Allopartis subsists on seed cash, Mission Bay incubator space

Allopartis CEO Robert Blazej.

Allopartis Biotechnologies is not unlike the other 25 or so companies that have set up shop in the Mission Bay Innovation Center: It is a startup with eager leadership, intriguing science and a penchant for saving a few dollars here, a few dollars there. What it does not have — again like many others in the life sciences incubator space overseen by biotech company FibroGen Inc. — is a solid path carrying its find-a-better-enzyme technology to the market. Not that the five-person team led by Robert Blazej, Allopartis’s co-founder and president, isn’t trying. In fact, on its way toward discovering better enzymes to more efficiently turn cellulose into energy, the four-year-old company decided to focus on higher-margin biochemicals. The company is waiting for partnerships to come through after “several” pilot-type collaborations with large companies, Blazej said.

FibroGen wins orphan designation for IPF drug

FibroGen Inc.'s mid-stage experimental treatment for the lung-scarring disease idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis was granted orphan drug designation. The drug, FG-3019, is a human monoclonal antibody designed to inhibit connective tissue growth factor, a protein that plays an important role in the build up of excessive fibrous tissue in diseases like IPF.

New growth industry: Bay Area biotech incubators

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Biotech incubators in the Bay Area have doubled in the last two years to six from three — and the space is filling quickly.

Incubators have increasingly become an important part of nurturing fledgling life sciences companies, especially those spun out of local universities and searching for ways to reduce their early-stage costs.

Bayer targets Mission Bay incubator, partners

Bayer HealthCare is diving into the Mission Bay incubator business, hoping to parallel the success of nearby startup havens and, perhaps, snag a long-term partner or two in the process.
The drug developer, which in late 2010 set up its U.S. innovation center in San Francisco’s Mission Bay biotech enclave, said Monday that it would create a 6,000-square-foot incubator this summer to house three or four companies.

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.

Alexandria buys Shorenstein/SKS life sciences complex in Mission Bay for $290M

Six months after selling most of its land in Mission Bay to Salesforce.com Inc., Alexandria Real Estate Equities wants to jump back into the neighborhood with the $290 million purchase of 409-499 Illinois St.
Alexandria is in contract to buy the 450,000-square-foot, two-building life science complex that Shorenstein Properties and SKS Investments completed in 2008.
The complex is anchored by FibroGen Inc., which leases 239,000 square feet. The transaction has gone non-refundable, but has not closed yet.
Both Shorenstein and Alexandria declined to comment.

FibroGen lands $40M milestone from Astellas

FibroGen Inc. received a $40 million milestone payment from Astellas Pharma Inc. as its investigational anemia therapy for chonic kidney disease patients advanced to Phase IIb studies.

Shorenstein plans to sell FibroGen's Mission Bay home

FibroGen launches mid-stage IPF drug trial

FibroGen emerging from its cocoon

The quiet biotech company in the big Mission Bay building is ready to make some noise.
FibroGen Inc., the largest biotech employer in San Francisco’s life sciences neighborhood, could get some answers early next year from clinical trials in anemia and pancreatic cancer while it starts Phase II trials in China for a chronic kidney disease-related anemia treatment.

Positive studies would vault FibroGen’s profile after years of the company quietly plugging away at its scientific business. What’s more, strong data could push the 250-employee company to go on a hiring binge and exercise an April 2011 option on an adjacent 211,000-square-foot building.