Weekly Update -- November 5, 2007

Industry & Company Headlines

Market Watch

  • Pharma Woes Won’t Let Up Soon
    The one-two punch of patent expirations and weak pipelines will batter the pharma industry next year, leading to slower growth, says a report from IMS Health. 

  • Drug Drought Deepens as FDA Approvals Lag
    Through Oct. 31, the FDA had approved just 15 drugs classified as “new molecular entities.” At that pace, the agency would greenlight just 18 new drugs (not counting vaccines or additional uses for existing drugs) by year-end, Peter Loftus of Dow Jones Newswires reports.
  • Next Step in Stem Cells: Human Tests 
    Companies are planning to submit applications for FDA approval to begin human testing of treatments based on embryonic stem cell research.

Recent VC Investments

  • Vitreo Retinal Technologies Inc. (Irvine)
    This developer of diagnostic and therapeutic systems for the treatment of serious ocular diseases, has raised nearly $12 million in Series A funding led by De Novo Ventures, according to a regulatory filing. The deal included around $9.35 million in preferred stock, and $2.6 million worth of warrants.

SoCalBio Talent Pipeline
Local training initiatives were the focus of a testimony by the Southern California Biomedical Council during the Joint Hearing of the California Assembly and Senate Select Committees on Biotechnology at a meeting held on October 29 at the Ohlone College in Fremont, CA. 

Representing SoCalBio was Dr. Wendie Johnston (photo right) wajohnston@mac.com of the LA/Orange County Biotechnology Center who gave an overview during the meeting of workforce development efforts seeking to align the resources of area educational and training institutions with the needs of biotech and device companies. The list included the USC Regulatory Sciences program, College of the Canyon's industry-supported clean room technician training initiative, the professional degreed and non-degreed bioscience education at the Keck Graduate Institute in Claremont, the C-Lab collaboration among the seven CSU campuses in Greater Los Angeles to coordinate life-science industry training, and the biotech lab technician training activities orchestrated by the Pasadena City College and LA/Orange County Biotechnology Center.

Advance Your Career

From the Lab Bench

  • Neural Stem Cells May Help Restore Memory After Brain Damage
    A UCI research team led by Frank M. LaFerla (photo right) concludes stem cells secreted proteins called neurotrophins that protected vulnerable cells from death and rescued memory. This creates hope that a drug to boost production of these proteins could be developed to restore the ability to remember in patients with neuronal loss. Study results are published in the Oct 31 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience... Read abstract.

  • UCLA Researchers Find New Way to Predict Survival in Older Women with Lung Cancer
    For the first time, UCLA researchers linked higher levels of aromatase, an enzyme that naturally makes estrogen from another hormone called androgen, to more aggressive disease and lower survival rates in women over 65 with Stage 1 or 2 lung cancer. "All indications suggest that this is a very powerful prognostic marker that lets us predict which patients have a higher likelihood of prolonged survival versus death from lung cancer," said the study's senior author, Lee Goodglick (photo right), an associate professor in the UCLA Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and a Jonsson Cancer Center researcher.

Upcoming SoCalBio Events

November 14, 2007
 7:00 - 9:30 am
Hyatt Regency in Irvine

SoCalBio Breakfast in Orange County 

Click Here to RSVP

Life-Science Industry "Sneak Peak" Introducing

Novel Biotech Approaches in Targeting Neurological Disorders

This Mixer will showcase the following companies:
  • Anergix, a USC spin-off targeting multiple sclerosis;
  • Cenomed Biosciences, an Irvine-based joint venture between Abraxis Bioscience and Cenomed, which targets disorders such as cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's; and
  • Kadmus Pharmaceuticals, a UCI spinoff focusing on endocannabinoid pathways to develop drugs for anxiety, depression and panic.

Click Here for SoCalBio Calendar

Thanks to Sponsors








 

For Sponsorship and Display Opportunities, Contact SoCalBio at scbc@socalbio.org

January 28, 2008
7:30 am - 4:00 pm
UCI University Club in Irvine

SoCalBio Workshop on Accessing Government Funding

Click here to RSVP

Learn about funding opportunities from the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation and the U.S. Army .. See attendee evaluation of previous workshop held on Jan. 2007



For Sponsorship and Display Opportunities, Contact SoCalBio at scbc@socalbio.org

February 29, 2008
8:00 am - 6:00 pm
Wilshire Grand Hotel, Los Angeles

2nd SoCalBio Human Resources  Conference

Click Here to RSVP

Organized by the Southern California Biomedical Council, this conference provides a forum for information sharing among HR executives in device and biotech companies, HR service providers, bio-recruiters, educators, and workforce training professionals to address the growing human capital and employment needs of the life-science industry in Southern California ... More information

Sponsors


Los Angeles - Orange County EWD Biotechnology Center

For Sponsorship and Display Opportunities, Contact SoCalBio at scbc@socalbio.org

Recommended

November 15, 2007

Westin Hotel, Costa Mesa

Second Annual California 
Medical Device Forum

OCTANe will host this conference in Orange County on November 15. This event will draw an array of industry entrepreneurs, corporate executives, as well as university scientists, researchers, and venture capitalists. For agenda and registration, see conference website at: www.camedicaldeviceforum.com

Join SoCalBio

Maximize the return on your investment in SoCalBio by tapping the benefits of our Group Purchasing Program .. Click here to learn more

Testimonial

"The SoCalBio group purchasing program not only saves our company money but also administrative time; which in the end also saves money. We have officially been in the program for about one month, but in that month, we have seen savings of up to 70% on our compressed gases and an average savings of 45% on laboratory supplies," said Richard Tamaki, Chief Operating Officer. Molecular Express