Adventrx Pharmaceuticals Set Back by FDA, La Jolla Pharmaceutical Can’t Cure Shareholder Apathy, Regulus Signs Another Deal With Glaxo, & More San Diego Life Sciences News
Bruce V. Bigelow3/4/10Leave a CommentFollow @bvbigelow
There was a flurry of San Diego life sciences news over the past week, but we’ve got it all sorted for you here.
—Politicians sometimes complain about voter apathy, but consider the plight of San Diego’s La Jolla Pharmaceutical. The biotech, which failed to develop a drug for lupus, has been unable to muster enough shareholder votes to put itself out of business—or to approve a proposed merger with Adamis Pharmaceuticals (OTCBB: ADMP). In a statement this week, La Jolla Pharmaceutical says only 12 percent of its shareholders returned their proxy cards last week—falling far short of the quorum needed to constitute a valid vote.
—San Diego’s Adventrx Pharmaceuticals (NYSE Amex: ANX) says the FDA wants more data from stability testing of its new formulation of vinorelbine, a chemotherapy drug used to treat a variety of cancers, including non-small-cell lung cancer.
—Optimer Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: OPTR), a San Diego biotech developing an antibiotic for a dangerous hospital infection, raised $51.5 million in a secondary stock offering.
—San Diego’s Novalar was in the news twice in the past week. The San Diego-based biotech struck a deal that gives Sanofi-Aventis exclusive rights to market Novalar’s vasodilator drug phentolamine mesylate (OraVerse) in Germany.
—Novalar was also ordered by the FDA to stop using a misleading patient brochure in its marketing of the drug phentolamine mesylate. Novalar CEO Donna Janson says the … Next Page »
Bruce V. Bigelow is the editor of Xconomy San Diego. You can e-mail him at bbigelow@xconomy.com or call (619) 669-8788
