A new wave of pragmatism has settled over the biotech industry, judging from the comments yesterday by three San Diego-based venture capitalists. Venture capital firms that specialize in biomedical investments still expect to do deals despite the downturn this year, but they are adopting new strategies to minimize risks and maximize returns.It was a theme … Continue reading “Biotech VCs Look For Ways to Make Deals Work in the Downturn”
Category: National
Overland Storage Unveils New Data-Storage Initiative
After slashing 17 percent of its workforce and making other cutbacks, San Diego’s Overland Storage (NASDAQ: [[ticker:OVRL]]) announced today what CEO Vern LoForti describes as a significant initiative in the company’s turnaround effort. The longtime maker of data storage equipment has been reeling since 2005, when Hewlett-Packard said it was phasing out purchases of tape-based storage … Continue reading “Overland Storage Unveils New Data-Storage Initiative”
Ember’s Wireless Chips Power Smart-Energy Efforts
If you’re a glass-half-empty person, you might say the mesh networking technology pioneered by Boston’s Ember Corporation is a solution in search of a problem. If you’re a glass-half-full person, you’d probably call the company’s eight-year history a case study in flexible thinking. Regardless, after years of market struggles, Ember seems to have found a … Continue reading “Ember’s Wireless Chips Power Smart-Energy Efforts”
From Merger of Invitrogen and Applied Biosystems, Life Technologies Plans to Grow From San Diego Base
Companies usually try to say all the right things about win-win situations when they strike merger deals, but it’s always good to check back after a few months to see if the honeymoon is over. So last week I tracked down Mark Stevenson, one of the principals involved in the November merger of Carlsbad, CA-based … Continue reading “From Merger of Invitrogen and Applied Biosystems, Life Technologies Plans to Grow From San Diego Base”
Dendreon Expects Results in April, Seattle Genetics Plans Hodgkin’s Trial, ImaRx Moves to Town & More Seattle-Area Life Sciences News
The Martin Luther King Jr. holiday and a historic inauguration made this week a little light on Seattle biotech news, but we still gathered some interesting nuggets. —Seattle-based Dendreon (NASDAQ: [[ticker:DNDN]]) made news on the last day of the JP Morgan Healthcare conference in San Francisco, saying that it now expects to have final results … Continue reading “Dendreon Expects Results in April, Seattle Genetics Plans Hodgkin’s Trial, ImaRx Moves to Town & More Seattle-Area Life Sciences News”
Enlight Biosciences and Industry Giant Johnson & Johnson Forge Partnership
Enlight Biosciences, a Boston-based biotech firm advancing new technologies used in the discovery and development of drugs, said today it has gained a commitment from Johnson & Johnson to invest up to $13 million in its programs. Johnson & Johnson, the New Brunswick, NJ-based healthcare giant (NYSE:[[ticker:JNJ]]), is the latest drugmaker to form a partnership … Continue reading “Enlight Biosciences and Industry Giant Johnson & Johnson Forge Partnership”
Obama’s Top-Three Priorities: The Economy, The Economy, and The Economy
Well, we have seen something that I thought I would never see in my lifetime—the elevation of an African-American man to the highest elected office in our land: President of the United States. While we all bask in the afterglow of this momentous occasion, we are in the middle of our most serious recession in decades. … Continue reading “Obama’s Top-Three Priorities: The Economy, The Economy, and The Economy”
Looking to Efficiency to Build Energy Independence
In our current economy, one of the biggest challenges for American lawmakers—at both the state and federal levels—is to do what they can to minimize the impact and shorten the duration of the recession. A cornerstone of our return to prosperity should be a program designed to establish energy independence, with a focus on improving … Continue reading “Looking to Efficiency to Build Energy Independence”
Pink Slip Pick Me Up—Get a Free Ticket to Tomorrow’s Battle of the Tech Bands
It’s a small gesture, we know. But if you have been laid off from a job in tech, life sciences, or tech investing we’d like to offer you some spirit-boosting—not to mention a chance to make connections that could lead to new job opportunities—at tomorrow night’s Xconomy Battle of the Tech Bands here in Cambridge. … Continue reading “Pink Slip Pick Me Up—Get a Free Ticket to Tomorrow’s Battle of the Tech Bands”
Data Warehousing Startup Dataupia Expands B Round by $10 Million
Cambridge, MA-based Dataupia, which makes server appliances designed to handle large volumes of business-intelligence queries, said yesterday that it recently closed a “Series B-1” financing round building on its $16 million B round in October 2007. The company didn’t say how much extra money it had raised, but a report today in Private Equity Hub, … Continue reading “Data Warehousing Startup Dataupia Expands B Round by $10 Million”
Seattle Genetics Unveils Pivotal Trial Plan for “Empowered Antibody”
Seattle Genetics has settled on the design of a clinical trial that could pave the way for its first marketed cancer drug. The Bothell, WA-based biotech company (NASDAQ: [[ticker:SGEN]]) said today it has reached an agreement with the FDA on the parameters of a pivotal clinical trial of its SGN-35 drug candidate as a treatment … Continue reading “Seattle Genetics Unveils Pivotal Trial Plan for “Empowered Antibody””
San Diego Algae Biofuels Industry Gains Steam With R&D Consortium
The San Diego region is undertaking a broad initiative to accelerate development of algae-to-biofuels technology by establishing a new organization, the San Diego Center for Algae-based Biofuels, or SD-CAB. The center is being organized by a consortium of academic and industry researchers and represents a regional effort to make sustainable algae-based biofuel production a reality … Continue reading “San Diego Algae Biofuels Industry Gains Steam With R&D Consortium”
City of Boston Joins EnerNOC’s Demand Response Network
EnerNOC (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ENOC]]), the Boston-based company that pays factory operators, store owners, and local governments for the right to dial back their electricity usage during times of peak demand, announced today that the City of Boston is finally diving into the local “demand response” pool. Under a new agreement negotiated with the office of Mayor … Continue reading “City of Boston Joins EnerNOC’s Demand Response Network”
Five Questions for Seattle Biotech, Medical Device Leaders About the Year Ahead
Last week at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco, I did some informal polling of biotech industry leaders in our three Xconomy network hubs of Boston, San Diego, and Seattle. I asked them all the same five questions to get a feel for how they plan to cope with the economic downturn, and … Continue reading “Five Questions for Seattle Biotech, Medical Device Leaders About the Year Ahead”
Regulus, Leading Developer of MicroRNA Drugs, Prepares to Get Independence from Alnylam and Isis
Regulus Therapeutics has shown it can crawl, now it’s ready to walk. The fledgling Carlsbad, CA-based company is taking steps to raise a large round of private investment capital, and become a more independent company developing a new breed of microRNA-based drugs. Regulus plans to raise “a very respectable amount” of capital from private investors, … Continue reading “Regulus, Leading Developer of MicroRNA Drugs, Prepares to Get Independence from Alnylam and Isis”
Madrona Leads $1.5M Investment in PetraVM to Make Software Cheaper, More Reliable
The Seattle-based VC firm Madrona Venture Group has led a seed investment in a University of Washington startup called PetraVM. The deal is worth $1.5 million, and includes investment from Seattle-based WRF Capital. Founded by professors Mark Oskin and Luis Ceze of the UW’s computer science and engineering department, PetraVM is out to improve the … Continue reading “Madrona Leads $1.5M Investment in PetraVM to Make Software Cheaper, More Reliable”
Five Questions for the Future of Biotech in San Diego, Part 2
Yesterday, we ran a couple of in-depth interviews about the future of biotech with two San Diego CEOs—Optimer Pharmaceuticals CEO Michael Chang and Phenomix CEO Laura Shawver. I asked them the same five questions about the outlook of the industry that I asked leaders in Boston, so you can compare the bi-coastal views of the … Continue reading “Five Questions for the Future of Biotech in San Diego, Part 2”
India’s Innovation Front Lines, Part 8 (Final Installment): A Return Home and a Reflection
Boston, Tuesday, January 20–I have been back from India for about two weeks and have had time to reflect on my trip and to view my hometown of Boston with a fresh pair of eyes. The front page news in India was about Satyam Computer Services’ $1 billion fraud and India’s impotence in stopping Pakistani-supported … Continue reading “India’s Innovation Front Lines, Part 8 (Final Installment): A Return Home and a Reflection”
Vertex Stays Put, Hydra Handed $22M, Sequenom Still Pursuing Exact Sciences Acquisition, & More Boston-Area Life Sciences News
[Corrected 1/21/09, see the item on Cynosure] The New England biomedical industry was on the quiet side this past week, but there are still a few tidbits to report. —California-based Sequenom (NASDAQ:[[ticker:SQNM]]) said it would press ahead with its effort to acquire Exact Sciences (NASDAQ:[[ticker:EXAS]]) even though the board of the Marlborough, MA-based diagnostics maker … Continue reading “Vertex Stays Put, Hydra Handed $22M, Sequenom Still Pursuing Exact Sciences Acquisition, & More Boston-Area Life Sciences News”
Obama Inauguration Breaks Streaming-Media Records
This morning, we gave you a guide to online outlets with live streaming video of President Obama’s swearing-in. This afternoon, we can report that record-breaking audiences accessed these streams, at least as far as Cambridge, MA-based networking leader Akamai was able to measure. At the height of Internet traffic at approximately 12:15 p.m. Eastern time … Continue reading “Obama Inauguration Breaks Streaming-Media Records”
Northwest Venture Deals Down in Fourth Quarter of 2008—But Still a Few Good Ones
OK, no big surprise here. In the fourth quarter of 2008, venture capital investment in Washington and Oregon fell to $142 million, down 45 percent from $260 million in the previous quarter and a 68 percent drop from $450 million in the fourth quarter of 2007. For the year, venture investment in Washington state dropped … Continue reading “Northwest Venture Deals Down in Fourth Quarter of 2008—But Still a Few Good Ones”
Extreme Reach Wants to Extend Advertisers’ Cross-Media Reach
Video ads are showing up in so many places now—on the Web, on mobile devices, as part of on-demand programming, and of course on regular network TV—that managing all those video files, in all their various formats, is getting to be a bit of a nightmare for advertisers and their agencies. Extreme Reach, a new … Continue reading “Extreme Reach Wants to Extend Advertisers’ Cross-Media Reach”
N.E. VC Investment Sinks in 4th Quarter—No Surprise—And Lists of the Region’s Top Deals and Dealmakers
More ugly data on U.S. venture investment circulated over the weekend, so we at Xconomy thought we’d dig in and highlight some of the top deals and dealmakers in the region last quarter. But first the big picture from Dow Jones VentureSource. The nationwide survey of venture deals found that New England had 79 venture … Continue reading “N.E. VC Investment Sinks in 4th Quarter—No Surprise—And Lists of the Region’s Top Deals and Dealmakers”
Metabasis Therapeutics Restructures, Cuts 38 From Staff
After replacing its CEO last month, San Diego-based Metabasis Therapeutics (NASDAQ: [[ticker:MBRX]]) says it is laying off 38 employees, or about 43 percent of its workforce. (An update to the San Diego layoff tracker is here.) “Given the tough market conditions, we have decided to refine our research and development focus and increase our efforts … Continue reading “Metabasis Therapeutics Restructures, Cuts 38 From Staff”
Medtronic Acquires Ablation Frontiers, Sequenom and Exact Sciences Go a Second Round, Qualcomm CEO Reflects on Strategy, & More San Diego BizTech News
It was like a real-world version of a TV game show in San Diego last week, with some companies announcing a “deal”—and some saying “no deal.” Let’s get on with the show: —Minnesota’s Medtronic (NYSE: [[ticker:MDT]]) gladdened the hearts of investors in Ablation Frontiers of Carlsbad, CA, by agreeing to pay $225 million upfront to … Continue reading “Medtronic Acquires Ablation Frontiers, Sequenom and Exact Sciences Go a Second Round, Qualcomm CEO Reflects on Strategy, & More San Diego BizTech News”
Stuck at Work? Watch the Inauguration Online
Let’s face it, the country is not going to get much work done today between, oh, 11:14 a.m. (when the Obama family will be seated on the Capitol platform) and 12:36 p.m. (when by-then-former-President Bush’s helicopter lifts off). But if you’re at the office and you can’t catch history being made in Washington on network … Continue reading “Stuck at Work? Watch the Inauguration Online”
Microsoft Streams Obama Inauguration, Smartsheet Lands Cash, eBay Buys Positronic, & More Seattle-Area Deals News
After a gangbusters start to the year, the deal flow in the Northwest has slowed down. Most of the activity was in software last week. —Not the usual sort of deal, but Microsoft (NASDAQ: [[ticker:MSFT]]) said its Silverlight software is being used to stream live video of today’s presidential inauguration on the organizers’ official website. … Continue reading “Microsoft Streams Obama Inauguration, Smartsheet Lands Cash, eBay Buys Positronic, & More Seattle-Area Deals News”
Assured Labor Launches Trust-Driven Job Marketplace
If you’re a busy, Web-savvy professional and you need a dog walker, a house cleaner, or someone to plow your driveway, your first thought is probably to search Craigslist. And indeed, there are thousands of people offering such services on the 14-year-old free classifieds site. But the problem with Craigslist, according to David Reich, a … Continue reading “Assured Labor Launches Trust-Driven Job Marketplace”
ImaRx, Led by Former Icos Manager, Comes to Town
ImaRx Therapeutics, a biotech company developing a new ultrasound-based stroke treatment, has moved its headquarters from Tucson, AZ, to Redmond, WA, as it attempts to get back on its feet again after a one-two punch of devastating setbacks. ImaRx (Imm-uh-Rex) is led by CEO Bradford Zakes, who formed his connections with the Seattle area from … Continue reading “ImaRx, Led by Former Icos Manager, Comes to Town”
Five Questions for the Future of Biotech in San Diego, Part 1
Biotech watchers were in a grim mood last week at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco, but it didn’t strike me as quite as apocalyptic as advertised. I’ve come to that conclusion after doing some unscientific polling of San Diego biotech leaders (and a few in Boston) last week at the industry’s biggest … Continue reading “Five Questions for the Future of Biotech in San Diego, Part 1”
LaunchCapital Opens To Seed Startups, Describes Unique Investment Approach
LaunchCapital, a provider of seed-stage capital for tech startups, is expected next week to publicly announce its existence for the first time and describe its plans to invest in young companies in the Boston area and beyond. The Cambridge, MA-based firm aims to invest in startups at the earliest organizational stages, at a point when … Continue reading “LaunchCapital Opens To Seed Startups, Describes Unique Investment Approach”
Don’t Truck Your Waste to a Landfill: Truck A Gasification Plant To Your Waste
For most of the “clean energy” startups Xconomy covers, the big question is whether the company’s prototype—be it a wind turbine, a wood-chips-to-ethanol reactor, or an anaerobic cow-manure digester—will still work efficiently when scaled up to industrial proportions. But for IST Energy in Waltham, MA, the question was how to scale down a waste gasification … Continue reading “Don’t Truck Your Waste to a Landfill: Truck A Gasification Plant To Your Waste”
Taking Monday On
Posting will be light between now and Tuesday as we’ll be observing Monday’s King Day of Service in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who would have turned 80 yesterday. If you’d like to do some volunteering to mark the occasion, or if you’re hosting a service event and need volunteers, President-elect Obama has … Continue reading “Taking Monday On”
Qualcomm CEO Jacobs Talks Candidly About Innovation and Strategy
Constrained by legal restrictions and zealously protected by their handlers, the CEOs of Fortune 500 companies are rarely enlightening when they make public appearances. But Qualcomm (NASDAQ: [[ticker:QCOM]]) CEO Paul Jacobs delivered a close approximation of candor this morning in what was billed as a keynote presentation at the Red Herring Global 100 summit, which … Continue reading “Qualcomm CEO Jacobs Talks Candidly About Innovation and Strategy”
How Failure Is Viewed in the Innovation Community: Seattle Startups and VCs Weigh In
Last week, I reported that Voyager Capital managing director Erik Benson said failure is seen as a “black mark” in the Seattle innovation community—more so than in places like the San Francisco Bay Area or New England. I’ve been asking around at local startups and investment firms to see what people’s reactions are, and (if … Continue reading “How Failure Is Viewed in the Innovation Community: Seattle Startups and VCs Weigh In”
$55M for Boston-Power, Sequenom Plows Ahead with Exact Sciences Takeover Attempt, Nuance Announces $175M Stock Sale, & More Boston-Area Deals News
Everything else around here is frozen solid this week (hello, minus two degrees real-feel!), but the tech and life sciences deals are flowing. —Two Massachusetts firms—Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ALNY]]) of Cambridge and Cubist Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:CBST]]) of Lexington—inked a marketing deal focused on Alnylam’s RNAi-based treatment for respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV. Under the terms … Continue reading “$55M for Boston-Power, Sequenom Plows Ahead with Exact Sciences Takeover Attempt, Nuance Announces $175M Stock Sale, & More Boston-Area Deals News”
San Diego’s First Xconomy Forum: Physics for Future Presidents
The United States will have a new president in four days. But if it were you, how should science and technology guide you in making key decisions in areas like energy, the environment, and fighting terrorism? Should we invest heavily in solar power or electric cars? What is the real potential of nuclear technology—either as … Continue reading “San Diego’s First Xconomy Forum: Physics for Future Presidents”
Have Xtra Fun Making Movies with Xtranormal
This week’s column comes partly in the form of a digital cartoon. Click on the play button below to watch it. (Or if you’re reading this story via an RSS feed or e-mail newsletter, click this link to view the video—then come back here). Clever, eh? Of course, it’s just fiction. I still have a … Continue reading “Have Xtra Fun Making Movies with Xtranormal”
Hydra Biosciences Raises $22M to Create New Pain Relievers With Fewer Side Effects
Hydra Biosciences has been around a long time for a private biotech company with no experimental drugs in clinical trials. Even so, seven years after its founding, the Cambridge, MA-based company has secured a $22 million Series D round of venture capital to develop experimental pain drugs designed to be as powerful as morphine—without the … Continue reading “Hydra Biosciences Raises $22M to Create New Pain Relievers With Fewer Side Effects”
Seattle Layoff Update: Cardiac, Medio, Varolii, Vulcan, and WatchGuard Slash Jobs
Unfortunately, this is fast becoming a weekly roundup of job losses. About the only bright side is that Microsoft hasn’t announced any layoffs—yet. But the following Seattle-area companies have all confirmed significant staff cuts this week (see the updated Xconomy Seattle layoff litany here): —Cardiac Science (NASDAQ: [[ticker:CSCX]]), a maker of heart diagnostic and therapeutic … Continue reading “Seattle Layoff Update: Cardiac, Medio, Varolii, Vulcan, and WatchGuard Slash Jobs”
How to Survive the Downturn: Five Questions With Boston Biotech Leaders, Part 2
Yesterday, we ran highlights from interviews with Alnylam CEO John Maraganore and Vertex Pharmaceuticals CEO Josh Boger, who were asked the same five standard questions about the future of the industry. Today, I’m sharing a second installment from conversations with Sirtris CEO Christoph Westphal, who responded via email, and Alkermes chairman Richard Pops and Jim … Continue reading “How to Survive the Downturn: Five Questions With Boston Biotech Leaders, Part 2”
For Whom The Bellwether Tolls: Cymer Enacts More Cuts
In a grim portent for the semiconductor sector, San Diego’s Cymer (NASDAQ: [[ticker:CYMI]]) says its fourth-quarter revenue will be about $100 million—at the low end of its guidance—and additional cutbacks will be necessary. Cymer makes specialized and extremely precise “deep ultraviolet” laser systems that are used as light sources in the photolithographic process in which … Continue reading “For Whom The Bellwether Tolls: Cymer Enacts More Cuts”
Vertex Envisions a Single Massachusetts Campus and a Bold Future
Vertex Pharmaceuticals isn’t going to move its labs and offices anywhere, at least in the near future. The Cambridge, MA-based biotech company has extended leases at two main buildings in Cambridge until 2015. The leases will keep Vertex’s headquarters at 130 Waverly Street, and in other space at 200 Sidney Street through 2015, according to … Continue reading “Vertex Envisions a Single Massachusetts Campus and a Bold Future”
Vulcan Cuts 50 Jobs, 9 Percent of Workforce, In Response to Downturn
Even Paul Allen isn’t immune to the global economic downturn. Vulcan Inc., the company that oversees the Microsoft co-founder’s business and charitable interests, said today it is eliminating about 50 jobs. Vulcan’s cuts affect about 9 percent of its workforce, leaving it with a staff of about 600 people, says spokesman David Postman. He declined … Continue reading “Vulcan Cuts 50 Jobs, 9 Percent of Workforce, In Response to Downturn”
Dendreon, With Key Milestone Now Reached, Sees Final Results on Immune-Boosting Drug Coming in April
Dendreon-watchers, mark your calendars for April. The Seattle-based biotech company (NASDAQ: [[ticker:DNDN]]) said today its study of 500 men with terminal prostate cancer will offer a final answer by April on whether its experimental immune-boosting drug helps patients live longer. The trial, known as Impact, enrolled men with terminal forms of prostate cancer and randomly … Continue reading “Dendreon, With Key Milestone Now Reached, Sees Final Results on Immune-Boosting Drug Coming in April”
VCs More Concerned About Capital than Economy, Says WTIA Report
As expected, the economic downturn is hitting venture capital hard. The top challenge for Washington state VCs for the first quarter of 2009 will be the availability of capital—ahead of the national economy and overall market growth. That’s according to the Washington Technology Industry Association’s Q1 2009 venture capital outlook survey. The quarterly survey tracks … Continue reading “VCs More Concerned About Capital than Economy, Says WTIA Report”
Cypress Bioscience Shares Soar on News of FDA Approval
Cypress Bioscience (NASDAQ: [[ticker:CYPB]]) shares are up sharply today after the San Diego drug developer and its New York partner announced last night the Food and Drug Administration approved their drug for fibromyalgia. As Luke reported in October, Cypress started down this path in 2001, when it licensed rights to milnacipran, (Salvella) a drug approved outside … Continue reading “Cypress Bioscience Shares Soar on News of FDA Approval”
Robotics Pioneer Brooks Called to Jury Duty—at Sundance Film Festival
I know for a fact that robotics guru and Xconomist Rod Brooks was looking forward to next Thursday’s Xconomy Battle of the Tech Bands 2, both because it’s across the street from his Central Square-based Heartland Robotics company—and because he’s spoken enthusiastically about rocking out with us several times. So it was a blow when … Continue reading “Robotics Pioneer Brooks Called to Jury Duty—at Sundance Film Festival”
How to Stand Out in the Mobile Apps Market: The Zumobi Plan
In a market glutted with free cell phone applications, and as advertising budgets dive along with the rest of the economy, what’s a mobile-media company to do? Seattle’s Zumobi has a few tricks up its sleeve. Namely, don’t charge your sponsors anything upfront, and find innovative ways to drive users of one of your applications … Continue reading “How to Stand Out in the Mobile Apps Market: The Zumobi Plan”
The Father of the Cell Phone on the Future of His Offspring
At a moment when it seemed like the San Diego Chargers still had a chance to win Sunday’s NFL playoff game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, my daughter’s cell phone issued a high-pitched “beep-beep-beep.” Some guy named “Rio” in Pittsburgh sent a photo of a black Steelers helmet to her cell phone. The image was accompanied … Continue reading “The Father of the Cell Phone on the Future of His Offspring”