Dynavax hires CFO from PDL Biopharma

Vaccine maker Dynavax Technologies Corp. hired Christine Larson as chief financial officer, a new position at the company. The Berkeley company (NASDAQ: DVAX) hired Larson eight months after she quit PDL Biopharma Inc. (NASDAQ: PDLI), where she was also CFO and earned a salary of $400,000.

Scenes, thoughts from the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference

If the Occupy Wall Street folks wanted to shut down biotech’s biggest wheeling-and-dealing session, the 30th annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, couldn’t they just contact the San Francisco fire marshal?
The Occupy movement supposedly was the reason J.P. Morgan asked the Westin St. Francis for additional security for the conference this week. Badge-checkers were at their usual stations inside the hotel but also were moved outside of the hotel, creating more logjams than usual on the sidewalk along Union Street.
Folks staying at the hotel had to show their room keys, so the security crush significantly cut down “clock tower” meetings in the hotel’s lobby. Coupled with the unusually good January weather, Union Square became the preferred chat-up locale, to the point that the park was overrun by posses of (mostly) men in black suits.
All in all, the mood seemed less dreamy, more serious. Even last year, life sciences companies still in shock from the financial crisis seemed like zombies: “Must focus portfolio … arrrrrgh … Be virtual … ugh.” They walked the talk, but they didn’t really seem to mean it. This year, the companies indeed were focused, their milestones tangible.

PDL wins round in royalty suit against Genentech, Roche

A Nevada judge denied two motions from Genentech Inc. and parent company Roche to dismiss a PDL BioPharma lawsuit centering on royalties from a 2003 deal, PDL said.
Judge David Hardy also dismissed a claim by PDL (NASDAQ: PDLI), which was based in Redwood City before moving late 2008 to Incline Village, Nev., that Genentech breached an implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing.
The rulings are the latest in a court battle following an August 2010 letter from South San Francisco-based Genentech that claimed that PDL’s technique for humanizing an antibody does not apply to drugs Roche sells in Europe.