11/19/09

Ligand Nabs $2M From Merck

San Diego-based Ligand Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: LGND) said today it has received $2 million in milestone payments as part of research collaboration with Merck that is due to expire next month. The partnership started with Organon, which was later acquired by Schering-Plough, which was then acquired by Merck.

11/18/09

Sony Ericsson Closing SD Operation

Sony Ericsson says it plans to close its operations in San Diego as part of a global consolidation that the cell phone handset maker announced today. The London-based joint venture between Sweden’s LM Ericsson and Japan’s Sony Corp plans to move its North American headquarters from Research Triangle, NC, to Atlanta, and consolidate its product development operations by closing sites in six locations—San Diego; Research Triangle, NC; Seattle; Miami; Kista, Sweden; and Chennai, India. About 1,600 jobs are being eliminated.

11/17/09

NextImage Medical Raises $5M

San Diego’s NextImage Medical, Inc., which has developed a Web-based system for scheduling and managing diagnostic imaging services, says it has raised $5 million in Series A funding in a round led by Chrysalis Ventures of Louisville, KY. Liz Griggs founded NextImage Medical last year as a way to provide high-quality, low-cost radiology services, either through insurers, self-insured employers, or direct-to-consumer. A statement from NextImage Medical says Griggs previously was the founder of New Jersey-based One Call Medical, a radiology preferred provider organization (PPO) that was sold in 2003 for $115 million.

11/13/09

Cadence Hit By FDA Delay

San Diego-based Cadence Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: CADX) said today that the FDA has pushed back its deadline for reviewing the company’s intravenous pain reliever by three months. The FDA’s new deadline for completing its review of IV acetaminophen is now Feb. 12. The company said it remains confident it will win FDA approval, although shares fell 5 percent today on the news.

11/12/09

Israeli Startup Wins Inaugural QPrize

San Diego-based Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM) says Panoramic Power, a wireless sensor startup based in Kidron, Israel, is the winner of the first QPrize, the incentive prize competition launched earlier this year by Qualcomm Ventures. Panoramic Power has developed energy monitoring wireless technology that enables a company or institution to deploy Smart Grid technologies within their existing facilities. Panoramic Power, which previously won $100,000 as a QPrize regional winner, was awarded another $150,000 and the opportunity to compete in a global business plan competition held at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

SD Firm Gets $19.4M for Washington Wind Farm

The San Diego-based Cannon Power Group says it has received $19.4 million in federal renewable energy grants to help fund construction of a 400-megawatt wind farm in Klickitat County, WA, about 110 miles East of Portland, OR. Total investment in the project will be more than $1 billion. When completed, the Windy Point/Windy Flats project will be one of the largest wind farms in the nation, producing enough electricity for more than 250,000 homes per year. The project power has been designated for use by California municipalities.

11/10/09

Life Technologies Acquiring BioTrove

Life Technologies (NASDAQ: LIFE), the Carlsbad, CA-based provider of biotech instruments and lab supplies, says it has agreed to acquire Woburn, MA-based BioTrove, which has developed a high throughput gene expression and genotyping analysis system. BioTrove, which withdrew plans to raise $75 million in an IPO last year, says the flexible array format of its OpenArray technology enables researchers to perform more than 3,000 PCR or qPCR gene expression assays at a time. Financial terms were not disclosed.

11/06/09

SpectraScience Raises $4.3M

SpectraScience, the San Diego medical device maker, has raised more than $4.3 million through a private placement that combines preferred shares and warrants, according to a regulatory filing today. As I reported previously, SpectraScience (OTCBB:SCIE) acquired its optical biopsy technology when CEO Jim Hitchin acquired certain assets from the bankruptcy of Minnesota’s GV Medical. In its filing, SpectraScience says the company sold 433,000 units at $10 a share. Hitchin tells me the offering closes a $5 million round the company began earlier this year.

11/05/09

GreatCall Paid With Stock for MobiWatch

A regulatory filing made last month by GreatCall, the San Diego-based parent of Jitterbug, offers some insight into the value of Jitterbug’s acquisition of Waltham, MA-based MobiWatch. Jitterbug announced the deal yesterday but declined to comment beyond its press release. The filing shows that GreatCall provided 630,000 shares of common stock to MobiWatch and its shareholders. A note in the filing says the common stock was issued “in connection with the acquisition of certain assets of MobiWatch, pursuant to a purchase agreement dated 9/30/2009.” GreatCall currently values its common stock at 17 cents a share, which puts the official value of the MobiWatch deal at just $107,100—but with a big potential upside.

11/03/09

Arkeia Acquires Kadena Systems

San Diego’s Arkeia Software, which specializes in affordable network backup software, says today it has acquired Kadena Systems, a Santa Clara, CA-based developer of data de-duplication technologies. Financial terms were not disclosed. Arkeia, which shipped the industry’s first network backup solution for Linux in 1999, says it plans to integrate Kadena’s technology in its system. Arkeia says Kedena’s chief technology officer, Tamir Ram, also will join Arkeia as chief architect.

11/02/09

Nascenzi Steps Into ExtraBux

San Diego software industry executive Bob Nascenzi has joined ExtraBux a just-launched San Diego retailing website that combines cash back and rebate offers with comparison shopping capabilities. Nascenzi tells me he’s joining ExtraBux as both a board member and CEO. He previously was the interim CEO and a board member at San Diego-based ProQuo, former chief operating officer of TARGUSInfo, and CEO of Claritas, the marketing information resources company now operated by the New York-based Nielsen Co.

10/29/09

Novocell Gets $20 Million Award

San Diego’s Novocell has received a disease team award totaling $20 million from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) to fund work on its cell therapy for type 2 diabetes. The team includes scientists at the University of California, San Francisco, which will receive $2.8 million. Novocell’s research involves transforming embryonic stem cells into insulin-secreting beta cells that can be implanted into patients as an alternative to insulin injections. Novocell, a venture-backed company, told CIRM it would be ready to begin clinical trials in three years, but CIRM scientific reviewers said a more realistic estimate was four years.

iRobot Lanches Healthcare Unit

IRobot (NASDAQ:IRBT), the Bedford, MA-based maker of robots such as the Roomba for vacuuming and the PackBot for the military, revealed today that it has created a healthcare unit to focus on developing robots that help seniors live independently in their homes. Technology veteran Tod Loofbourrow is heading the new healthcare unit as its president and will report directly to iRobot CEO Colin Angle, according to the company. Angle is expected to discuss the company’s healthcare strategy today at the TEDMED conference in San Diego.

10/28/09

Santaris Nabs Isis, Amgen Vets

Santaris Pharma, the Danish company that has pushed the first microRNA therapy into clinical trials, has recruited a pair of big name executives from Isis Pharmaceuticals and Amgen Ventures to help lead its new U.S. subsidiary in San Diego. Mark Wedel, the former chief medical officer at Carlsbad, CA-based Isis, will fill that same position at Santaris, while Stuart Mackey, the former managing director of Amgen Ventures, has joined Santaris as chief business officer. The two executives are part of Santaris’ U.S. growth strategy, which I described in a feature story last month.

10/27/09

Sequenom Settles Ibis Dispute

Sequenom, the San Diego-based maker of laboratory tools and diagnostics, said today in a regulatory filing it has agreed to accept a $1 million payment from Ibis Biosciences, a unit of Abbott Laboratories, to settle a patent infringement lawsuit. As part of the deal, Sequenom (NASDAQ: SQNM) has granted Ibis a non-exclusive license to three mass spectrometry-based patents. Abbott acquired Ibis, a spinoff from Carlsbad, CA-based Isis Pharmaceuticals, for $215 million in December.

Ligand Buys Metabasis For $3.2M

San Diego-based Ligand Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: LGND) said today it has agreed to pay $3.2 million to acquire Metabasis (NASDAQ: MBRX), the developer of treatments for diabetes and high cholesterol. Ligand has also committed $8 million to finance Metabasis’ drug development programs within the next 42 months. The sale comes after a rough year for Metabasis, in which it ran low on cash, warned investors it might have to shut down, and CEO Mark Erion resigned for a new job at Merck.

10/26/09

Axeda Adds $9M from JMI, MMV

Axeda, the Waltham, MA-based startup that makes a cloud-based system for wireless tracking of company assets, announced today that it has completed a $5 million Series B funding round led by JMI Equity of San Diego and Baltimore. At the same time, the company raised $4 million in venture debt from MMV Financial of Toronto.

10/23/09

SDG&E Installing Pyron Solar System

San Diego Gas & Electric, a public utility operated by San Diego-based Sempra Energy (NYSE: SRE), says it is planning an 18-month field demonstration of a solar power system that floats in a shallow pool of water. When operational later this year, the 20-kilowatt system developed by San Diego’s Pyron Solar is expected to generate electricity at higher efficiencies and lower costs than conventional flat-panel photovoltaic systems. Pyron’s technology uses a dual-tracking system and acrylic lenses and to concentrate the sun’s energy on a proprietary glass optic. Pyron says its system could produce nearly twice the electricity of conventional flat-panel photovoltaic systems.

10/21/09

Burnham Hires Paul Laikind

The La Jolla, CA-based Burnham Institute for Medical Research said it has hired Paul Laikind, the co-founder of Gensia Pharmaceuticals, Viagene, and Metabasis, to be the institute’s senior vice president of business development and chief business officer. The hiring is a sign of the Burnham’s increasing emphasis on spinning out technologies, and forming deals with partners who can further develop and commercialize its ideas, said Greg Lucier, the chairman of the Burnham board of trustees, in a statement.

10/20/09

Reaction Design Gets $817K Grant

The Department of Energy is awarding an $817,384 grant to San Diego-based Reaction Design, which uses advanced computer-based modeling technology to simulate the fiery combustion reactions in turbines and other engines. The grant from the DOE’s National Energy Technology Laboratory is one of seven awards totaling $7 million that are intended to advance highly efficient electric power generation technologies with near-zero emissions. Reaction Design, which I profiled in June, says it is developing new simulation technology to improve the performance of next-generation coal-powered systems.