Recent posts and comments

• NextImage Medical of San Diego Aims to Lower Workers Comp Costs

  Insurers spend $30 billion annually on workers compensation claims; lost productivity saps another $60 billion from the economy. San Diego-based NextImage Medical is focused on changing this picture by taking aim... Read more »

• San Diego’s Somaxon Readies to Wake Up Market for New Sleeping Pill

  Somaxon Pharmaceuticals overcame two regulatory delays to win FDA approval to market its insomnia drug doxepin (Silenor). Now comes the hard part.

  San Diego-based Somaxon (NASDAQ: SOMX) is entering a prescription sleeping... Read more »

• Cyntellect Raises $3 Million

  Cyntellect, a San Diego-based company working on technologies to analyze, purify and process cells, raised $3 million from the sale of debt, equity and options or warrants, according to an SEC filing... Read more »

• FDA Approves Somaxon Insomnia Pill, Torrey Pines Investment Raises Funds, Innovation Economy Shows Signs of Life, & More San Diego Life Sciences News

  Regulatory and funding headlines dominated a light week. It’s summarized for you here.

  —Torrey Pines Investment raised $30 million for a second venture fund that aims to raise a total of $150 million. The... Read more »

• Startup Elcelyx Raises $1.2 Million

  Elcelyx Therapeutics of San Diego has raised $1.2 million of a planned $2.2 million equity offering, according to an SEC filing. The document says the company’s president is Alain D. Baron... Read more »

• Sequenom Speaks Out, Amylin Receives a Setback, Somaxon Awaits FDA Decision, & More San Diego Life Sciences News

  Regulatory news dominated the headlines in the past week. We have it summarized for you here.

  —Sequenom (NASDAQ: SQMN) said a lack of adequate controls, protocols and supervision were to... Read more »

• West Wireless Names CEO, Amylin Pharmaceuticals Awaits FDA Deadline, Life Technologies In Cancer Research Partnership, & More San Diego Life Sciences News

  Things were hopping over the past week in San Diego. Get into the rhythm here.

  —San Diego’s West Wireless Health Institute named Donald Casey chief executive officer. Casey was formerly worldwide... Read more »

• San Diego’s Acadia Pharmaceuticals Updates Plans for Experimental Parkinson’s Drug

  Acadia Pharmaceuticals of San Diego and its Canadian partner Biovail are continuing to move ahead with pimavanserin. The experimental drug, you might recall, failed last September in a trial testing it as... Read more »

• FDA Says Novalar Brochure for Dental Drug is Misleading

  [Updated 2/26/10, 1:30 pm. See below.] The FDA has told San Diego-based Novalar to stop using a misleading patient brochure promoting the company’s injectible dental drug, phentolamine mesylate, which is... Read more »

• La Jolla Pharmaceutical: Going, Going, But Not Quite Gone

  Staying in business was a challenge for La Jolla Pharmaceutical. Going out of business may be harder still.

  After its lead drug candidate bombed last year in a clinical trial, La Jolla Pharmaceutical had... Read more »

• Anadys Hep C Drug Shows Promise, Synthetic Genomics Recruits Illumina Exec, ProActa Gets Funds, & More San Diego Life Sciences News

  There was a smorgasbord of announcements in the last week. Get your fill here.

  —Anadys Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ANDS) said preliminary findings from a mid-stage trial in hepatitis C patients showed that a drug cocktail... Read more »

• Cadence’s Manufacturing Woes Detailed; Black Eye for Baxter?

  San Diego-based Cadence (NASDAQ: CADX) disclosed two weeks ago that the FDA could not approve the company’s pain reliever because of manufacturing problems, but the company didn’t provide any details.... Read more »

• San Diego Entrepreneurs Exchange Provides Networking, Support for Early-Stage Startups

  With hundreds of biotechnology companies and thousands of people employed in life sciences, San Diego has a large, informal network of people with deep knowledge across a wide range of skills. The Torrey... Read more »

• Another Setback for Cadence, Stimulus Funds Help Fuel Life Sciences Jobs, Tioga Gets More Funding for Drug Trial & More San Diego Life Sciences News

  Some local biotechnology companies landed funding deals during the past week. We’ve got that and other highlights below.

  —Tioga Pharmaceuticals raised $18 million in private equity to fund a late-stage clinical trial... Read more »

• San Diego’s Tioga Pharmaceuticals Raises $18 Million to Develop IBS Drug

  Tioga Pharmaceuticals, a virtual company based in San Diego with just two fulltime employees, is announcing today it has raised $18 million in private equity to fund a late-stage clinical trial of... Read more »

• Cadence Pharmaceuticals’ Pain Reliever Handed Second Regulatory Setback

  Cadence Pharmaceuticals’ plans to market an intravenous form of acetaminophen received another regulatory setback today. The FDA told the San Diego-based company that it could not approve the drug because of... Read more »

• Halozyme Pursues Anti-Cellulite Drug, Optimer’s Antibiotic Kills C. Difficile Germs, Tragara Pharmaceuticals Raises Funds & More San Diego Life Sciences News

  There was a steady flow of drug development and funding news from San Diego’s life sciences industry over the past week. Here are the highlights.

  —Halozyme Therapeutics (NASDAQ: HALO) CFO Kurt... Read more »

• Lifevantage Raises $2.6 Million

  Lifevantage (OTCBB: LFVN), a San Diego-based nutraceuticals company, raised $2.6 million of a $5 million securities offering that included debt and options, warrants or other rights to acquire another security, according... Read more »

• San Diego’s Halozyme Therapeutics Seeks Biotech Cure for Cellulite

  Cellulite is the bane of women everywhere. Caused by the irregular tightening of connective fibers between the muscle and skin, cellulite mars the rump and thighs with uneven dimples and bulges,... Read more »

• San Diego’s aFraxis Studies Drug Candidates to Treat Fragile X Syndrome

  Fragile X syndrome is the second leading cause of mental retardation, after Down syndrome. Caused by a defect on the X chromosome, the syndrome affects boys more frequently and severely than girls; one-third of... Read more »