Gilead Sciences Inc. will pay $40 million over four years and possibly $100 million total over a decade in a cancer research deal with Yale University.
Foster City-based Gilead (NASDAQ: GILD) will work with the New Haven Ivy League school on studying the genetic basis and molecular mechanisms of cancer. Gilead’s first $40 million will be spread over four years, to be spent on basic research and infrastructure. If the project seems fruitful, Gilead will then pay the remaining $60 million over six more years.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
NeurogesX loses $12M in Q4, $44M in 2010
Pain treatment company NeurogesX Inc. lost $12.4 million in the fourth quarter and lost $44.5 million in 2010.
The San Mateo company (NASDAQ: NGSX), led by CEO and President Anthony DiTonno, lost $5.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2009.
The San Mateo company (NASDAQ: NGSX), led by CEO and President Anthony DiTonno, lost $5.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2009.
Glaucoma foundation's research funding model shows results
In the great search for new ways to fund disease research, the Glaucoma Research Foundation may be on to something. Call it the know-how of strangers.
The San Francisco-based organization nine years ago pulled together four young researchers from around the country — one from Nashville, another in Seattle, one in Baltimore and another in Salt Lake City — who had never worked together before and had only tangentially looked at glaucoma. Their disparate work centered on molecular biology, genetics, neurobiology and developmental genetics.
Initially staked by $85,000 per lab per year from the foundation — a sizable amount for researchers getting their careers up and running — they essentially were told, “Let’s see what you can do.”
The San Francisco-based organization nine years ago pulled together four young researchers from around the country — one from Nashville, another in Seattle, one in Baltimore and another in Salt Lake City — who had never worked together before and had only tangentially looked at glaucoma. Their disparate work centered on molecular biology, genetics, neurobiology and developmental genetics.
Initially staked by $85,000 per lab per year from the foundation — a sizable amount for researchers getting their careers up and running — they essentially were told, “Let’s see what you can do.”
Monday, March 28, 2011
A.P. Pharma seeks bridge loan, will move to OTC bulletin board
A.P. Pharma Inc. said Monday it will not dispute a Nasdaq delist notice and expects to transfer to the Over the Counter Bulletin Board.
Redwood City-based A.P. Pharma (NASDAQ:APPA) said it is also in negotiations for a bridge loan to fund operations until additional longer-term financing is secured.
Redwood City-based A.P. Pharma (NASDAQ:APPA) said it is also in negotiations for a bridge loan to fund operations until additional longer-term financing is secured.
Versartis starts test of growth hormone therapy
Versartis Inc. started a Phase I clinical trial of a treatment for growth hormone deficiency.
The Mountain View company is testing the safety and efficacy of VRS-317, a once monthly form of recombinant human growth hormone meant to be easier to use than current daily treatments.
The Mountain View company is testing the safety and efficacy of VRS-317, a once monthly form of recombinant human growth hormone meant to be easier to use than current daily treatments.
Saturday, March 26, 2011
QB3, Deloitte team up to clone incubator model
QB3 — the University of California life sciences-focused institute accustomed to inking research collaborations with big companies like Pfizer Inc. — has a new, untraditional partner: Deloitte.
Executive Profile: Peter Maag, president of Novartis Diagnostics
Real Deals: Onyx, stem cells, neuroscience, the Science Center at Oyster Point and more
The San Francisco Business Times' annual Real Estate Deals of the Year hit the streets Friday. Here are the life sciences-related real estate stories stories:
Best new R&D
UCSF stem cell research building
Near the base of Mount Sutro and behind the jam-packed medical towers of UCSF’s Parnassus Avenue campus, there was no hiding the complexity of designing and constructing a $123 million stem cell research building on a hillside.
There was the $20 million that needed to be shaved from the original conceptual design by architect Rafael Vinoly — without cutting net square footage. There was the complication of building the 68,500-square-foot structure just a few miles from the San Andreas Fault.
Arching over the entire project, too, was the timetable set by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, which jumpstarted the project with $34.9 million of state bond money: 24 months to go from schematic design to work-ready occupancy.
Best new R&D (finalist)
Stanford stem cell research building
Stanford University is coming together over stem cells.
The university’s $225 million, 200,000-square-foot stem cell research center — the nation’s largest such facility — will house 550 researchers, ranging from those studying developmental biology and immunology to those concentrating on cancer and neuroscience.
Best R&D Sale/Lease
Chamberlin portfolio
BioMed Realty Trust bought Chamberlin Associates' high-profile Science Center at Oyster Point and Gateway Business Park in October — a potential 1.2 million square feet in the heart of the biotech industry, South San Francisco — for $290.3 million cash and an interest rate swap liability of $7.7 million.
Best R&D Sale/Lease (finalist)
Bayer U.S. Innovation Center
Salesforce.com is moving in, but the heart of San Francisco’s Mission Bay remains life sciences research and development.
In a building originally intended for Pfizer Inc., the world’s largest drug maker, landlord Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc. has essentially filled it with up-and-coming Nektar Therapeutics Inc. and longtime international player Bayer.
The Bayer deal was sealed in May 2010 for 48,913 square feet in the east wing of the 210,000-square-foot structure.
Best Steal (finalist)
Onyx
Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc. landed the grand slam of headquarters: a competitive price, room to grow and a spot among the more than two dozen other biotechs in South San Francisco. The 170-person cancer drug company moves in April.
Best Financial (finalist)
UCSF neuroscience building
The University of California San Francisco turned to the traditional lease-back deal to build its Neuroscience Building at Mission Bay, but it re-invented it for its own needs.
UCSF owned the land for the $200 million project, but lacked funding to build it. So it leased the land to a nonprofit group that will sublease it to Edgemoor Real Estate Services and McCarthy Cook & Co. That development team will construct the 237,000-square-foot research and lab facility and lease it back to UCSF.
Best new R&D
UCSF stem cell research building
Near the base of Mount Sutro and behind the jam-packed medical towers of UCSF’s Parnassus Avenue campus, there was no hiding the complexity of designing and constructing a $123 million stem cell research building on a hillside.
Arching over the entire project, too, was the timetable set by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, which jumpstarted the project with $34.9 million of state bond money: 24 months to go from schematic design to work-ready occupancy.
Best new R&D (finalist)
Stanford stem cell research building
Stanford University is coming together over stem cells.
The university’s $225 million, 200,000-square-foot stem cell research center — the nation’s largest such facility — will house 550 researchers, ranging from those studying developmental biology and immunology to those concentrating on cancer and neuroscience.
Best R&D Sale/Lease
Chamberlin portfolio
BioMed Realty Trust bought Chamberlin Associates' high-profile Science Center at Oyster Point and Gateway Business Park in October — a potential 1.2 million square feet in the heart of the biotech industry, South San Francisco — for $290.3 million cash and an interest rate swap liability of $7.7 million.
Best R&D Sale/Lease (finalist)
Bayer U.S. Innovation Center
Salesforce.com is moving in, but the heart of San Francisco’s Mission Bay remains life sciences research and development.
In a building originally intended for Pfizer Inc., the world’s largest drug maker, landlord Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc. has essentially filled it with up-and-coming Nektar Therapeutics Inc. and longtime international player Bayer.
The Bayer deal was sealed in May 2010 for 48,913 square feet in the east wing of the 210,000-square-foot structure.
Best Steal (finalist)
Onyx
Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc. landed the grand slam of headquarters: a competitive price, room to grow and a spot among the more than two dozen other biotechs in South San Francisco. The 170-person cancer drug company moves in April.
Best Financial (finalist)
UCSF neuroscience building
The University of California San Francisco turned to the traditional lease-back deal to build its Neuroscience Building at Mission Bay, but it re-invented it for its own needs.
Friday, March 25, 2011
Titan posts $4.3M Q4 loss
Titan Pharmaceuticals Inc. posted a fourth-quarter net loss nearly triple the previous year's as the company ramped up research and development
South San Francisco-based Titan (OTCBB: TTNP) had a fourth-quarter net loss of $4.3 million, or 5 cents per share, compared with a loss of $1.5 million, or 2 cents per share, in the same quarter of 2009.
South San Francisco-based Titan (OTCBB: TTNP) had a fourth-quarter net loss of $4.3 million, or 5 cents per share, compared with a loss of $1.5 million, or 2 cents per share, in the same quarter of 2009.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Scrappy Portola ready for new fight on blood thinner
Yet even as partner Merck & Co. ran away from the brawl — saying Thursday that it was returning the blood-thinning drug betrixaban to Portola — the South San Francisco company may be in a position to stanch the bleeding. It has about $100 million on hand, a Phase III-ready drug with solid Phase II data and a deep portfolio that includes an early-stage antidote that could quickly reverse the effects of blood thinners.
To hear Portola CEO Bill Lis, you’d think his company is in a scrappy mood. Portola, he said, even could pursue indications for betrixaban beyond prevention of stroke in atrial fibrillation patients and stopping embolism after knee surgery, with or without a new partner.
“I think we want to take it forward by ourselves,” Lis said.
Biotech job-training program faces funding, hiring challenges
A proven job-training program for the life sciences industry generally isn’t being used by biotechs and is struggling with financial trouble, according to an article in SF Public Press.
The irony in biotech employers not using the Bridge to Biotech program at City College of San Francisco, as the story notes, is a recent report from the California Healthcare Institute, BayBio and PricewaterhouseCoopers in which nearly half of the roughly 100 company CEOs surveyed ranked “an unprepared workforce” among the top three threats to the future of California’s biomedical industry.
Yet some 82 percent of the 609 students who have entered Bridge to Biotech since its start in 2002 have made it through the entire program, SF Public Press said. Eighty-three percent of those survivors take even more college classes. What’s more, the program has been touted as a way of putting city residents on track toward a high-paying biotech job.
“Some companies must get over the perception that the community colleges are vocational schools, not serious academic programs,” Lori Lindburg, director of the BayBio Institute, told SF Public Press. “Bridge is first rate.”
The irony in biotech employers not using the Bridge to Biotech program at City College of San Francisco, as the story notes, is a recent report from the California Healthcare Institute, BayBio and PricewaterhouseCoopers in which nearly half of the roughly 100 company CEOs surveyed ranked “an unprepared workforce” among the top three threats to the future of California’s biomedical industry.
Yet some 82 percent of the 609 students who have entered Bridge to Biotech since its start in 2002 have made it through the entire program, SF Public Press said. Eighty-three percent of those survivors take even more college classes. What’s more, the program has been touted as a way of putting city residents on track toward a high-paying biotech job.
“Some companies must get over the perception that the community colleges are vocational schools, not serious academic programs,” Lori Lindburg, director of the BayBio Institute, told SF Public Press. “Bridge is first rate.”
Boston Scientific wins FDA nod for back pain device
Boston Scientific Corporation (NYSE:BSX) has announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a new version of its rechargeable device designed to address chronic back pain.
Air Force to use Tethys blood test in diabetes study
The U.S. Air Force will use a blood test made by Tethys Bioscience Inc. in a 600 person clinical trial studying better ways to prevent type 2 diabetes.
This trial will study 600 “pre-diabetic” Air Force retirees and dependents and will look at how well a behavior modification program helps keep them from developing the disease. Tethys’ test will be used at the start of the trial, and one group will be told their results, which show their risk, while a control group won’t get that information.
This trial will study 600 “pre-diabetic” Air Force retirees and dependents and will look at how well a behavior modification program helps keep them from developing the disease. Tethys’ test will be used at the start of the trial, and one group will be told their results, which show their risk, while a control group won’t get that information.
AcelRx loses $3.5 million in Q4, $14.3 million in 2010
AcelRx Pharmaceuticals Inc. lost $3.5 million in the December quarter and $14.3 million in 2010.
The Redwood City company (NASDAQ: ACRX) lost $3.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2009.
The Redwood City company (NASDAQ: ACRX) lost $3.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2009.
Merck returns anti-clotting drug betrixaban to Portola
Merck (NYSE: MRK) said Thursday that it would give all rights for betrixaban, a Phase III-ready oral Factor Xa inhibitor anticoagulant aimed at preventing strokes in patients with atrial fibrillation, back to South San Francisco-based Portola. The companies said the decision was made after a review of Merck’s investigational drug portfolio.
Portola CEO Bill Lis cast the giveback as a “transformational opportunity.”
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