Mission Bay startups stay, grow at FibroGen digs

Startups are growing up in Mission Bay, but not moving away from home.
Early-stage life sciences and cleantech companies not only flocked to available incubator space in the FibroGen Inc. building, they’re sticking around. Biofuels company Siluria Technologies Inc. and clinical tools companies Locus Development, Ablexis Inc. and GigaGen are among a growing cadre of startups opting to stay put and grow rather than move to new digs, the usual path for incubated companies once they gain traction.

VCs look to LLCs to reap benefit of biotech investments

Biotech startups are finding innovation in unexpected places: their attorneys and accountants.
As the market for IPOs and mergers and acquisitions has narrowed, a growing number of startups are forming under “limited liability company” umbrellas as a way to distribute income to investors more quickly than through traditional C corporation structures. In the process, the LLC structure limits investors’ tax liabilities.

Drugmakers catch Ablexis mouse in $50M+ deal

Five of the world’s 15 largest pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer Inc., promised seven-figure upfront payments each to venture-funded Ablexis LLC in a unique deal for a finely tuned transgenic mouse that could make it easier to discover and develop antibody drugs.
The companies each also will make eight-figure payments to Ablexis once the company, started in December and housed in the FibroGen building in San Francisco’s Mission Bay, delivers its AlivaMab mouse strains.