Cell Therapeutics has eliminated 34 jobs in connection with the sale of its lone approved drug, Zevalin. The Seattle-based biotech company (NASDAQ: [[ticker:CTIC]]), which has run dangerously low on cash, made the disclosure Friday afternoon in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The cuts represent about 28 percent of the company’s workforce, and … Continue reading “Cell Therapeutics Cuts 34 Jobs”
Author: Luke Timmerman
Luke is an award-winning journalist specializing in life sciences. He has served as national biotechnology editor for Xconomy and national biotechnology reporter for Bloomberg News. Luke got started covering life sciences at The Seattle Times, where he was the lead reporter on an investigation of doctors who leaked confidential information about clinical trials to investors. The story won the Scripps Howard National Journalism Award and several other national prizes. Luke holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and during the 2005-2006 academic year, he was a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT.
Otonomy Tunes in to Biotech’s Sound Opportunity: Diseases of the Ear
Driving down Prospect Street in La Jolla one day in January 2008, Jay Lichter got so dizzy he had to pull over. After a stop in the ER, he ended up in the office of Jeff Harris, the chief of ear, nose, and throat surgery at the UC San Diego. The diagnosis: Meniere’s (Men-yay’s) disease, … Continue reading “Otonomy Tunes in to Biotech’s Sound Opportunity: Diseases of the Ear”
Souped-Up Herceptin Aims to Validate ImmunoGen’s Long-Sought Dream Cancer Drug
Nowhere but America makes it possible for a company to pursue its dreams for 28 years without making a profit. Even in the most optimistic times, it’s hard to explain. So how can it possibly be, in the depths of recession, that things are looking up at Waltham, MA-based ImmunoGen? This company has been around … Continue reading “Souped-Up Herceptin Aims to Validate ImmunoGen’s Long-Sought Dream Cancer Drug”
Optimer Raises $32.9M in Stock Offering
Optimer Pharmaceuticals has seen its stock almost triple from its low point in the past year, and yesterday it took advantage of the rising tide. The San Diego biotech company (NASDAQ: [[ticker:OPTR]]) received commitments from investors to buy new shares and warrants that add up to a cash infusion worth $32.9 million. The company agreed … Continue reading “Optimer Raises $32.9M in Stock Offering”
The British Columbia Cleantech Cluster: The A-to-Z List of Alternative Energy Players
(Updated) British Columbia is bigger in land area than Washington, Oregon, and California combined, but has about one-tenth the total population. Yet pound-for-pound, our neighbor to the north appears to have its share of entrepreneurs thinking hard about energy alternatives that can be profitable while also better protecting the natural environment. We’ve been on a … Continue reading “The British Columbia Cleantech Cluster: The A-to-Z List of Alternative Energy Players”
Friend Leads Open Source Biology Push, Arzeda Leaves UW Nest, SBRI Teams with PATH on Malaria, & More Seattle-Area Life Sciences News
It was another busy week in Seattle life sciences, with some good news from the nonprofit side, and some bad news from the public-traded biotechs. —Xconomy had the exclusive story this week on how Merck’s Stephen Friend is forming a new nonprofit in Seattle called Sage that hopes to spark an open-source biology movement to … Continue reading “Friend Leads Open Source Biology Push, Arzeda Leaves UW Nest, SBRI Teams with PATH on Malaria, & More Seattle-Area Life Sciences News”
VPDiagnostics Gets $2.9M NIH Grant
Seattle-based VPDiagnostics has secured a $2.9 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to run a clinical trial of its MRI-based technology for determining whether patients are at high risk of stroke. The trial is expected to enroll about 300 patients, and will track them for 18 months, says Mike Hartmann, vice president of … Continue reading “VPDiagnostics Gets $2.9M NIH Grant”
The Oregon Cleantech Cluster: The A-to-Z List of Alternative Energy Players
(Updated) Yesterday, we provided a rundown of about 80 companies we identified in Washington as players in the alternative energy industry. Today, it’s Oregon’s turn. For those who missed the first installment, here’s the idea: We thought it would be useful for people across the Northwest (and elsewhere) to have a detailed list of who’s … Continue reading “The Oregon Cleantech Cluster: The A-to-Z List of Alternative Energy Players”
Vertex Acquires Virochem for $375M to Make Cocktail Treatments For Hepatitis C
Vertex Pharmaceuticals sees combination treatments as the future of hepatitis C treatment, just as is the case with HIV already, and today it made a big move to beef up that cocktail approach. The Cambridge, MA-based biotech company said it has agreed to acquire Laval, Quebec-based ViroChem Pharma, a privately held company, for an estimated … Continue reading “Vertex Acquires Virochem for $375M to Make Cocktail Treatments For Hepatitis C”
The Washington Cleantech Cluster: The A-to-Z List of Alternative Energy Players
(Updated) The venture capitalist John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers said three years ago that “greentech could be the largest economic opportunity of the 21st century.” Since then, voters in the U.S. have elected a President and Congress that have vowed to break the country’s addiction to oil. So here in the Northwest, … Continue reading “The Washington Cleantech Cluster: The A-to-Z List of Alternative Energy Players”
Genzyme Fails to Win FDA Approval for Large-Scale Production of Pompe Drug
Genzyme got some bad news today from the FDA. The Cambridge, MA-based biotech company said that U.S. regulators determined its drug for Pompe disease made in large-scale vats isn’t ready to be approved for the market. Plus, the FDA sent the company an additional warning letter after its inspectors spotted “deficiencies” at the company’s Allston … Continue reading “Genzyme Fails to Win FDA Approval for Large-Scale Production of Pompe Drug”
Optimer To Seek EU Approval
San Diego-based Optimer Pharmaceuticals said today it is preparing to apply for approval to sell fidaxomicin (OPT-80) in the European Union on the basis of one successful Phase III trial. The company reported positive results of the new antibiotic in November from the first of two pivotal studies for patients suffering from “C. Diff” bacterial … Continue reading “Optimer To Seek EU Approval”
Ariad Gets $10M From Merck
Cambridge, MA-based Ariad Pharmaceuticals said today that it expects to receive a $10 million milestone payment from its partner, Merck, in connection with the start of a mid-stage clinical trial of Ariad’s experimental drug for lung cancer. The company (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ARIA]]) used up $48 million of its cash reserves during 2008, and ended the year … Continue reading “Ariad Gets $10M From Merck”
Targeted Genetics Hands Off Manufacturing
Targeted Genetics said today it has found a way to conserve its remaining cash reserves a few more months, through the first half of 2009. The Seattle-based biotech company (NASDAQ: [[ticker:TGEN]]) is transferring its manufacturing know-how of AAV viruses for delivering gene therapy drugs to contract manufacturers, and renegotiated its partnership with La Jolla, CA-based … Continue reading “Targeted Genetics Hands Off Manufacturing”
Harnessing the Crowd to Make Better Drugs: Merck’s Friend Nails Down $5M to Propel New Open Source Era
Biology has never really had a social-networking movement like open-source computing, where thousands of loosely-affiliated people around the world pool brainpower to make better software. If Merck’s Stephen Friend gets his way, about five years from now, he will have ushered in a new era in which biologists work together to make drugs that are … Continue reading “Harnessing the Crowd to Make Better Drugs: Merck’s Friend Nails Down $5M to Propel New Open Source Era”
Cell Therapeutics Closing Italian Branch, Cutting 62 Jobs
Seattle-based Cell Therapeutics is shutting down its drug research center in Italy to try to hold onto what little cash it has left. The company is starting a collective dismissal procedure under Italian law, and negotiations with trade unions, at its facility in Bresso, outside of Milan, where it has 62 employees. Cell Therapeutics has … Continue reading “Cell Therapeutics Closing Italian Branch, Cutting 62 Jobs”
Arzeda, Maker of Designer Enzymes, Prepares to Leave UW Roots with New Leader and VC Bucks
One of the biggest startup ideas at the University of Washington is getting ready to leave the academic nest. Arzeda, which designs custom-built enzymes on computers that can do things Mother Nature never could, has recruited Michael Martino as its CEO and secured commitments from OVP Venture Partners and WRF Capital to anchor its founding … Continue reading “Arzeda, Maker of Designer Enzymes, Prepares to Leave UW Roots with New Leader and VC Bucks”
Synta Melanoma Drug Fails Disastrously in Clinical Trial, As Patients Show Higher Death Rate
Synta Pharmaceuticals reported some disastrous news this afternoon. The Lexington, MA-based biotech company (NASDAQ: [[ticker:SNTA]]) said it has halted a clinical trial involving more than 630 cancer patients because a greater number of people died after taking the company’s experimental drug along with traditional chemotherapy, compared with those who got the chemo alone. The trial, … Continue reading “Synta Melanoma Drug Fails Disastrously in Clinical Trial, As Patients Show Higher Death Rate”
BIO Boss Plays Defense as Member Companies Struggle to Survive, Political Heat Cranks Up
Lobbying for the biotech industry in Washington DC doesn’t sound like fun now. The industry is being left for dead by Wall Street, the IPO market has closed down, and about half of the 370 public companies are reporting they have run down to less than a year’s worth of cash on hand. Many of … Continue reading “BIO Boss Plays Defense as Member Companies Struggle to Survive, Political Heat Cranks Up”
Having Scoured the Ocean for Cancer Drugs, Nereus Aims to Prove Its Concept Works
Off the coast of the Bahamas, in sea grass more than a half-mile deep, San Diego-based Nereus Pharmaceuticals found a fungus that may be the key ingredient for an innovative new cancer drug. This will be a key year for gathering evidence that will either support or debunk the idea. I got the download on … Continue reading “Having Scoured the Ocean for Cancer Drugs, Nereus Aims to Prove Its Concept Works”
UW’s Gardasil Windfall, Cell Therapeutics Unloads Zevalin, Trubion Cuts Jobs, & More Seattle-Area Life Sciences News
It was another busy week in Seattle’s life sciences scene, with a mix of stories from biotech, medical devices, diagnostics, and biofuels. —Xconomy had the exclusive feature story on how the University of Washington is reaping a windfall of royalties because one of its inventions from the 1980s is used for manufacturing Merck’s billion-dollar vaccine, … Continue reading “UW’s Gardasil Windfall, Cell Therapeutics Unloads Zevalin, Trubion Cuts Jobs, & More Seattle-Area Life Sciences News”
SBRI Teams With PATH To Pick Best Candidates for Malaria Vaccines
Seattle’s tight-knit global health community is getting a little tighter today. The Seattle Biomedical Research Institute (SBRI) has secured a $2.3 million grant from the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative to help sift through a load of discoveries it has made in recent years that researchers say could be critical ingredients in a more effective new … Continue reading “SBRI Teams With PATH To Pick Best Candidates for Malaria Vaccines”
Trubion Cuts One-Fourth of Workforce
Seattle-based Trubion Pharmaceuticals said today it is cutting one-fourth of its workforce, about 25 jobs, leaving it with a staff of about 75. The company says it expects the cuts will help it conserve enough cash to operate into the second half of 2010. The Trubion (NASDAQ: [[ticker:TRBN]]) cuts will affect “most areas of the … Continue reading “Trubion Cuts One-Fourth of Workforce”
Isis Inches Closer Toward Profitability
Isis Pharmaceuticals is getting closer to a milestone few biotechs ever reach-profitability. The Carlsbad, CA-based company, through its strategy of forming partnerships with pharmaceutical companies that want a piece of its inventions, was able to build up a war chest of $491 million at year’s end. Isis also trimmed its net loss last year to … Continue reading “Isis Inches Closer Toward Profitability”
Seattle Genetics Completes Enrollment in SGN-33 Trial
Seattle Genetics, the Bothell, WA-based developer of targeted cancer drugs, said today it had completed enrollment in a trial of 210 patients with acute myeloid leukemia. The study is looking at the company’s SGN-33 drug in combination with a low-dose chemotherapy drug, compared with the chemotherapy drug alone. The main goal of the study is … Continue reading “Seattle Genetics Completes Enrollment in SGN-33 Trial”
Life Sciences on a Budget: Startups Make Pitch for Angel Dollars at First Zino Society Forum
(Updated) Angel investors and biotech companies don’t usually mix. Most biotech startups begin with university research, and embark on a decade-long quest of product development, all while inhaling several hundred million dollars of capital, and carrying the burden of a 90 percent failure rate. This is where deep-pocketed, risk-seeking venture capitalists and public equity investors … Continue reading “Life Sciences on a Budget: Startups Make Pitch for Angel Dollars at First Zino Society Forum”
Bionavitas Unveils Technology to “Shed Light” on Algae, Further Boosting Yields
Redmond, WA-based Bionavitas has been pretty stealthy until today, when it offered a peek into what it thinks will enable it to corner a piece of the market for algae-based biofuels. Biofuels made from algae have attracted a boomlet of interest in the past year, as investors and entrepreneurs have been impressed with its potential … Continue reading “Bionavitas Unveils Technology to “Shed Light” on Algae, Further Boosting Yields”
Cypress Buys Lupus Test
Cypress Bioscience (NASDAQ: [[ticker:CYPB]]), the San Diego-based developer of a drug for fibromyalgia, said today it has acquired technology from Cellatope to diagnose and monitor hard-to-detect autoimmune diseases like lupus. Cypress and its partner, New York-based Forest Laboratories, won FDA approval last month for milnacipran (Savella) as a treatment for a chronic muscle pain condition … Continue reading “Cypress Buys Lupus Test”
Ambrx Nails Down Partnership with Merck KGaA to Develop Multiple Sclerosis Drug
San Diego-based Ambrx has signed a new partnership with German pharmaceutical giant Merck KGaA to co-develop a drug for multiple sclerosis. Ambrx and Merck KGaA have agreed to keep the financial terms of this global partnership hush-hush for the time being, although I was able to get some insight into what it means yesterday from … Continue reading “Ambrx Nails Down Partnership with Merck KGaA to Develop Multiple Sclerosis Drug”
Renewables Aren’t Just for Biofuels: Microbia Makes Industrial Chemicals a Bit Greener
Microbia envisions a future in which specialty chemicals we take for granted, like the beta-carotene that goes in dietary supplements, will come from renewable sources instead of the usual petrochemicals. It won’t wean the world off oil, but it could enable this Lexington, MA-based company and its partners to claim they’re helping to green up … Continue reading “Renewables Aren’t Just for Biofuels: Microbia Makes Industrial Chemicals a Bit Greener”
UW’s Gardasil Connection Generates Windfall for Research, Tech Transfer
One of the world’s best-selling vaccines, Merck’s Gardasil, is quietly producing some serious money for an unexpected beneficiary—the University of Washington. Thanks to some hard-fought patent litigation from the 1990s that ended up strengthening and extending the lifespan of a critical piece of UW intellectual property, the university is now raking in a windfall of … Continue reading “UW’s Gardasil Connection Generates Windfall for Research, Tech Transfer”
Cell Therapeutics Sells Remaining Zevalin Stake to Spectrum
Cell Therapeutics is selling off its remaining 50 percent stake in its cancer drug Zevalin for $18 million, as part of a last-ditch bid to pull in enough cash to keep its doors open a little while longer. The Seattle-based biotech company (NASDAQ: [[ticker:CTIC]]) said today it sold its remaining stake in the drug to … Continue reading “Cell Therapeutics Sells Remaining Zevalin Stake to Spectrum”
Leprosy Test From Protein AI Gets $700K
Protein AI, a Seattle-based developer of a diagnostic test for leprosy, has received a $700,000 Small Business Innovation Research grant. The disease is currently detected when a doctor recognizes skin lesions or runs an antibody-based lab test. Protein AI’s test is designed so a pinprick of blood can be collected and provide an answer within … Continue reading “Leprosy Test From Protein AI Gets $700K”
Out With Hedge Funds, In With Blue Bloods: Vertex Transforms Investor Base Via Stock Sale
Vertex Pharmaceuticals has been around the block with biotech hedge funds. These are the people who aim to get rich trading volatile stocks second-to-second, and make big bets, long or short, on whether an experimental drug will work. Now that Vertex has passed some of the riskiest stages of drug development, the company figured it … Continue reading “Out With Hedge Funds, In With Blue Bloods: Vertex Transforms Investor Base Via Stock Sale”
ImaRx’s Ultrasound Stroke Treatment, After Devastating Setback, Beats Clot-Busting Drug in Study
ImaRx Therapeutics, the Redmond, WA-based developer of an ultrasound-based treatment for stroke, was crushed when news broke last year that three patients suffered brain hemorrhages in a clinical trial. But on further analysis of the data, the company says the therapy showed signs of being more effective than a standard clot-busting drug alone, at least … Continue reading “ImaRx’s Ultrasound Stroke Treatment, After Devastating Setback, Beats Clot-Busting Drug in Study”
Seattle Genetics Starts Pivotal Trial
Seattle Genetics, the Bothell, WA-based maker of cancer drugs, said today it has started a final-stage clinical trial of SGN-35 in patients with relapsed forms of Hodgkin’s disease. The drug is an “empowered antibody” that combines the tumor-targeting ability of an antibody with a toxin to give it more kick. It will be studied in … Continue reading “Seattle Genetics Starts Pivotal Trial”
Vertex Raises $320M in Secondary Stock Offering
Vertex Pharmaceuticals has struck a deal to raise a jaw-dropping $320 million in a secondary offering of stock. The biotech company, which has 1,300 employees at its Cambridge, MA headquarters and 200 in San Diego, is rallying investors around drug candidates that it hopes will set new standards of effectively treating hepatitis C and cystic … Continue reading “Vertex Raises $320M in Secondary Stock Offering”
Cell Therapeutics Nears Brink, ‘Hutch’ Dog Breed Test Hits Market, Lee Hood’s Institute Grows & More Seattle Area Life Sciences News
We had another mixed bag of Seattle biotech news this week, as one of the region’s oldest biotech companies (Cell Therapeutics) ran dangerously low on cash, and one of the newer scientific institutions (Institute for Systems Biology) said its budget for the coming year is growing by $20 million. —Cell Therapeutics is skating closer than … Continue reading “Cell Therapeutics Nears Brink, ‘Hutch’ Dog Breed Test Hits Market, Lee Hood’s Institute Grows & More Seattle Area Life Sciences News”
What Breed is Your Dog? Geneticists From the “Hutch” Pioneered New Test to Provide Answer
Two scientists walked into Leroy Hood‘s office in Seattle a little more than five years ago with a burning question about the genomes of dogs. They had sequenced the entire string of DNA in the canine genome for biomedical researchers, and sought out the high-speed gene sequencing pioneer for business advice. They wondered what it … Continue reading “What Breed is Your Dog? Geneticists From the “Hutch” Pioneered New Test to Provide Answer”
Alnylam Looks to Spinoffs To Unleash RNAi Technologies for Stem Cells, Vaccines
Alnylam Pharmaceuticals is one of the fortunate few in biotech with more than $500 million in the bank, so money is the least of its worries. But prioritizing a dizzying array of opportunities, and finding the best way to rally teams of bright people around them, is another thing altogether. I got some insight into … Continue reading “Alnylam Looks to Spinoffs To Unleash RNAi Technologies for Stem Cells, Vaccines”
Cell Therapeutics to Resume Trading
Cell Therapeutics, the Seattle-based biotech company, said today that Italian securities regulators will allow trading in its shares to resume in Italy on Feb. 18 after it issued a statement detailing its finances. This means the company expects (NASDAQ: [[ticker:CTIC]]) to re-start trading in the U.S. on Feb. 18 as well. The company has run … Continue reading “Cell Therapeutics to Resume Trading”
Cadence Raises $86.6M in Private Stock Offering
Cadence Pharmaceuticals just proved that you can raise a lot of money in biotech if you’ve already passed the test in a pivotal clinical trial. The San Diego-based biotech company has entered an agreement to raise $86.6 million mostly from a group of venture capitalists who are better known for investing in companies at earlier, … Continue reading “Cadence Raises $86.6M in Private Stock Offering”
The Show Must Go On: Invest Northwest Forges Ahead Despite Grim Biotech Climate
There are easier things to do these days than trying to organize a biotech investing conference in Seattle. The local cluster has taken its share of body blows, the weather is usually pretty gray in late winter, and investors aren’t in the mood to bet on anything more risky than U.S. Treasury bills. It’s all … Continue reading “The Show Must Go On: Invest Northwest Forges Ahead Despite Grim Biotech Climate”
Helix Biomedix Raises $3.2M
Helix BioMedix, a Bothell, WA-based developer of peptide molecules, said it has raised $3.2 million through debt that can convert into shares of stock, plus warrants to buy its stock. The company (OTCBB: [[ticker:HXBM]]) plans to use the money for general corporate purposes, and to continue expanding its consumer program. The company’s peptides can be … Continue reading “Helix Biomedix Raises $3.2M”
Leroy Hood’s Institute Gains Momentum, Nine Years After Starting with “Crazy” Idea
Leroy Hood says when he left the University of Washington in late 1999 to start an institute of multi-disciplinary team of scientists to study what he called “systems biology,” people snickered, saying “it was just a crazy way to raise money.” Almost a decade later, the work of the Seattle-based Institute for Systems Biology still … Continue reading “Leroy Hood’s Institute Gains Momentum, Nine Years After Starting with “Crazy” Idea”
MDRNA Cuts Deal With Roche
MDRNA, the Bothell, WA-based developer of RNA interference drugs, said today it has agreed to license part of its technology for a one-time, non-refundable execution fee from Swiss drug giant Roche. The deal is non-exclusive to Roche, although MDRNA said it will provide enough capital for the company to pursue other non-exclusive licensing and financing … Continue reading “MDRNA Cuts Deal With Roche”
Cell Therapeutics Teeters on the Brink as Cash Runs Out on Promising Cancer Drugs
Cell Therapeutics has gotten itself into some kind of jam. Just as the Seattle-based biotech company has gotten its hands on two cancer drugs proven to be effective in clinical trials, it may never be able to reap the rewards of bringing them to patients. The company has only enough cash to operate through the … Continue reading “Cell Therapeutics Teeters on the Brink as Cash Runs Out on Promising Cancer Drugs”
Ligand Settles Rockefeller University Suit
Ligand Pharmaceuticals, the San Diego-based drug developer, said today it has agreed to settle a legal dispute with The Rockefeller University over rights to eltrombopag (Promacta), a drug for a rare bleeding disorder called ITP. Ligand (NASDAQ: [[ticker:LGND]]) will pay $5 million once the settlement is signed, another $2 million over the next two years, … Continue reading “Ligand Settles Rockefeller University Suit”
La Jolla Pharmaceutical Stock Crashes After Drug Fails In Pivotal Clinical Trial
La Jolla Pharmaceutical said today that its lead drug candidate, Riquent, failed in a clinical trial of lupus of the kidneys. The news wiped out almost 90 percent of the San Diego-based company’s stock market value, driving shares down to 26 cents after the opening bell. The company (NASDAQ: [[ticker:LJPC]]) issued a one-paragraph statement this … Continue reading “La Jolla Pharmaceutical Stock Crashes After Drug Fails In Pivotal Clinical Trial”
Alkermes Knocks on Door of Biotech Big Leagues, Aims to Make Drugs of its Own
People in the life sciences business throw around the term “Big Biotech” as a way to distinguish the industry’s elites from the money-losing masses in the product-development stage. The “Big Biotechs” are the industry’s select few profitable companies with multi-billion dollar stock valuations, like Amgen, Genentech, Gilead Sciences, Celgene, and a duo from Cambridge, MA—Genzyme … Continue reading “Alkermes Knocks on Door of Biotech Big Leagues, Aims to Make Drugs of its Own”