A few basic themes seemed to emerge in the first few presentations yesterday afternoon during the 3rd Annual Algae Biomass Summit. One theme is that the algae biofuels industry remains at a nascent stage of development, despite widespread enthusiasm over the size of San Diego-based Synthetic Genomics’ deal with ExxonMobil, and venture funding for Sapphire … Continue reading “‘Restraint’ an Unspoken Watchword of Algae Biomass Sessions”
Category: National
Reed Sturtevant Leaves Microsoft Startup Labs
Barely two years after he joined Microsoft here in Cambridge, MA, to launch its new Startup Labs, Reed Sturtevant is leaving the company to “pursue other interests,” Microsoft announced today. Sturtevant’s departure was part of a broader announcement that Ray Ozzie, to whom Sturtevant reported, had reorganized his group to create the new Future Social … Continue reading “Reed Sturtevant Leaves Microsoft Startup Labs”
The Boston Biotech Survival Index: Big Fish Still Swimming, Minnows Getting Eaten
New England has a deep pond with many of the very biggest fish in the global life sciences industry, but it also has its share of minnows, and they are getting eaten alive in the downturn. That finding leaped out at me after I scoured through financial data on 85 publicly traded life sciences companies … Continue reading “The Boston Biotech Survival Index: Big Fish Still Swimming, Minnows Getting Eaten”
Omeros Raises $68.2M in Washington’s First IPO in Two Years
Omeros, the Seattle biotech company developing a treatment to improve recovery from knee surgery, completed its initial public offering late last night in the state’s first IPO in more than two years. The company sold 6.82 million shares to investors at $10 apiece, for total proceeds of $68.2 million. The underwriters of the offering, led … Continue reading “Omeros Raises $68.2M in Washington’s First IPO in Two Years”
Justice Department Joins Sequenom Probe, Accumetrics Raises $16.5, Transdel’s Topical Pain Reliever Gets Mixed Results, & More San Diego Life Sciences News
The life sciences news was relatively light over the last week, except perhaps for Sequenom, the medical diagnostics company that has yet to publicly disclose much about its misconduct in handling clinical trial data. —Sequenom (NASDAQ: [[ticker:SQNM]]) disclosed that it met with the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Diego in connection with … Continue reading “Justice Department Joins Sequenom Probe, Accumetrics Raises $16.5, Transdel’s Topical Pain Reliever Gets Mixed Results, & More San Diego Life Sciences News”
“Not Your Father’s Route 128”: Jason Schupbach Promotes Massachusetts’ Creative Economy
In his 2006 run for the Massachusetts governor’s office, Deval Patrick campaigned on the need to make the most of the state’s “creative economy,” meaning industries such as advertising, architecture, design, digital media, film, gaming, marketing, music, publishing, tourism, and the arts. It’s a sector that employs at least 100,000 people in the state, and … Continue reading ““Not Your Father’s Route 128”: Jason Schupbach Promotes Massachusetts’ Creative Economy”
Bigtime Biotech Thinkers Steven Burrill and Gary Pisano Agree on Bright Future of Industry, Disagree on How to Build Value
Harvard Business School professor Gary Pisano is considered a leading scholar of biotech industry economics, and has developed a reputation for providing treatises on how biotech firms have been unable to generate profits throughout history. Steven Burrill gives his own critiques in his life sciences banking and investment firm Burrill & Company’s industry reports. These … Continue reading “Bigtime Biotech Thinkers Steven Burrill and Gary Pisano Agree on Bright Future of Industry, Disagree on How to Build Value”
Omeros Accused on Eve of IPO, Seattle Genetics Trial Fails, How Much Biotechies Really Earn, & More Seattle-Area Life Sciences News
Omeros is attempting to become the first true biotech company to go public in more than a year, and the first in Washington state in two years, but it will have to overcome controversy to do it. —Seattle-based Omeros, the biotech company with a treatment to help patients recover from knee surgery, has been listed … Continue reading “Omeros Accused on Eve of IPO, Seattle Genetics Trial Fails, How Much Biotechies Really Earn, & More Seattle-Area Life Sciences News”
Venture Model Makeover & Diet Plan—Step Two
The venture capital model is being remade. It must happen from the ground up, via its relationship with entrepreneurs, as Daphne Zohar has previously described here. But it must also happen from the top down, via its relationship with limited partners (the investors in venture funds). Limited partners in venture capital funds aren’t very happy … Continue reading “Venture Model Makeover & Diet Plan—Step Two”
MIT Plans New Online Publication About Entrepreneurship
MIT is planning to launch a student-led online publication focused on entrepreneurship by the end of the year, a leader of the effort tells Xconomy. The fledgling publication will be called the MIT Entrepreneurship Review (MITER) and will aim to serve as a resource for entrepreneurs and to raise the already high profile of the … Continue reading “MIT Plans New Online Publication About Entrepreneurship”
Legislators Hear Testimony on Non-Compete Restrictions
Today marked a milestone in the legislation relating to non-competes in Massachusetts. The Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development held its public hearing on two house bills that would attempt to redefine the rules governing “restrictive employee covenants and non-compete agreements.” This effort began in early January when Rep. William N. Brownsberger (24th Middlesex … Continue reading “Legislators Hear Testimony on Non-Compete Restrictions”
Glympse and TravellingWave Step Out, Microsoft Does Voice Search, and More Mobile News
It’s been a very busy week for news in the mobile industry. First, Amazon (NASDAQ: [[ticker:AMZN]]) rolled out a one-click mobile payments service that promises to shake up the world of mobile-app developers and distributors. Then it seems like all hell broke loose, courtesy of the massive CTIA wireless expo going on in San Diego … Continue reading “Glympse and TravellingWave Step Out, Microsoft Does Voice Search, and More Mobile News”
Epizyme Snags $32M Round to Make Drugs Against Cancer and More
Epizyme, the Cambridge, MA-based biotech company developing drugs based on insights from epigenetics into how to turn specific genes on and off, said today it has raised $32 million in a Series B venture round. San Francisco-based Bay City Capital led the round, which included Amgen Ventures, Astellas Venture Partners and the company’s original investors, … Continue reading “Epizyme Snags $32M Round to Make Drugs Against Cancer and More”
Gary West on San Diego’s West Wireless Health Institute and ‘Always On’ Medicine
As the international wireless industry group CTIA convenes its 2009 conference on information technology and entertainment in downtown San Diego this week, one of the emerging sectors claiming much of the agenda and industry attention is wireless healthcare. San Diego, with its concentration of both life sciences and wireless technology startups, also has emerged as … Continue reading “Gary West on San Diego’s West Wireless Health Institute and ‘Always On’ Medicine”
PermissionTV Reinvents Itself as VisibleGains, Offers Interactive Video for Sales and Marketing
Sometimes, you need to keep the diamond and replace the ring. That’s how Cliff Pollan, recruited in March to be president and CEO of Waltham, MA-based VisibleGains, describes the process his company has been through over the last six months. In this case, the company has kept its core technology, an interactive video engine that … Continue reading “PermissionTV Reinvents Itself as VisibleGains, Offers Interactive Video for Sales and Marketing”
Royalty-Based Venture Financing, Born in Boston, Could Shake Up VCs and Startups from New England to the Northwest
Every once in a while, an investment model comes along that turns the innovation community on its head. The venture capital industry, still less than 50 years old, is one example. Now an emerging paradigm called royalty-based financing, applied to early-stage startups, may be another. The approach has its roots in the Boston area, and … Continue reading “Royalty-Based Venture Financing, Born in Boston, Could Shake Up VCs and Startups from New England to the Northwest”
As Algae Summit Begins, San Diego Yearns to Make Houston Green With Envy
The 2009 Algae Biomass Summit gets underway in San Diego today, offering the latest sign of the algae biofuels sector that has bloomed in San Diego in recent years. Cleantech San Diego president Lisa Bicker told reporters at a pre-summit news conference last night that more than 625 cleantech companies are now based in the … Continue reading “As Algae Summit Begins, San Diego Yearns to Make Houston Green With Envy”
DC Matters, But Biotech Can’t Neglect City Hall
Biotechnology companies who’ve taken time to focus on politics over the last few years have focused most of their attention on national-level issues. That’s understandable given the renewal of the Prescription Drug User Fee Act that controls FDA deadlines for reviewing new drug applications, legislation that would make it possible for makers of cheaper “biosimilar” … Continue reading “DC Matters, But Biotech Can’t Neglect City Hall”
Alnylam Chief Foresees Another Gene-Silencing Spin-Off, and More News Tidbits from Boston’s MassBio Investors Forum
Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:[[ticker:ALNY]]) had more than $470 million in the bank as of the last official count at the end of June, so it struck me as odd that the Cambridge, MA-based developer of gene-silencing drugs was a presenter along with dozens of cash-starved biotech startups at the MassBio Investors Forum in Boston yesterday. Alnylam … Continue reading “Alnylam Chief Foresees Another Gene-Silencing Spin-Off, and More News Tidbits from Boston’s MassBio Investors Forum”
As Legislators Ponder Non-Compete Agreements, A Look at Massachusetts’ Innovation History
This article was written with Geoff Mamlet. Today, some of our legislators will hold a hearing at the State House to discuss changes in Massachusetts’ non-compete laws. They would do well to heed our own past as an open employment state. In the mid-1780s, Samuel Slater was a young apprentice in England working for the … Continue reading “As Legislators Ponder Non-Compete Agreements, A Look at Massachusetts’ Innovation History”
Sage Bionetworks, Biology’s Open Source Spark, Snags “Major” Donation from Quintiles
[Updated: 10/05/09, 7:05 pm Pacific] Sage Bionetworks, the Seattle-based nonprofit seeking to spark an open source movement for biology, has secured a “major founding donation” from Durham, NC-based Quintiles, the giant contract research organization for pharmaceutical and biotech companies. Sage didn’t disclose how much the donation is worth in its statement announcing the news. But … Continue reading “Sage Bionetworks, Biology’s Open Source Spark, Snags “Major” Donation from Quintiles”
Xconomy San Diego’s First Year Anniversary Brings the Benefits of Hindsight on the Local Innovation News with the Biggest Global Impact
Those of us who are lucky enough to work as journalists (and who get to write the first draft of history) often remember the dates when the important and even not-so-important events went down. After 30 years in the news business, it’s become almost second nature for me. Today marks a special day, both personally … Continue reading “Xconomy San Diego’s First Year Anniversary Brings the Benefits of Hindsight on the Local Innovation News with the Biggest Global Impact”
PopCap Games Raises $22.5M in First Outside Funding Round
Seattle-based PopCap Games dropped a bit of a bombshell this morning. The casual games developer and publisher announced it has secured $22.5 million—the first outside funding in its nearly 10-year history—led by Meritech Capital Partners, a late-stage investment firm based in Palo Alto, CA. Also participating in the round are Larry Bowman, a PopCap board … Continue reading “PopCap Games Raises $22.5M in First Outside Funding Round”
San Diego’s Accumetrics Raises $16.5M in Fifth Round of Venture Funding
Loyalty has its rewards, and in the case of San Diego’s Accumetrics, that means the company’s existing investors have just completed a fifth round of venture funding—putting another $16.5 million into the medical diagnostics company. The Series E funding brings Accumetrics’ overall investment close to $68 million, although, as I explained in June, that includes … Continue reading “San Diego’s Accumetrics Raises $16.5M in Fifth Round of Venture Funding”
How Twitter Got an App Store: The Oneforty Story (Part 1)
“Ohh, Twitter needs an app store.” It was coming up on Christmas of 2008. Laura Fitton was writing a chapter on the top 10 applications for Twitter for her book Twitter for Dummies when the thought struck her like a tweet out of the blue. She jumped up from her office in Brighton, MA, and … Continue reading “How Twitter Got an App Store: The Oneforty Story (Part 1)”
As Mobile Phones Overtake Cameras, Consumers Still Struggle to Use Them, Says Ontela Survey at CTIA
An interesting tidbit from the mobile industry: Film cameras are going out of style, while camera phones have become ubiquitous. But even as the popularity of things like mobile data plans and text messaging continues to grow in the U.S., people still have problems doing simple things with photos on their phones. That’s according to … Continue reading “As Mobile Phones Overtake Cameras, Consumers Still Struggle to Use Them, Says Ontela Survey at CTIA”
Transdel’s Topical Pain Reliever Falls Short on One Goal, Hits Another
[Updated: 10/06/09, 10:55 am Pacific] San Diego’s Transdel Pharmaceuticals released a mixed bag of clinical trial results this morning. The company’s topical pain reliever fell short on one of its two primary goals in a 364-patient study, but was successful for about two-thirds of patients who followed the study rules. Transdel (OTC BB: [[ticker:TDLP]]) reported … Continue reading “Transdel’s Topical Pain Reliever Falls Short on One Goal, Hits Another”
Springpad Relaunches Personal Organizer, Adds Wine Library’s Vaynerchuk
Charlestown, MA-based Spring Partners announced today that it has relaunched Springpad, its online personal organizer, to include a number of new features that help users find, personalize, and share content. For example, Springpad now comes with a “Web clipper” tool that makes it easier for users to add material discovered at websites, such as restaurant … Continue reading “Springpad Relaunches Personal Organizer, Adds Wine Library’s Vaynerchuk”
Amazon Goes Mobile, Theraclone Inks $18M Deal, Spiration Pulls In $7M, & More Seattle-Area Deals News
In the past week, the Northwest has seen its share of debt financings in medical devices and bio-IT, small funding deals and partnerships in Internet software, and mounting interest in an impending IPO. —Amazon (NASDAQ: [[ticker:AMZN]]) rolled out a new mobile payments service that lets applications developers and distributors tap into the e-commerce giant’s one-click … Continue reading “Amazon Goes Mobile, Theraclone Inks $18M Deal, Spiration Pulls In $7M, & More Seattle-Area Deals News”
Dart Boston: The Hub’s New Hub for Twenty-Something Entrepreneurs
Apparently, social media services like Facebook and Twitter aren’t everything they’re cracked up to be, even for the twenty-somethings who are supposedly their most devoted users. Here in Boston, there’s a new group for young startup types who prefer to talk about their entrepreneurial ambitions in person at actual bars, of all places. It’s called … Continue reading “Dart Boston: The Hub’s New Hub for Twenty-Something Entrepreneurs”
Sequenom Meets With FBI, U.S. Attorney’s Office Investigators
Sequenom (NASDAQ: [[ticker:SQNM]]), the San Diego medical diagnostics company that disclosed earlier this year it had “mishandled data” from a clinical trial, has met with investigators from the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s office looking into the matter, according to a regulatory filing today. The company previously acknowledged the Securities and Exchange Commission was investigating, so … Continue reading “Sequenom Meets With FBI, U.S. Attorney’s Office Investigators”
Omeros Made Errors on NIH Grant, But Feds Accepted Internal Investigation Saying They Weren’t Overbilled
Omeros, the Seattle biotech company accused by its former chief financial officer of filing false time records on grant work for the National Institutes of Health, disclosed late last night in a federal court filing that it alerted the government to its internal mistakes, and that the NIH accepted the results of an internal investigation … Continue reading “Omeros Made Errors on NIH Grant, But Feds Accepted Internal Investigation Saying They Weren’t Overbilled”
Achates Power Raises $12.1M in Venture Capital to Develop Cleaner, More Efficient Engine
It’s getting harder for San Diego’s stealthy cleantech startup Achates Power to continue flying beneath the radar. In a regulatory filing today, Achates discloses it has raised $12.125 million out of a $20 million venture round. The company, which says in its filing that it was founded in 2007, has been developing a radical new … Continue reading “Achates Power Raises $12.1M in Venture Capital to Develop Cleaner, More Efficient Engine”
Allurent Names New CEO As Co-Founder Chung Moves Upstairs
Allurent co-founder Joe Chung today stepped down (or rather up to executive chairman) as CEO of the online shopping interface and e-commerce company, Xconomy has learned. Graeme Grant, formerly the chief operating officer, has been named to take his place at the helm of the Cambridge, MA-based company. Reached by phone, Chung, an Xconomist, confirmed … Continue reading “Allurent Names New CEO As Co-Founder Chung Moves Upstairs”
Amazon Dives Into Mobile, Bringing Its Online Checkout to Wider World of App Distributors
Seattle-based Amazon has started a mobile payments service that allows consumers to make purchases from their mobile devices using their Amazon accounts, according to a statement released today. More significantly, the service also gives developers, retailers, and distributors of mobile applications a way to process mobile payments from customers using Amazon’s online checkout system—without having … Continue reading “Amazon Dives Into Mobile, Bringing Its Online Checkout to Wider World of App Distributors”
J. Craig Venter Cancels Algae Summit Keynote for White House Ceremony
You always hate to see a keynote speaker pull out of a major conference attracting wide attention, especially when the conference is focused on a hot emerging field like algae-based technologies and the speaker is J. Craig Venter, the renowned human genome pioneer and founding CEO of San Diego’s Synthetic Genomics. The brash Venter, who … Continue reading “J. Craig Venter Cancels Algae Summit Keynote for White House Ceremony”
Seattle Genetics Shares Drop on Halted Lymphoma Trial
Some unexpected bad news out of Seattle Genetics is driving down its stock 14 percent this morning. The Bothell, WA-based developer of antibody drugs for cancer (NASDAQ: [[ticker:SGEN]]) said a mid-stage clinical trial of an experimental lymphoma drug was halted midway through enrollment after an independent panel of data monitors determined the experimental drug was … Continue reading “Seattle Genetics Shares Drop on Halted Lymphoma Trial”
Group from Atlas Venture, General Catalyst Form Non-Profit to Promote Youth Entrepreneurship and Social Innovation
For the past three years, Jeff Fagnan of Atlas Venture and Hemant Taneja of General Catalyst Partners have teamed up to hold a charity wine tasting and auction event to raise money for select non-profit groups. This year, the pair tell me, they are going themselves one better—setting up their own organization to more directly … Continue reading “Group from Atlas Venture, General Catalyst Form Non-Profit to Promote Youth Entrepreneurship and Social Innovation”
Larry Smarr on the Internet, Past and Future; ViaSat Acquiring WildBlue Communications; SAIC’s Retired Founder Calls HQ Move ‘Inevitable;’ & More San Diego BizTech News
San Diego’s biztech news was tilted heavily toward the Internet last week, anchored by two in-depth stories about the Internet and Larry Smarr, the director of the California Institute for Information Technology and Communications. You can get that and more below—and you don’t need to listen for the Internet dial tone to get it either. … Continue reading “Larry Smarr on the Internet, Past and Future; ViaSat Acquiring WildBlue Communications; SAIC’s Retired Founder Calls HQ Move ‘Inevitable;’ & More San Diego BizTech News”
Seattle’s Theraclone Strikes $18M Deal to Make Flu-Fighting Antibodies with Japanese Company
Theraclone Sciences has formed a partnership with a Japanese drug company, worth as much as $18 million over time, to discover new antibodies that could broadly protect millions of people in a flu pandemic. Seattle-based Theraclone has formed the alliance with Tokyo-based Zenyaku Kogyo, which markets a blockbuster antibody drug for cancer and rheumatoid arthritis, … Continue reading “Seattle’s Theraclone Strikes $18M Deal to Make Flu-Fighting Antibodies with Japanese Company”
Revolutionary Angels Launches Pay-to-Play Business Plan Competition
Depending on who you talk to, you get conflicting views about where real innovation and growth come from in today’s economy. One school, well represented at the established venture capital firms on Winter Street in Waltham or Sand Hill Road in Palo Alto, says that there are only a few truly disruptive technology ideas in … Continue reading “Revolutionary Angels Launches Pay-to-Play Business Plan Competition”
Making Science Cool: Inspiring Students and Giving Society Something to Celebrate
Just a few days before we kicked off the month-long San Diego Science Festival in March, I wrote a post for the Xconomist Forum that concluded, “if we mean to achieve the essential goal of reviving American Science, the San Diego Science Festival is poised to provide an important start.” It proved to be a … Continue reading “Making Science Cool: Inspiring Students and Giving Society Something to Celebrate”
Novalar Tests Market, Learns a Few Things, Before National Rollout of Dental Drug
While making small talk on my last trip to the dentist, I mentioned that as a biotech journalist, I sometimes interview entrepreneurs who create new dental products, like the Sonicare toothbrush. The dentist, maybe to test if I knew what I was talking about, asked me what cool ideas I’ve seen lately. I stammered a … Continue reading “Novalar Tests Market, Learns a Few Things, Before National Rollout of Dental Drug”
Cray, Isilon, Marchex Weigh In With Their Company Cultures Boiled Down to One Word
How do you go about summarizing a company’s culture in one word? I haven’t a clue, but whenever I ask CEOs, they always come up with something interesting—and often surprising. In the past couple of months, I’ve been asking top executives at Northwest tech startups to talk about their company culture and why it’s unique. … Continue reading “Cray, Isilon, Marchex Weigh In With Their Company Cultures Boiled Down to One Word”
“Don’t Touch My Bags If You Please, Mr. Customs Man”
Imagine the following scenario for a minute: A middle-aged man books a round trip ticket from San Francisco to Shanghai. His reservation indicates this will be a short trip; he is going to be in China less than one full day. Upon arrival at the airport in Shanghai, the immigration control officer asks him “What … Continue reading ““Don’t Touch My Bags If You Please, Mr. Customs Man””
Ironwood Recruits Genentech, Facebook Star as Company Knocks on Wall Street Doors
Personnel moves usually make for boring news, but sometimes they carry deeper meaning. I couldn’t help but wonder about the deeper meaning when Cambridge, MA-based Ironwood Pharmaceuticals said last month it had recruited David Ebersman, the former chief financial officer of Genentech, to join its board. Ebersman, a boyish-looking guy just 39, took the chief … Continue reading “Ironwood Recruits Genentech, Facebook Star as Company Knocks on Wall Street Doors”
‘Ardi’ Scientists Used LifeModeler’s Software to Understand How Earliest Hominid Moved
Researchers who spent 15 years studying the skeletal remains of “Ardi,” a hominid who lived 4.4 million years ago, turned to a specialized software developer in San Clemente, CA, to help them understand how the 110-pound, 4-foot female walked and moved. Scientific papers about the nearly complete fossilized skeleton that were published this week have … Continue reading “‘Ardi’ Scientists Used LifeModeler’s Software to Understand How Earliest Hominid Moved”
On Verge of Omeros IPO, Former Finance Chief Accuses Company of Filing False Records with NIH
Seattle-based Omeros, the biotech company attempting to raise as much as $80 million in an initial public offering slated for next week, has been accused of submitting false timekeeping records to the National Institutes of Health for grant work, according to a federal lawsuit filed by the company’s former chief financial officer. Richard J. Klein … Continue reading “On Verge of Omeros IPO, Former Finance Chief Accuses Company of Filing False Records with NIH”
Omeros Teed Up for IPO Next Week, Seeking to Rake In More Than $80M
Seattle-based Omeros is on the docket to go public next week, and will attempt to become the first pure-play biotechnology company to take the plunge since February 2008, according to Renaissance Capital, an IPO analysis firm. Omeros, which is developing an anti-inflammatory treatment to help people recover from arthroscopic knee surgery, has set a goal … Continue reading “Omeros Teed Up for IPO Next Week, Seeking to Rake In More Than $80M”
Marval Biosciences, San Diego’s Latest Virtual Biomedical Startup, Raises $2.5M to Develop Next-Generation Contrast Agents for Medical Imaging
Marval Biosciences, which was established in Houston two years ago with medical imaging technology from the University of Texas, has raised $2.5 million in a secondary round of venture funding—and CEO Russell Lebovitz tells me he has moved to San Diego. The startup, which has a half-dozen key people, operates virtually, with some employees in … Continue reading “Marval Biosciences, San Diego’s Latest Virtual Biomedical Startup, Raises $2.5M to Develop Next-Generation Contrast Agents for Medical Imaging”