San Diego-based Tragara Pharmaceuticals, a developer of biopharmaceuticals aimed at cancer and inflammation treatments, has raised another $5M in a funding round, according to a regulatory filing by the firm last week. The filing indicates the equity funding comes as part of an ongoing, $10M fundraising effort by the company. No details on the funding have been announced by the firm. The firm has previously raised funding from Domain Associates, Proquest Investments, Mitsubishi, Morgenthaler Ventures, and Oxford Bioscience Partners. The firm last raised a large, $40M funding round in 2007.
Archive for the ‘Minding Your Business’ Category
Tragara Pharma Raises $5M
By: Bradley Fikes — February 8th, 2010‘Stem Cells For Dummies’ Signing at Book Works
By: Bradley Fikes — February 8th, 2010You didn’t know there was a book called “Stem Cells For Dummies”? There’s a Dummies book for everything else — acne; addiction & recovery; cast iron cooking; foreclosure investing …
Anyway, UCSD stem cell researcher Larry Goldstein has co-authored a book about stem cells. And he’s going to be talking about stem cells and signing his book the evening of Tuesday, March 2 at the Book Works, 2670 Via de la Valle, just east of I-5. The event starts at 7 p.m. and ends at 8 p.m.
The store’s number is (858) 755-3735.
Stem Cells For Dummies
Here’s more from the book’s blurb:
“A balanced, plain-English guide to this politically charged topic. This practical guide cuts away the hype and clearly presents the facts on stem cells. It explains what stem cells are and what they do, the legalities of harvesting them and using them in research, the latest research findings from the United States and abroad, and the prospects for medical stem cell therapies in the short and long term. It also discusses the ethical and moral considerations involved with the topic. But Goldstein presents us with the endless possibilities in using stem cells. Discover how stem cells are projected to make medical advances in the understanding and improved treatment of cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and more.”
Here’s more background about Goldstein from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, where he is an investigator:
“Since the late 1990s, Lawrence Goldstein has been passionate about the promise of research with human embryonic stem cells—pliable, generic cells from the early embryo that scientists can convert into the body’s specialized cells to study basic biological processes, disease, and organ regeneration.
Goldstein became such an advocate for stem cells he helped write the California proposition that created a $3 billion funding organization in 2005 to support human stem cell research in the state. Voters supported the initiative because human embryonic stem cell research has been curtailed nationwide; the federal government has limited its financial support of research with these cells, citing the ethical problem of destroying embryos in performing the investigations.
When Goldstein first started promoting human embryonic stem cell research, he was acting to support the freedom of scientific inquiry to benefit society. Recently, though, Goldstein, funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the California program, has begun using human embryonic stem cells in his own laboratory. His research may demonstrate another example of the value of embryonic stem cells by helping to identify the cause of Alzheimer’s disease.
Goldstein studies the cellular machinery that moves material inside nerve cells and how problems with these conveyance systems might lead to Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases. Embryonic stem cells, he says, are the only source of healthy human brain cells for his research. Extracting nerve cells from a living human brain for experimentation cannot be done.”
Geithner on HAMP
By: Eric Wolff — February 8th, 2010I spent two months trying to get an official from the Department of Treasury to talk to me for the two Home Affordable Modification Program stories we published this weekend. No dice, but ABC News reporter Jake Tapper got some face time with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.
The quotes aren’t all that awesome, but it’s good he’s on the record:
In our interview yesterday with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, I asked him if a year ago, were I to tell him that a year later only 66,000 Americans had permanent mortgage modifications through the program, if he would have said at the time that the HAMP program was a success.
“I think it’s very important to recognize this program is providing very, very substantial cash flow relief right now to more than three quarters of a million Americans,” Geithner said. “We believe we’re still on a path to be able to reach many, many more American households. And of course we’re going to make sure that those temporary modifications translate into permanent modifications.”
A lot of those temporary modifications were done verbally, I pointed out.
“We’re absolutely committed to make sure that translates into what we said it would, which is for eligible Americans — they’re getting permanent modifications that substantially lower their monthly payment…For the average household that translates into hundreds and hundreds of dollars every month for them.”
I’m staying on this loan modification story, so more on this as I learn it.
Has Optimer Been ‘De-Risked’?
By: Bradley Fikes — February 8th, 2010Optimer (NASDAQ:OPTR) removed a lot (if not all) of the risk from its profile Thursday when its lead drug candidate passed a second pivotal clinical trial. The company showed its antibiotic for “C.difficile” bacterial infections, in 535 patients, was roughly equal to the gold standard antibiotic at curing people, and twice as good at preventing dangerous recurrences. That finding was consistent with another study of 629 patients reported in November 2008. . .
If Optimer can get through the regulatory agencies, it will be in a unique position. There is no other antibiotic in development specifically for “C.diff” infections that’s within five years of reaching the market, Chang says, while incidence of this potentially deadly bug is growing. This is sure to spark plenty of speculation about who might form a partnership with Optimer to market this drug overseas, or who might want to buy the company altogether.
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Qualcomm’s ‘Dead Money’ debacle
From L.A. Little of TheStreet.com
Dead money! That’s how you have to refer to any money you may have invested in Qualcomm(QCOM Quote) prior to its earnings debacle.
I feel compelled to come back to this name because it was a huge disappointment and because I’ve written twice about it and traded it numerous times over the past three months. Fortunately, I wasn’t in QCOM when it reported earnings, although it wasn’t the result of some grand foresight. It was due to a change in the general market direction over the past three weeks as well as the behavior of the stock itself.
There is a lesson to be learned in every trade and the reason for revisiting QCOM is to illustrate how this debacle could have been sidestepped and to discuss what a trader should do with the stock that is now officially dead money. . .
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Quantum mechanics detected in photosynthesis
From the North County Times’ Bradley J. Fikes:
People have been trying for decades to understand quantum mechanics, the bizarre theory that explains, among other things, how stars work.
But according to a growing body of research, algae called cryptophytes tamed it billions of years ago to harness sunlight for energy, through photosynthesis.
Quantum mechanics states that on the subatomic scale, the location and velocity of matter cannot both be precisely described. Particles can be in two places at the same time, their positions described by probabilities. They can “tunnel” through barriers, a feat that in the macroscopic world would be called “teleportation.”
These bizarre effects enable the process of photosynthesis to capture light energy far more effectively than would otherwise be the case, according to two new research papers. One was published last week in the journal Nature; the other was in the January issue of The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters.
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Neurocrine Biosciences appoints biotech veteran Rastetter to board
Bill Rastetter is a legend in biotech, as a ventuer capitalist, and most notably for steering Idec Pharmaceuticals from near-failure to resounding success. (The company is now part of Biogen Idec).
So getting someone with that reputation to serve on your board is a real feather in your cap.
Neurocrine Biosciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: NBIX) announced today that it has appointed William H. Rastetter Ph.D. to its Board of Directors effective immediately. He is the current Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Receptos, Inc., and former Executive Chairman of Biogen Idec, Inc.
“We are very pleased to welcome Bill Rastetter to our Board of Directors,” said Joseph A. Mollica, Ph.D., Chairman of the Board of Neurocrine Biosciences. “The company is very fortunate to have someone with Bill’s experience and proven track record in the biotech industry. He will be a valuable resource to Neurocrine as the Company moves forward.”
Dr. Rastetter is currently the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Receptos, a privately-held drug discovery and development company which utilizes pioneering G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) technology, including 3-dimensional structure determination of these membrane bound proteins, to facilitate information-driven drug design for developing best- and first-in-class drugs. He is also currently the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Illumina, Inc., and is a partner in the venture capital firm Venrock.
Dr. Rastetter retired as the Executive Chairman of Biogen Idec Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, at the end of 2005 and had served in that position since the November 2003 merger of Biogen, Inc. and IDEC Pharmaceuticals Corporation. He served as Chief Executive Officer of IDEC Pharmaceuticals from December 1986 through November 2003 and as chairman of the Board of Directors from May 1996 to November 2003. Additionally, he served as President of IDEC Pharmaceuticals from 1986 to 2002 and as Chief Financial Officer from 1988 to 1993. From 1982 to 1986 Dr. Rastetter served in various positions at Genentech, Inc., a biotechnology company, and prior to Genentech he was an associate professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Dog Bites Man
By: Bradley Fikes — February 7th, 2010The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) report is supposed to be the world’s most authoritative scientific account of the scale of global warming.
But this paper has discovered a series of new flaws in it including:
* The publication of inaccurate data on the potential of wave power to produce electricity around the world, which was wrongly attributed to the website of a commercial wave-energy company.
* Claims based on information in press releases and newsletters.
* New examples of statements based on student dissertations, two of which were unpublished.
* More claims which were based on reports produced by environmental pressure groups.
Last month, the panel was forced to issue a humiliating retraction after it emerged statements about the melting of Himalayan glaciers were inaccurate.
Last weekend, this paper revealed that the panel had based claims about disappearing mountain ice on anecdotal evidence in a student’s dissertation and an article in a mountaineering magazine.
And on Friday, it emerged that the IPCC’s panel had wrongly reported that more than half of the Netherlands was below sea level because it had failed to check information supplied by a Dutch government agency.
Researchers insist the errors are minor and do not impact on the overall conclusions about climate change. (My emphasis).
Read the whole story for the details.
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There’s another new error that the Telegraph didn’t pick up, disclosed among other new errors in the UK Sunday Times: Unsupported claims that global warming could reduce North African crop production by as much as 50 percent.
The most important is a claim that global warming could cut rain-fed north African crop production by up to 50% by 2020, a remarkably short time for such a dramatic change. The claim has been quoted in speeches by Rajendra Pachauri, the IPCC chairman, and by Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general.
This weekend Professor Chris Field, the new lead author of the IPCC’s climate impacts team, told The Sunday Times that he could find nothing in the report to support the claim. The revelation follows the IPCC’s retraction of a claim that the Himalayan glaciers might all melt by 2035.
The African claims could be even more embarrassing for the IPCC because they appear not only in its report on climate change impacts but, unlike the glaciers claim, are also repeated in its Synthesis Report.
This report is the IPCC’s most politically sensitive publication, distilling its most important science into a form accessible to politicians and policy makers. Its lead authors include Pachauri himself.
In it he wrote: “By 2020, in some countries, yields from rain-fed agriculture could be reduced by up to 50%. Agricultural production, including access to food, in many African countries is projected to be severely compromised.” The same claims have since been cited in speeches to world leaders by Pachauri and Ban.
Speaking at the 2008 global climate talks in Poznan, Poland, Pachauri said: “In some countries of Africa, yields from rain-fed agriculture could be reduced by 50% by 2020.” In a speech last July, Ban said: “Yields from rain-fed agriculture could fall by half in some African countries over the next 10 years.”
The obligatory disclaimer somehow got left out of the story, so I’ll repeat the one from the Sunday Telegraph:
Researchers insist the errors are minor and do not impact on the overall conclusions about climate change.
Remember that each time an error in a report on global warming is discovered. No matter how many errors are found, they don’t cast any doubt at all on the quality of global warming research.
An exhaustive analysis of the errors has been posted at the blog Eureferendum.
How Do You MiFi?
By: Bradley Fikes — February 6th, 2010If you have a MiFi wireless Internet model, manufacturer Novatel Wireless wants to know how you use it.
If your success story is featured on Novatel’s Web site, you’ll be entered into a contest to win a 55” Samsung Flat Screen TV with a WiFi LinkStick.
Here’s the press release from San Diego-based Novatel Wireless, with eligibility details.
The contest closes on Feb. 12, so those interested take heed.
I have my own success story with the MiFi, but of course as an ethical reporter type, I can’t enter the contest. Also, I don’t watch TV. I’m just happy to share my own experiences.
MiFi
My Novatel Wireless MiFi, atop my netbook.
(more…)
Do Cosmic Ray Changes Regulate Ice Ages? Global Warming Puzzler
By: Bradley Fikes — February 6th, 2010According to a new paper by Gerald E. Marsh (PDF), they do. If true, this has great implications for the debate over whether humans are causing global warming, or whether it is a natural phenomenon. More about Marsh here.
Changes in cosmic rays
The conventional global warming explanation for the Ice Ages and interglacial periods (we are in one right now), is that a change in the Earth’s orbit called a Milankovitch cycle adds heat, that causes carbon dioxide to be released, causing more warming.
Carbon dioxide itself can’t start the process, because during Ice Age cycles the warming trend precedes CO2 increases by an average of 800 years. Supposedly, the Milankovitch cycle is strong enough to start the warming process, but too weak to continue it without the help of carbon dioxide.
But global warming skeptics point to the lag as an indication that carbon dioxide is just along for the ride, as it were, an indicator of increasing warmth, not a major cause of it.
And Marsh’s paper says the cause and effect is wrong as well:
“This Milankovitch insolation theory has a number of problems associated with it, and the one to be discussed here is the so called “causality problem”; i.e., what came first—increased insolation or the shift to an interglacial. This would seem to be the most serious objection, since if the warming of the Earth preceded the increased insolation it could not be caused by it. This is not to say that Milankovitch variations in solar insolation do not play a role in changing climate, but they could not be the principal cause of glacial terminations.”
What Marsh finds instead is a strong correlation between changes in galactic cosmic rays and the start of interglacial warming. This is hypothesized to take place because cosmic rays can seed cloud formation, which can increase Earth’s albedo, or reflectiveness. So more cosmic rays means more clouds means less warming.
Conversely, a decrease in cosmic rays would mean fewer clouds and more warming.
“There is another compelling argument that can be given to support this hypothesis. Sime, et al.16 have found that past interglacial climates were much warmer than previously thought. Their analysis of the data shows that the maximum interglacial temperatures over the past 340 kyr were between 6 oC and 10 oC above present day values. From Fig. 1, it can be seen that past interglacial carbon dioxide concentrations were not higher than that of the current interglacial, and therefore carbon dioxide could not have been responsible for this warming. In fact, the concentration of carbon dioxide that would be needed to produce a 6-10 oC rise in temperature above present day values exceeds the maximum (1000 p.p.m.v.) for the range of validity of the usual formula [DF=a ln(C/C0)] used to calculate the forcing in response to such an increase.”
The cosmic ray hypothesis was proposed about 13 years ago by Danish scientist Henrik Svensmark, who has produced research supporting this view. Despite attempts by those committed to man-man global warming theory to discredit it, the cosmic ray hypothesis is still very much alive today. It deserves further research and consideration.
Tea Party Meeting Feb. 27 In San Diego
By: Bradley Fikes — February 5th, 2010A first anniversary meeting of the Tea Party movement is scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 27 in San Diego. It will take place from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Embarcadero, half a block north of the Star of India on Harbor Drive.
Richard Rider and Roger Hedgecock will give keynote speeches.
Here’s more details and suggestions for those who wish to participate.
Free parking is available across the street at the County Administration Building. There is also two-hour metered parking along Harbor Boulevard.
North Countians can avoid parking hassles by taking Amtrak to the nearby Santa Fe Depot. Amtrak departs 9:13 a.m. from Oceanside, 9:29 a.m. from Solana Beach, arriving at Santa Fe Depot at 10:10.
Those who don’t mind arriving even earlier, perhaps enjoying a downtown breakfast or sightseeing before the event, can take the Coaster, which leaves Oceanside at 8:30 a.m., stopping in Carlsbad, Encinitas, Solana Beach, Sorrento Valley Old Town, and arriving at Santa Fe Depot at 9:32 a.m.
Here’s a map:
Tea Party Feb. 27
Volcano Corp says it lost trial, will appeal
By: Bradley Fikes — February 5th, 2010Optimer Passes Second Big Trial of Drug for Deadly Bacteria
From Xconomy’s Luke Timmerman
San Diego-based Optimer Pharmaceuticals has nailed the second big trial designed to prove it has a new antibiotic for a deadly infection people can get in hospitals.
Optimer (NASDAQ: OPTR) said today that it reached its main goal of showing its experimental antibiotic, fidaxomicin, was roughly equivalent to the gold standard vancomycin drug when attempting to cure patients infected with “C.difficile” bacteria. The Optimer drug was about twice as good as vancomycin at preventing dangerous recurrences.
The findings, from a trial of 535 patients in North America and Europe, confirm what Optimer found from a previous trial of 600 patients, which was reported back in November 2008. Now that both pivotal studies are complete, Optimer plans to ship off a new drug application to the FDA by the second half of this year. If approved, fidaxomicin would be Optimer’s first marketed product, and it could represent the first new effective treatment for “C.diff” in decades. This particularly nasty bug causes severe diarrhea, the kind that can lead to severe dehydration, inflammation of the colon, hospitalization, and death.
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Tax collector still lags in paying refunds
From the North County Times’ Mark Walker:
The San Diego County Treasurer-Tax Collector’s office continues to take in millions of dollars more in property taxes than is owed and then lags in returning the money to taxpayers, according to a 2009 audit.
The examination of the treasurer’s property tax refund account concluded that nearly $8 million needed to be refunded or funneled to the county’s general fund if the person or entity who was owed the money could not be located.
It’s been a problem that stretches back to 2003 and has dragged on, despite a series of examinations in the years since.
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Volcano Corp. Says It Lost Trial Verdict, Will Appeal
From Reuters, this about Carmel Valley-based medical equipment maker Volcano Corp.
Feb 5 (Reuters) – Medical device maker Volcano Corp (VOLC.O) said a jury reached a verdict against the company and its unit Axsun Technologies in a litigation filed by Lightlab Imaging Inc.
The jury found Axsun breached its contract with Lightlab and Volcano intentionally interfered with Lightlab’s business relationship with Axsun, the company said in a statement.
In December 2008, Volcano acquired Axsun, which had an agreement to supply tunable lasers to Lightlab.
Here is Volcano’s press release
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From the press release
International Stem Cell Corporation (OTCBB:ISCO), www.internationalstemcell.com, announced today that its new cell production facility has passed final building inspection, which will enable development and manufacturing of the company and its partners’ clinical-grade stem cell products.
ISCO has designed and built a unique cell manufacturing facility in Oceanside, California consisting of separate “suites” for development and production of different cell types from the company’s proprietary human parthenogenic stem cell (hpSC) technology. The facility is located in close proximity to the fertility clinics that provide donated human eggs (oocytes) under ISCO’s recently-established partnerships and also near leading Californian research institutions with whom ISCO collaborates on fundamental stem cell biology and therapeutic applications.
ISCO will implement its parthenogenic stem cell processes at this facility during 2010 and adopt current good manufacturing practice (cGMP) standards. In parallel, ISCO will collaborate with world-leading scientists to demonstrate the therapeutic applicability and the potential immune-rejection advantages of hpSC lines relative to other stem cell classes.
California business owners (somewhat) confident
By: Jeff Rowe — February 4th, 2010Just over a third of California business owners are confident they will be able to expand their businesses during the next two years, about the same optimism level as the national average, according to the lnaugural Guardian Life Index: What Matters most to America’s Small Business Owners.
About 58 percent of California business owners expect to maintain their business in coming months, slightly above the national average of 54 percent who think that way.
The study also found that small business owners value:
–Customers who appreciate them
–Keeping current customers happy
–Finding some way to be noticeably different from their competitors.
The study was commissioned by the Guardian Life Insurance Company of America. More information on the study is available at www.smallbizdom.com