Recent posts and comments

• Reality is Virtual at San Diego’s Tioga Pharmaceuticals

  The chief medical officer of  Tioga Pharmaceuticals, a start-up working on a drug for irritable bowel syndrome, is in North Carolina. The company’s regulatory team is in San Francisco. Its... Read more »

• San Diego Inventor’s Drug Discovery is Nothing to Laugh (or Cry) About

  [Corrected 9/4/09, 12:25 am. See below.]

  Avanir Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: AVNR) announcement last month that its drug DMQ reduced involuntary fits of laughter and crying in neurological patients came... Read more »

• Biotechs Go Back to the Future by Re-Innovating Old Drugs

  Biotechnology start-ups have long been seen as fearless innovators, embracing experimental technologies, like gene therapy, that big pharmaceutical companies won’t touch. But the news flow from San Diego this summer suggests... Read more »

• Sequenom Maintains Tight Lid on “Mishandled Data” of Key Diagnostic Test

  Three months ago, San Diego’s Sequenom disclosed that the launch of a new prenatal test for Down syndrome would be delayed because scientific data had been mishandled. So what have we... Read more »

• Acadia Files Shelf Registration

  San Diego’s Acadia Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ACAD) has filed a shelf registration to sell up to 7 million shares at a maximum share price of $4.17. The company, which is working... Read more »

• Wanted at TorreyPines Therapeutics: Shareholders Who Vote

  TorreyPines Therapeutics (NASDAQ: TPTX) has found a new solution to its cash woes: a merger with Novato, CA-based Raptor Pharmaceuticals. To pull off the deal, however, TorreyPines must overcome an... Read more »

• Inovio raises $30 million

  Inovio Biomedical (AMEX: INO), a San Diego company developing DNA-based vaccines against cervical cancer and other diseases, has raised $30 million from the direct sale of 11.1 million shares and... Read more »

• La Jolla Pharmaceutical Plans Liquidation

  San Diego’s La Jolla Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:LJPC) plans to ask shareholders to approve a liquidation plan at a not-yet-scheduled special shareholders meeting, according to a recent SEC filing. The company... Read more »

• San Diego’s Cytori Gains Cash; Loses a Patent

  Cytori Therapeutics, (NASDAQ:CYTX) a San Diego company developing therapies from fat, is bulking up its cash position. Since March, the regenerative medicine has company raised more than $15 million... Read more »

• Histogen Reports Hair-Raising Study Results

  San Diego’s Histogen announced final results from a clinical trial of its baldness treatment over the weekend. Nearly 85 percent of 24 men with male pattern baldness had more hair at... Read more »

• No More Tears: Avanir Investors Await Trial Results on Emotional Outburst Drug

  Avanir Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: AVNR) has been working for so long on a drug for an odd neurological syndrome that triggers involuntary laughter and tears, it’s almost enough to make some investors... Read more »

• Canceled Buyout Snatches Victory From Victory Pharma’s Investors

  Victory is not yet in sight for San Diego’s Victory Pharma, a specialty drug company focused on pain relievers. A Japanese drug marketer backed out of a $150-million deal to... Read more »

• Vical Encouraged by CMV Study

  Vical (NASDAQ:VICL) says early results from a mid-stage trial of its cytomegalovirus vaccine look promising. The San Diego-based company says that at four months, 30 percent of treated patients... Read more »

• Lpath Replaces Its Outside Auditor

  Five days after its June 24 annual meeting, San Diego’s Lpath (OTC:LPTN) dismissed the accounting firm LevitZacks for undisclosed reasons, according to a recent SEC filing. The biotech had... Read more »

• Amira Pharmaceuticals’ Experimental Lung Disease Drug May Have Legs

  The story around Amira Pharmaceuticals’ experimental drug AP2966 is beginning to get interesting. Yesterday the San Diego-based respiratory drug company said its experimental drug reduced lung scarring in mice, offering promise that... Read more »

• Amira Pharmaceuticals Can Breathe Easier After Mouse Study

  The people at San Diego’s Amira Pharmaceuticals are certainly breathing easier today. The respiratory drug development company is reporting that an experimental drug for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis reduced lung scarring in mice,... Read more »

• Vical on Fast Pace With Animal Tests of Prototype Swine Flu Vaccine

  An experimental swine flu vaccine from San Diego’s Vical (NASDAQ: VICL) produced “robust immune responses” in animal tests, the company reports. Vical says it can proceed to large-scale manufacturing and... Read more »

• Documents Shed Light on Cam Garner’s Stealth Venture

  The mystery surrounding San Diego’s Evoke Pharma is beginning to clear. The specialty drug company co-founded by serial entrepreneur Cam Garner has been operating in stealth mode and has said little... Read more »

• After the Breakup: BioMarin Says Ex-Partner La Jolla Pharmaceutical Dragging its Feet on Stock Registration

  Hard times can make for hard feelings between former drug development partners, which seems to be what’s happening between Novato, CA-based BioMarin (NASDAQ: BMRN) and San Diego’s ailing La Jolla... Read more »

• Lpath, a Developer of Lipid-Targeting Drugs, Nears a Fork in the Road

  Is San Diego’s Lpath (OTC: LPTN) on the right path? The answer will emerge over the next several weeks as the biotechnology company wraps up a key clinical test of... Read more »