharmaceutical (NASDAQ: [[ticker:BMRN]]), earns nearly half a billion dollars annually from its pioneering drugs for rare disorders that would otherwise … Continue reading “Sangamo in Race to Replace Chronic Drug Treatment with Gene Therapies”
Author: Bernadette Tansey
Bernadette Tansey is a former editor of Xconomy San Francisco. She has covered information technology, biotechnology, business, law, environment, and government as a Bay area journalist. She has written about edtech, mobile apps, social media startups, and life sciences companies for Xconomy, and tracked the adoption of Web tools by small businesses for CNBC. She was a biotechnology reporter for the business section of the San Francisco Chronicle, where she also wrote about software developers and early commercial companies in nanotechnology and synthetic biology.
Sunesis Waits Out Suspenseful Final Year of Pivotal Leukemia Trial
The next 12 months will be a transformational period for South San Francisco-based Sunesis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:SNSS]]), no matter what the outcome of the ongoing late stage trial of its lead drug candidate, vosaroxin. Sunesis, which now has 30 employees, could be reborn as an expanding commercial oncology company if vosaroxin proves to lengthen the … Continue reading “Sunesis Waits Out Suspenseful Final Year of Pivotal Leukemia Trial”
Bayer Joins with Seattle Genetics in Antibody-Drug Conjugate Deal
Bayer HealthCare has signed a new deal with Bothell, WA-based Seattle Genetics (NASDAQ: [[ticker:SGEN]]) for access to its methods of creating cancer drugs that home in on tumors and then deliver a toxic dose to their cells. The two partners today announced a collaboration worth as much as $520 million to the Seattle company, which … Continue reading “Bayer Joins with Seattle Genetics in Antibody-Drug Conjugate Deal”
NGM, Partners Seek Next Diabetes Drug Targets Among GI Tract Hormones
NGM Biopharmaceuticals, led by veteran biotech innovators from Amgen, Genentech and Tularik, made a big bet five years ago that it could plumb the human digestive tract for new hormones and other agents that might help control metabolic disorders such as obesity and Type 2 diabetes. Private backers have put more than $76 million behind … Continue reading “NGM, Partners Seek Next Diabetes Drug Targets Among GI Tract Hormones”
Calysta Energy to Harness Microbes for Bioplastics Maker NatureWorks
Eight months after its public debut, Menlo Park, CA-based Calysta Energy has announced its first partnership deal. Calysta, a synthetic biology company, will attempt to engineer a new microbe that can live off methane gas and produce raw materials for bioplastics manufacturer NatureWorks of Minnetonka, MN. Calysta is a spinoff of Menlo Park, CA-based DNA … Continue reading “Calysta Energy to Harness Microbes for Bioplastics Maker NatureWorks”
Cellular Dynamics, Coriell To Create California Stem Cell Bank
One of the main goals of California’s $3 billion stem cell research agency is to draw companies into the state so they can vie for a share of the funding. With a recently funded $32 million initiative, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) has attracted two of the biggest US players in stem cell … Continue reading “Cellular Dynamics, Coriell To Create California Stem Cell Bank”
Austin’s Myriad RBM at Work on Molecular Tests for Mental Ailments
Words like “schizophrenia” and “bipolar disorder” have guided psychiatric treatment for decades, but they may be meaningless labels that mask a lack of real knowledge about the molecular events behind these related constellations of symptoms. That’s the critical view that greeted the latest edition of the psychiatrists’ “bible,” the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental … Continue reading “Austin’s Myriad RBM at Work on Molecular Tests for Mental Ailments”
Johnson & Johnson’s New Innovation Center Part of Broader Initiative
Investing in biotechnology is a riskier bet these days. The community of life sciences venture capital firms is contracting, despite scientific advances across many fields like genomics, immunology, and diagnostics. Many promising new enterprises fail to produce marketable drugs, and even successful therapies may struggle to gain markets in an environment of health care cost … Continue reading “Johnson & Johnson’s New Innovation Center Part of Broader Initiative”
Epilepsy Device Pioneer Cyberonics Still Evolving After 25 Years
Long before the explosion in the personal electronics field brought us iPods and iPhones, biomedical engineers were making devices to interact with the personal electrical “circuitry” that regulates the human heart and other organs. Back in 1958, Minneapolis, MN-based Medtronic produced its first battery-operated, portable pacemaker to stimulate nerves in the malfunctioning heart. It looked … Continue reading “Epilepsy Device Pioneer Cyberonics Still Evolving After 25 Years”
UT Horizon Fund Aims to Build, and Capture, Value from Its Startups
Campuses at the University of Texas, such as the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, can boast of star-studded faculties to rival the innovative scientific leadership at UC San Francisco, UC Berkeley and Stanford University. In 2009, the 15-institution University of Texas system was second only to the powerhouse University of California system in the … Continue reading “UT Horizon Fund Aims to Build, and Capture, Value from Its Startups”
XBiotech Takes Aim at Inflammation That Weakens Cancer Patients
Few could accuse XBiotech CEO John Simard of failing to think big. The Austin, TX-based startup he founded in 2005 is testing a novel biological drug candidate that is aiming to treat the persistent inflammation that makes cancer patients feel so weak in their final months and years. XBiotech also created a new method to … Continue reading “XBiotech Takes Aim at Inflammation That Weakens Cancer Patients”
Student Startups Cardiovate and Invictus Tackle Big Medtech Markets
[Corrected 5/14/2013, 5:20 pm. See below.] Months before she received her PhD degree last spring, Jordan Kaufmann co-founded her own company. Her first office was a shed in her backyard, but her plan was to outdo big medical device companies like Minneapolis, MN-based Medtronic (NYSE: [[ticker:MDT]]) by making one of their products obsolete. Kaufmann’s company, … Continue reading “Student Startups Cardiovate and Invictus Tackle Big Medtech Markets”
Ensysce’s Bet: Combining Two Risky Drug Technologies That Add Up
At one edge of the sprawling Texas Medical Center in south central Houston, near a slew of hospitals and research hubs including the renowned MD Anderson Cancer Center, three floors of an office tower are reserved to nurture startup companies. The incubator is one of the initiatives that have sprung up in Texas to expand … Continue reading “Ensysce’s Bet: Combining Two Risky Drug Technologies That Add Up”
Opexa Tries a Personalized Cell Therapy Against Last, Worst Stage of MS
Pharmaceutical companies have been fielding a slate of new drugs for multiple sclerosis in the past few years—most recently the new oral pill diethyl fumarate (Tecfidera) that analysts see as a potential multibillion-dollar revenue source for Weston, MA-based Biogen Idec (NASDAQ: [[ticker:BIIB]]). For the most part, however, the new MS drugs treat the progressive disease … Continue reading “Opexa Tries a Personalized Cell Therapy Against Last, Worst Stage of MS”
East Coast Life Sciences Roundup: Thermo, Alkermes, Acorda, Epizyme
One big story—the Boston Marathon bombing—dominated the news this week. Boston’s healthcare system rose to the challenge of treating so many injured victims, as reported in this terrific post by Atul Gawande of the New Yorker. While the investigation into the tragedy continues, many East Coast biotech companies carried on with their business and accomplished … Continue reading “East Coast Life Sciences Roundup: Thermo, Alkermes, Acorda, Epizyme”
MGH-Veridex Device Enters Challenging Arena in Cancer Testing
Mehmet Toner wants cancer doctors to be able to see what he can see. Most oncologists rely on imaging tools like CT scans, and perhaps only a single biopsy, to learn what they can about patients’ tumors and the biological traits of their cancer cells. Toner, a biomedical engineering specialist, says he can track the … Continue reading “MGH-Veridex Device Enters Challenging Arena in Cancer Testing”
East Coast Biotech Roundup: Bristol-Myers, Syros, On-Q-ity, Ziopharm
The Boston-area biotechnology cluster got a shot in the arm this week when a drug giant announced a major expansion. East Coast startups raised millions, or folded, or regrouped after significant setbacks. Venture firms still showed an appetite for health care in the first quarter, and East Coast VCs grabbed top spots in the rankings. … Continue reading “East Coast Biotech Roundup: Bristol-Myers, Syros, On-Q-ity, Ziopharm”
Ziopharm Goes Lean to Stretch Funds for New Synthetic Biology Focus
New York-based Ziopharm Oncology (NASDAQ: ZIOP), which once seemed on the runway toward its first product approval for a relatively conventional cancer drug, is now buying itself time to sell Wall Street on a new mission to pioneer a cutting-edge technology. Ziopharm, which has an office in the Boston area, slashed its workforce by about … Continue reading “Ziopharm Goes Lean to Stretch Funds for New Synthetic Biology Focus”
East Coast Life Sciences Roundup: Optimer, Bind, Pfizer, and More
The life sciences clusters around New York and Boston may sometimes act like rivals, but they also have plenty of reasons to work together. This week was marked by deals and cross-fertilizations between big pharmaceutical companies in the wider New York metropolitan area and small biotechnology companies in Cambridge, MA. As for the East Coast-West … Continue reading “East Coast Life Sciences Roundup: Optimer, Bind, Pfizer, and More”
Ra Pharmaceuticals Clinches Merck Deal for Up to $200 Million
Cambridge, MA-based Ra Pharmaceuticals has signed a collaboration deal with drug giant Merck (NYSE: MRK) that could provide the small company with as much as $200 million to support the development of its stable of novel drug candidates. The five-year-old startup is creating a library of compounds designed to overcome frequent obstacles in drug development. … Continue reading “Ra Pharmaceuticals Clinches Merck Deal for Up to $200 Million”
East Coast Biotech Roundup: Biogen Idec, Third Rock, T2 Bio, Dart
Biogen Idec reinforced its dominance in multiple sclerosis this week with the approval of its oral drug for the disease, while Third Rock Ventures amassed half a billion dollars more to foster the life sciences contenders of the future. Fundraising and new drug candidates made news for Massachusetts biotechnology companies, and New York City kept … Continue reading “East Coast Biotech Roundup: Biogen Idec, Third Rock, T2 Bio, Dart”
Foundation-Backed Dart Revs Up, Seeks Venture Funds
The small Cambridge, MA-based company Dart Therapeutics has been racing along the startup track in recent months. In September, it assembled a veteran executive team headed by CEO Gene Williams, a Genzyme veteran. This month, it in-licensed its second drug candidate for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, and made a deal that might identify other potential medicines against the … Continue reading “Foundation-Backed Dart Revs Up, Seeks Venture Funds”
East Coast Biotech Roundup: Moderna, bluebird, Blueprint
During this early spring week, it was a great time to focus on the fledgling efforts of East Coast drug hunters. A couple small companies pulled in lucrative partnerships, and two others saw their NASDAQ dreams come true. Read on, for more of the details. —AstraZeneca inked a notably rich deal with the small biotech … Continue reading “East Coast Biotech Roundup: Moderna, bluebird, Blueprint”
Memorial Sloan-Kettering and Eureka Go After ‘Undruggable’ Targets
Drug developers have thrown an arsenal of technologies at tumor cells: nanomachines, vaccines, antibodies, radiation, you name it. David Scheinberg has tried them all in his search for new cancer therapies at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. But in spite of successes amid all these efforts in recent decades, Scheinberg says most of … Continue reading “Memorial Sloan-Kettering and Eureka Go After ‘Undruggable’ Targets”
TeloMe Turns to Crowdfunding to Promote Telomere Testing
You may take a bit of convincing to send a few dollars to filmmaker Denver Jackson, who’s seeking funds to complete his animated short “Cloudrise” through the crowdfunding site Indiegogo. But at least Jackson has this one advantage—you know what an animated film is. Imagine pitching the Indiegogo crowd for money to pay for “telomere … Continue reading “TeloMe Turns to Crowdfunding to Promote Telomere Testing”
East Coast Life Sciences Roundup: GSK, Protein Sciences, IMS Health
One big East Coast pharmaceutical firm abandoned work on a hepatitis C drug this week, while another shuttered a young company that had cost it $720 million to acquire. But new ideas continue to burst forth, and investors pitched in $20 million for another hopeful startup. The Connecticut company that figured out how to make … Continue reading “East Coast Life Sciences Roundup: GSK, Protein Sciences, IMS Health”
Pfizer Yields to Rivals in Hep C Drug Race
As flashy new entries piled into the race to create an injection-free hepatitis C drug about a year ago, Xconomy’s national biotech editor, Luke Timmerman, likened the contest to the Daytona 500 of the pharmaceutical world. Now Pfizer, the world’s biggest drug company, has scratched itself from the starting lineup. The New York pharmaceutical giant … Continue reading “Pfizer Yields to Rivals in Hep C Drug Race”
Protein Sciences’ Pitch: a “Pure” Flu Vaccine Alternative
The small private company Protein Sciences skirted bankruptcy, fought off a hostile takeover bid, spent three years angling for a sorely-needed government contract, and survived a four-year dialogue with the FDA before winning approval this year for the first influenza vaccine made with genetic engineering and without eggs. Now comes the hard part. The 115-employee … Continue reading “Protein Sciences’ Pitch: a “Pure” Flu Vaccine Alternative”
East Coast Life Sciences Roundup: Merck, Celgene, PTC, Cerulean
New Jersey life sciences companies grabbed the spotlight this week as they raised money, joined with partners, and made new hires. Merck’s research division will have a new leader as a former executive comes back from a long stint at the world’s largest biotechnology company. And a Cambridge, MA, company is in suspense as it … Continue reading “East Coast Life Sciences Roundup: Merck, Celgene, PTC, Cerulean”
East Coast Life Sciences Roundup: Third Rock, SciFluor, Cubist
Another act in a stark boardroom drama unfolded this week for a public pharmaceutical company in New Jersey, but brighter stories took center stage in the Massachusetts biomedical arena. —A sweeping executive shakeout continued at Optimer Pharmaceuticals on Wednesday as CEO Pedro Lichtinger agreed to resign, and was replaced by Henry McKinnell, the former CEO … Continue reading “East Coast Life Sciences Roundup: Third Rock, SciFluor, Cubist”
Osage University Partners Expanding Its Novel Venture Firm Model
Discoveries at the Yale School of Medicine are helping nearby Kolltan Pharmaceuticals in New Haven, CT, to try to keep cancer drugs working by eliminating the resistance that patients often develop to current cancer treatments. Kolltan is the kind of company routinely spun out by Yale and other top research universities, which often hold the … Continue reading “Osage University Partners Expanding Its Novel Venture Firm Model”
With Fluorine Tech, SciFluor Aims to Vindicate “Me-Too” Drugs
Me-too drugs, knockoffs, copycats, retreads—they’re all names for new pharmaceuticals patterned after drugs already proven to work. The number of such labels alone signals the type of passionate commentary surrounding these products. Critics have charged pharmaceutical companies with churning out these modified drugs to fight common ailments like high cholesterol or heartburn without proving that … Continue reading “With Fluorine Tech, SciFluor Aims to Vindicate “Me-Too” Drugs”
East Coast Life Sciences Roundup: IBM, ImmunoGen, Breakthrough Prize, & More
The symbiotic ties between industry and university scientists were a big theme this week in East Coast news. Some top academic researchers became instant millionaires as tech moguls honored their biomedical innovations, and new university institutes launched projects to accelerate progress in the pharmaceutical world. And the FDA’s approval of a new Genentech cancer drug … Continue reading “East Coast Life Sciences Roundup: IBM, ImmunoGen, Breakthrough Prize, & More”
The Reimbursed Personal Genome—-Five Years Away?
Genome sequencing will be a routine diagnostic test for patients at the new Institute for Precision Medicine in New York City, a joint project of the Weill Cornell Medical College and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. Doctors will be searching for new genetic clues about disease by taking an unbiased survey along the genome, rather than scanning only … Continue reading “The Reimbursed Personal Genome—-Five Years Away?”
East Coast Life Sciences Roundup: Jounce, Tokai, Lux, & More
Companies in the life sciences centers around Boston and New York made news this week with movement on cancer drug programs and efforts to create therapies by influencing the immune system. Maverick VC firm Lux Capital raised another $245 million, and health care companies will share in it. Meanwhile, scores of New York City health … Continue reading “East Coast Life Sciences Roundup: Jounce, Tokai, Lux, & More”
Swarm of Applicants Vying for New York City’s Health Tech Grants
Supporters of New York City’s rising health IT sector are poring over scores of applications this week for $100,000 city grants to help young companies test-drive their health tech products by working with major New York health care providers. Jean-Luc Neptune of Health 2.0 says a mass of application submissions arrived in a flurry on … Continue reading “Swarm of Applicants Vying for New York City’s Health Tech Grants”
EClinicalWorks Unveils Mobile App as Patients’ Go-To Site for Healthcare
Many people steer their social lives from a single online dashboard, such as Facebook. Entrepreneur Girish Navani is betting that people will also want to use a densely connected Web platform to manage the health aspects of their lives. His Westborough, MA, company is rolling out a new mobile phone application designed to be the … Continue reading “EClinicalWorks Unveils Mobile App as Patients’ Go-To Site for Healthcare”
East Coast Life Sciences Roundup: Biogen Idec, Celgene, Alnylam, More
Celgene of Summit, NJ, received some good news late Friday from the FDA, while Boston-area companies large and small made out well during the week, as partnerships were born and reformed. And the startup community got a boost from a Massachusetts agency’s funding for a new incubator space in the heart of Cambridge. —The FDA … Continue reading “East Coast Life Sciences Roundup: Biogen Idec, Celgene, Alnylam, More”
Hyperion’s Pinpoint Mission Pays Off with Drug Approval
Hyperion Therapeutics (NASDAQ: [[ticker:HPTX]]) has weathered some setbacks on the way to its first drug approval, which came from the FDA last week. But many a life sciences startup would happily settle for the South San Francisco company’s timeline of progress. Hyperion, founded in 2007, went public in July 2012, and got the FDA nod … Continue reading “Hyperion’s Pinpoint Mission Pays Off with Drug Approval”
California Suit Alleges Blockbuster Pfizer Drug Has Little Benefit
New York drug giant Pfizer is again responding to allegations that its former blockbuster drug Zoloft is an ineffective product that reaped billions of dollars by dint of aggressive marketing. A California patient who claims that Pfizer misled her and other consumers about the effectiveness of its anti-depressant Zoloft is suing the company for a … Continue reading “California Suit Alleges Blockbuster Pfizer Drug Has Little Benefit”
California Stem Cell Agency Shifts Focus to Clinical Treatments
California’s stem cell research funding agency has been shifting gears, and California entrepreneurs stand to benefit. The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) plans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars over the next four years to support early stage clinical trials and other work toward regulatory approval of commercial therapies. What’s more, industry advisors … Continue reading “California Stem Cell Agency Shifts Focus to Clinical Treatments”
VenBio’s Goodman Builds an Inside Periscope on Biotech Acquisitions
Veteran neuroscientist Corey Goodman says young life science entrepreneurs who want to launch startups often ask him for advice. Those aspiring biotechnology leaders might be surprised by what they hear from Goodman—a former Stanford and UC Berkeley professor who went on to become co-founder and CEO of two public biotechnology companies, Exelixis (NASDAQ: [[ticker:EXEL]]) and … Continue reading “VenBio’s Goodman Builds an Inside Periscope on Biotech Acquisitions”
Mid-Priced Biotechnology Companies Bloom As M&A Targets in 2013
At the annual health care conference run by JP Morgan in San Francisco this week, and at satellite events surrounding it every year, hundreds of biotechnology companies showcased their work to investors who might advance them the capital to keep going. But the companies’ CEOs are also pitching their value to an equally important part … Continue reading “Mid-Priced Biotechnology Companies Bloom As M&A Targets in 2013”
Prothena of South San Francisco Gets Head Start as Elan Spinoff
“The whole is greater than the sum of its parts,” goes the famous quote attributed to Aristotle. But biotechnology company Elan didn’t see it that way when it split up its business units recently. In late December, Elan (NYSE: [[ticker:ELN]]) of Dublin, Ireland spun off its early stage drug discovery unit, now named Prothena (NASDAQ: [[ticker:PRTA]]). … Continue reading “Prothena of South San Francisco Gets Head Start as Elan Spinoff”
BioMarin Delays Profit to Pursue New Products
Struggling biotechnology companies feel the heat from Wall Street when their drug candidates fall flat. But successful biotech companies can face a different kind of pressure from investors, says BioMarin CEO Jean-Jacques Bienaimé. BioMarin’s total revenues are still rising for the three drugs it shepherded to FDA approval from 2003 to 2007. The drugs–laronidase (Aldurazyme), … Continue reading “BioMarin Delays Profit to Pursue New Products”
Geron Pinning Hopes On Single Drug Platform
In a way, John “Chip” Scarlett’s job since he became CEO of Geron last year has been to resist the allure of science. Starting in the 1990’s, Geron (NASDAQ: [[ticker:GERN]]) had nurtured seminal work on human embryonic stem cells. When Scarlett took over in September 2011, the Menlo Park company had begun the world’s first … Continue reading “Geron Pinning Hopes On Single Drug Platform”
Indiegogo Bucks Trend Toward Niche Crowdfunding
Crowdfunding, the social media phenomenon that has helped thousands of innovators raise money through many small contributions, is growing fast. And it’s splintering into hundreds of new platforms serving niche clients such as book authors, app developers, and green entrepreneurs. But crowdfunding pioneer Indiegogo of San Francisco says it’s sticking to its founders’ original 2008 … Continue reading “Indiegogo Bucks Trend Toward Niche Crowdfunding”
ClickBerry Makes Videos Into Clickable Gateways to Shopping and Sharing
New Web technologies that once seemed like ultimate breakthroughs—such as streaming video online—may soon appear too slow or too static for our accelerating expectations. But from this impatience, new companies are often born. Entrepreneur Alex Babin’s wife was watching a cooking show video a few years ago, and she wanted to find the recipe. Babin’s … Continue reading “ClickBerry Makes Videos Into Clickable Gateways to Shopping and Sharing”
FDA Approves First Drug for Exelixis of South San Francisco
The Food and Drug Administration today approved the Exelixis (NASDAQ: [[ticker:EXEL]]) compound cabozantinib for the treatment of patients with progressive, metastatic thyroid cancer, giving the 18-year-old company its first marketable drug. The FDA decision is an important watershed for the South San Francisco company. However, the marketing approval in medullary thyroid cancer opens no immediate gateway to … Continue reading “FDA Approves First Drug for Exelixis of South San Francisco”
Science Exchange Creates a Trading Post for Research Services
Elizabeth Iorns is the daughter of successful computer industry entrepreneurs, but as a New Zealand schoolgirl she swerved from the path taken by her mom and dad. Building on an early fascination with biology, she rocketed through her college years winning awards and scholarships, took a PhD at a prestigious cancer research center in London, … Continue reading “Science Exchange Creates a Trading Post for Research Services”