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crawl. These creatures proved thatslowing the aging process alsoreduced the formation of toxic betaamyloid aggregates. The findingopens the door for development ofdrugs preventing build-up of toxicprotein aggregates in the brain.
While aging is the greatest riskfactor for Alzheimers disease,another study this year by PaulSawchenko, a professor in theNeuronal Structure and FunctionLaboratory, suggests that low levelsof stress, the kind we experienceeach day, can also contribute to the
onset of Alzheimers disease.The findings showed how the
brain-damaging effects of negativeemotions lead to a molecular chainreaction that cause modification ofthe tau protein, which collapsesinto insoluble fibers inside neurons.This ultimately leads to cell death.Currently, drugs in Stage 2 clinicaltrials for the treatment of depres-sion and other mood disorders tar-get the same receptors involved inSawchenkos study.
We may have discovered anotherapplication, Sawchenko said. Suchdrugs could have a prophylacticeffect or delay the progression ofAlzheimers disease.
Thursday, October 18, 2007/ Vol. 122, No. 209sddt.com/biotech07
Photo: J. Kat Woronowicz
Eric Loumeau (left) of law firm Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo PC, and Chris Burnley ofPhenomix Corp. were among the participants in a recent biotech roundtable hosted byThe DailyTranscript.
Page 6
Local life science industrybreeds serial entrepreneurs
New companies, ideas,
capital investments boon
to regional economy
By SYDNIE MOORESpecial to the Daily Transcript
Forty years ago, no one couldhave guessed that San Diego would
one day be a Mecca for a robustbiotechnology industry. But with atroika of internationally renownedacademic centers The SalkInstitute, University of California,San Diego and Scripps ResearchInstitute San Diego was poisedfor a biotech explosion.
According to Joe Panetta, presi-dent of BIOCOM, the SouthernCalifornia life science association,San Diego now boasts more than500 biotech and medical technolo-gy companies constituting thepharmaceutical, diagnostic andmedical device industries with a
work force of 37,000 and an annu-al economic impact of $8.5 billion.In fact, San Diego is among the topthree regions in the country for
biotech, closing in on the SanFrancisco Bay Area and Boston.
A biotech legacy Along with the citys academic
powerhouses, also paving the wayfor San Diegos burgeoning biotechcluster was Hybritech, a medicaldiagnostic company founded by in1978 by UCSD researchers IvorRoyston and Howard Birndorf.
Hybritech was the first real biotech firm in San Diego, saysHoward E. Ted Greene, whoserved as its CE0 from 1979 until1986, when it was acquired by EliLilly and Co. (NYSE: ELI).
Hybritech indisputably helpedfuel San Diegos blockbuster lifesciences industry.
More than 100 San Diego com-panies have been related toHybritech in some way, saysPanetta, and many of todays CEOs
were originally at Hybritech.In fact, the Hybritech alumni list
includes an impressive list of heavyhitters who have gone on to launcha series of successful ventures,
including Ligand (Nasdaq:LGND), Idec Pharmaceuticals,Dura, Gensia, NeurocrineBiosciences (Nasdaq: NBIX),Immune Response, Viagene, Gen-Probe (Nasdaq: GPRO), Nanogen
(Nasdaq: NGEN), Genoptix,Epimmune, Biosite (Nasdaq:BSTE), Somaxon (Nasdaq: SOMX)and many others.
Laying the groundworkIn this spirit, Hybritech also set
the stage for an enduring phenom-enon: serial entrepreneurship,
another catalyst for San Diegos white-hot biotech industry. According to Panetta, a serialentrepreneur launches a new busi-ness after having already startedand exited a previous venture, incontrast with someone who starts asingle company and operates it as alifelong career.
A self-described serial entrepre-neur, Greene has participated inthe founding or management of 11medical technology companies.Following his tenure at Hybritech,he co-founded AmylinPharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: AMLN) a diabetes drug developer nowvalued at $6 billion and the largestindependent biotech in San Diego and ran Biovest Partners, a ven-ture capital fund that provided seedfunding for a half dozen local SanDiego biotech and medical devicecompanies, including Biosite, Amylin, Pyxis, Vical (Nasdaq:
VICL) and Cytel.Like Greene, Cam Garner, also
once a key player at Hybritech, is aprototypical serial entrepreneur.
After leaving Hybritech, he wasCEO of Dura Pharmaceuticals for10 years, which in 2001 was sold toElan Corp. (NYSE: ELN) in a stockdeal valued at $1.8 billion.
Since Dura, Garner has gone onto launch or invest in a successionof local specialty pharmaceuticalfirms, including XcelPharmaceuticals, SkinMedica,Somaxon Pharmaceuticals(Nasdaq: SOMX) and CadencePharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: CADX).In 2002, Garner and several part-ners launched VerusPharmaceuticals, a pediatric-ori-ented company with an initial focuson the treatment of asthma, aller-gies and related diseases and con-ditions. The company announced
an unprecedented $98 million infinancing in 2005.
Newer generation continuesthe tradition
A more recent example of a suc-
cessful serial entrepreneurship isRandall E. Woods, a former EliLilly executive who in Septembersold NovaCardia Inc., a firmfocused on cardiovascular disease,to pharmaceutical giant Merck(NYSE: MRK) for a total purchaseprice of $366.4 million.
Not bad for a little company
with 11 employees, said Panetta.In the true entrepreneurial spirit, Woods has now moved on,Panetta said, and just received $20million in financing to launch spin-offSequel Pharmaceuticals.
Both NovaCardias senior man-agement team and investors joinedSequel, a testament to everyonesconfidence in Randy and his leader-ship, said Brian Farmer, vice presi-dent of corporate development andoperations for Sequel, and a former business development executivewith NovaCardia.
With a proven track record oflicensing and developing drug can-didates for cardiovascular disease,
we are pleased to support theSequel management team, saidEckard Weber, a partner at DomainAssociates, which helped financeSequel.
Also recently joining the ranks ofSan Diegos biotech legends is
Steven J. Mento, a microbiologistwho in 2005 sold his company Idun specializing in the treatment ofliver damage to New York-basedindustry leader Pfizer (NYSE: PFE)for $300 million in cash. Mento went on to found ConatusPharmaceuticals a specialtypharmaceutical company engagedin the development of human ther-apeutics to treat liver disease.
Driven by ideas What drives dynamos like
Garner, Greene, Woods and Mentoto persevere?
In addition to some hefty finan-cial incentives, they are certainlymotivated by science and for-
ward-thinking ideas.Typically, said Greene, those who
start new biotech ventures aremore interested in the productthan in operating a company. I like
to figure out the product and dontwant to worry about sales, manu-facturing or facilities, he said.
Guys like me dont like living in
Private investors give vote of
confidence to stem cell bondsBy ROMAN JIMENEZSpecial to the Daily Transcript
When California voters over- whelmingly passed Proposition 71in 2004, a $3 billion bond initiativeto fund the states emerging embry-onic stem cell research program,some wondered how enthusiasticindividual investors would be tobuy those bonds.
The answer came on Oct. 3 whenState Treasurer Bill Lockyerannounced the first round of bondsales, some $250 million, had con-cluded. According to Lockyer, indi- vidual investors accounted for 41.1percent of the total, or $102.8 mil-lion.
According to the Treasurersoffice, individual investors wereonly expected to account for around13 percent of the bond commit-ment.
The investment by individualsfar exceeded our expectations andshows how strongly Californians believe in the promise of stem cellresearch to cure diseases andrelieve suffering, Lockyer said in a
Latest discoveries at Salk Institute fuel new scientific questionsSource: Salk Institute
Situated high above the bluffs inTorrey Pines and overlooking thePacific Ocean, the Salk Institute was founded in 1960 as a placewhere some of the worlds brightestminds would come together for thecommon goal of scientific discovery.
Its 59 faculty members, includingthree resident Nobel Laureates,have kept founder Dr. Jonas Salksvision alive by contributing seminal breakthroughs in basic biological
research in three general areas ofscience: Molecular Biology andGenetics; Neurosciences; and PlantBiology. Their discoveries have con-tinued to provide clues toward bet-ter understanding the molecularorigins behind some of todays mostdevastating diseases including can-cer, AIDS/HIV, Alzheimers andother neurodegenerative diseases.
Some of the most recent discov-eries have provided insight into theunderpinnings of Alzheimers dis-
ease, a condition that riddles thebrain with debilitating beta amyloidplaques and neurofibrillary tangles.A study by Andrew Dillin, an asso-ciate professor in the Molecular andCell Biology Laboratory, showedhow aging impedes the brains abil-ity to clear away toxic proteinaggregates.
Dillin and his team employed thehelp of tiny Methuselah wormsthat, despite their advanced age,still have a youthful spring in their
Photo courtesy of Salk Institute
The Salk Institute, overlooking the ocean in La Jolla, supports 59 faculty members and a scientific staff ofmore than 850 conducting biological research. See Salk Institute on 8
Roundtable discussion
See Entrepreneurs on 8
Source: San Diego Workforce Partnership
San Diego is home to the worlds third-largest biotechnologyindustry. With the success of this segment has come work force sup-ply demands that pose a two-fold challenge to the region: How do
we motivate and prepare our youth to fill jobs that require an edu-cational competitive edge in the fields of math, technology, life sci-ences and others demanded by the industry? How do we arm teach-ers with real-world curriculum that brings the classroom in line
with the occupational requirements of an ever-evolving industry?One solution to creating a biotech work force talent pool has been
underway since the summer of 2005: the Life Sciences SummerInstitute. LSSI connects upper-level high school, university andcommunity college students, as well as high school teachers, withleading companies within San Diegos life sciences community.
The LSSI programs are working, said Ashley Wildrick, specialinitiatives program manager of the San Diego WorkforcePartnership, and we have results to prove it. High school students
who lacked direction now see the life sciences as a potential careerpath; college students are being placed into internships that lead topart-time and full-time positions; and research performed in par-ticipant companies, as a result of the mentorship process, has yield-ed patents that may influence additional job creation.
Students gained exposure to career options, hands-on laboratoryexperience, work readiness skills and mentoring by a company orresearch scientist. But first, they went through Biotech Boot Camp,an introduction to biotechnology laboratory work held at theSouthern California Biotechnology Center at Miramar College, sup-plemented by materials and supplies from Invitrogen Corp.(Nasdaq: IVGN). For each student, a paid internship within the lifesciences industry followed.
One such student, Aditi Sharma, completed the program thissummer and carried out an internship at Pfizer (NYSE: PFE). Thecompany then hired her part-time, while she completes bio-medicalengineering studies at UCSD.
My internship has given me the chance to apply the knowledgelearned at school and gain a deeper appreciation and hands-onunderstanding of cancer biology and its implications for scientificprogress of the future, Sharma said. I have developed confidence inmy skills as a scientist and researcher, developed fundamental labo-ratory skills and the soft skills essential in the working world, and
Growing the
biotech work force
See Work force on 7
statement. A total of 18 institutional
investors (such as mutual funds, banks or insurance companies)bought the balance of the $250 mil-lion. Bonds were sold Oct. 3 and 4.
Samuel H. Wood, M.D., CEO ofStemagen, a privately held embry-onic stem cell research company, was also pleased with the level ofindividual investor participation,calling it a smart and progressiveinvestment.
The public funding of humanembryonic stem cell researchmakes good fiscal sense. Paying tofind a cure or treatment to a diseasetoday is far less costly than trying to
manage any disease long term,Wood added. Its easier on the pub-lic purse, but most importantly, itholds the promise of easing patientsuffering.
Stemagen has established itselfas a leader in the field of stem cellresearch, already creating eightlines of embryonic stem cells fromembryos that were excess of repro-ductive need. The company has alsocreated multiple lines of embryonicstem cells from unfertilizedembryos incapable of reproduction.These uniparental embryos arecreated by artificially activating an
See Stem cell on 8
Supplement to:
Inside Biotech
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3THURSDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2007 Inside Biotech THE DAILY TRANSCRIPT
Close-up: Stanley Crooke
Isis uses antisense technology to target more effective drugsBy MICHAEL KLAM
Special to the Daily Transcript
Drug development is risky busi-ness. In the biotech industry, 999out of 1,000 drugs targeted fordevelopment will fail, according toDr. Stanley Crooke, CEO of IsisPharmaceuticals.
The Carlsbad-based companyssuccesses, including its develop-ment of antisense technology and
its progress in infectious diseasediagnosis, represent a boon for thecompany and the entire industry.
For the rest of us, these advance-ments could result in easier, longerand healthier lives.
Heres the general idea: Cancerand many cardiovascular, meta-
bolic and inflammatory diseasesoccur due to overproduction orabnormal production of proteins.Isis developed antisense technolo-gy to target specific areas and todisrupt the bodys process in creat-ing these undesired proteins.
Drug discovery and develop-ment is about making patients
better, effecting cures and alteringthe course of chronic diseases,said Crooke, who co-founded Isis(Nasdaq: ISIS) in 1989. Thats
what Ive done with my life, and(antisense technology) is simply atotally novel approach.
After 18 years and about $2 bil-lion spent, Crooke and his col-leagues have revolutionized theindustry.
The key difference is that youcreate a new class of drugs, design-ing them to bind to a class of tar-gets that have never been targeted
by drugs before: messenger RNA,said Crooke. And you use geneticinformation to make a precise ZIPcode to specifically attack one, andonly one, messenger RNA.
This specificity means rapiddiagnosis, faster healing and lessside effects. Essentially, the tech-nology goes straight to the sourceof the problem, tackles it and pre-
vents growth of the disease whilepromoting healing.
Drugs are just tools that we putin the body to do a particular job,said Crooke. As a general rule, themore specific a drug is, the betterit is, the safer it is, and the more
effective it is.
Crookes interest in antisensetechnology sparked while helpingto establish Bristol-Meyers anti-cancer drug discovery and devel-opment program. Prior to found-ing Isis, he also served as presidentof research and development forSmithKline Beckman Corp., wherehe coordinated the companysR&D activities in instruments,diagnostics, animal health and
clinical labs.With the backing of a number of
venture capitalists, Crooke createdIsis to pursue the dream of creat-ing a new platform for drug dis-covery that will enhance produc-tivity and make better drugs, hesaid.
The platform has since support-ed 17 drugs in development andone drug on the market to treat a
wide range of diseases. Isis, on aper-capita basis, is the most prolif-ic innovator of any company indrug-development history, accord-ing to Crooke. The Isis team hasissued 1,600 patents and has 3,500patent applications in process.
Every year, when patentroundups are considered, we rankalong with the IBMs, the Xeroxesand the like, Crooke said. Whatthat reflects is the level of innova-tion in the company and our com-
mitment to tackling big ideas andstaying the course.Through its wholly owned sub-
sidiary Ibis Biosciences Inc., Isiscreated a second technology calledthe Ibis T5000 that the company
believes will radically changeinfectious disease diagnosis, mak-ing it more efficient.
Its estimated that if the T5000had been up and running at time ofSARS, Crooke said, it would havetaken us two patients and two daysto learn that it was a viral disease,that it was different than anythingthat had been seen, and that thelast time something like it was seen
was in China two years earlier.The biosensor system enables
rapid identification of bacterial, viral, fungal and other infectiousorganisms, as well as analysis ofhuman DNA. Isis plans to eventu-ally spin off the technology, andIbis Biosciences is a candidate for
merger or acquisition, Crooke said.
The company also announced inSeptember that it had been award-ed $4.2 million in governmentcontracts to Ibis for biodefenseapplications.
We are pleased with the ongo-ing government support and theopportunity to continue toadvance our technology and appli-cations in the biodefense arena,said Michael Treble, president of
Ibis and vice president of Isis, in apress release. These contractssupport the Ibis business model tocommercialize the Ibis T5000 inmultiple business sectors, includ-ing government biodefense andinfectious disease surveillance,health care-associated infectioncontrol, infectious diseaseresearch and, in the future, in vitrodiagnostics.
Isis products and technologyhave made it one of the mostsought-out biotech companies inits field. In July, Isis announced it
would receive $26.5 million fromCambridge, Mass.-based AlnylamPharmaceuticals under a patentlicensing agreement. The compa-ny most recently received $5 mil-lion to begin phase 1 of a study
with Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) on ISIS 325568, a diabetesdrug candidate.
Were being sought out activelybecause we have products that areunique and technology that is pro-foundly revolutionary, Crookesaid. And the evidence for that isthe deals that weve done this year.
Isis acquired Symphony Genesisfor $120 million in late Septemberand received part of a $1.2 millionNational Institutes of Health(NIH) grant to use the Ibis T5000in influenza surveillance research.
There are companies that havealigned with us that weve provid-ed selective access to our patents,
but our goal has been and wevesucceeded in this to be in con-trol of the platforms, Crooke said.Weve created quite a number ofpartnerships with larger compa-nies.
Isis has also granted technologyto smaller companies to focus onspecific elements, therapeuticareas or technology that would be
complementary to Isis projects.
Photo: J. Kat Woronowicz
Drug discovery and development is about making patients better, effecting cures and altering the course ofchronic diseases, said Stanley Crooke, CEO of Isis Pharmaceuticals.
This brings the greatest value toour shareholders and the greatest
value to the widest range ofpatients, Crooke said.
The company has received posi-tive results from its phase 2 clini-cal trial of its cholesterol-loweringdrug candidate ISIS 301012,recently given the generic name ofmipomersen sodium. Drugs thatlower cholesterol such asPfizers (NYSE: PFE) Lipitor,
which reaped $13 billion in salesin 2006 tend to be the mostprofitable for pharmaceuticalcompanies. If successful, mipom-ersen sodium could lead Isis intoprofitability. The company report-ed a loss of $68.1 million in 2006.
Still, Isis stock performance inrecent years seems to reflectinvestors confidence in its drugpipeline and recognition of whatthe company has accomplished.
Success in dynamic VC
biotech environmentBy LAURA SHAWVERand CHRIS BURNLEY
Phenomix Corp.
Venture-capital funding is nec-essary to drive biotechnology.
Without this support, the devel-opment of protein-based thera-pies from recombinant DNA tech-nology and repurposing mono-clonal antibodies from basicresearch may never have beenapplied to the wide range ofhuman diseases. In the hopes ofhigh rewards, venture capital is
willing to fund novel, high-riskideas, which are also at high risk
of failure.San Diego biotechnology com-panies have been in a mix of goodand bad news. According to Ernstand Young, San Diego finished2006 in second place for biotech
venture-capital funding, ahead ofthe Boston-Cambridge area and
behind the four sub-regions of theSan Francisco Bay Area.Biotechnology also secured thelead over other sectors in venturecapital raised in the first quarterof this year, but this amount was a40 percent drop compared to last
year. So how does a companyattract venture capitalists andcontinue to build its business
when times are tough?
Be adaptable,maximize strengths
While it may take 10 to 12 yearsto bring a drug to market, the
venture capital funding environ-
ment in biotechnology is verydynamic. New discoveries, tech-nologies and business models areconstantly creating an evolutionof ideas and excitement. A com-pany must maintain a vision for
building value, but flexibility andadaptability are key elements forsuccess.
Phenomix Corp., a San Diegobiotechnology company, providesa good example. The company
was founded in 2002 based onforward genetics, a technique that
was the basis of three Nobel Prize Awards. At that time, venturecapital was highly attracted tousing genetic technologies tounderstand human diseases. Theforward genetics platform could
be partnered with other drug dis-covery companies, and in turnthis could fund Phenomix owndrug discovery and developmentprograms.
Shortly after Phenomix wasfounded, private-equity fundsshifted their focus from platformtechnologies to drug develop-ment. In-licensing became a pop-ular strategy for biotechnologycompanies to enter into drugdevelopment. This business model
became known as NRDO (noresearch, development only).
While new companies could start
up as NRDOs, Phenomix wasestablished based on a specifictechnology and had to find anoth-er way to adapt to survive in thisfunding environment.
Instead of rebuilding the com-pany, Phenomix figured out howto apply its technology and exper-tise to leap into drug develop-ment. The company took animportant aspect of the technolo-gy the early use of animal mod-els to assess how a drug works ormight work and crossed it witha medicinal chemistry approachto quickly discover better drugsfor human diseases.
Today, Phenomix has two leadprograms for treatment of dia-
betes and hepatitis C virus infec-tion, which combined affect morethan 25 million people in theUnited States. Phenomix hassecured one of the highest levelsof venture-capital support in San
Diego and thrived in the dynamicfunding environment by analyz-ing the companys strengths andadapting accordingly. The compa-ny has focused on high-valuetherapeutic targets with largecommercial opportunities andthen worked rapidly to secureintellectual property and inventimproved compounds.
Build relationships,communicate regularly
There are many different waysto obtain venture-funding.Knowing the investing principlesfor each venture capital firm is anobvious step, but understanding
See VC biotech on 8
See Crooke on 8
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4 THURSDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2007 Inside Biotech THE DAILY TRANSCRIPT
Publicly Traded Biomed & Biotech Firms
Headquartered in San DiegoRanked By Market Cap On Oct. 9, 2007
Data Source: Company Web sites, Bloomberg. Ranked by Market Cap on Oct. 9, 2007. This is a partial list; a more complete listing c an be found at sourcebook.sddt.com. N/A: Not Applicable, n/a: not available, wnd: would not disclose. It is not the intent of this list to endorse its
participants, nor to imply that a company's size or numerical rank indicates its quality or service. We reserve the right to edit listings or to exclude a listing due to insufficient information. Last updated 10/2007.
Company Name
Address
Phone, Fax
URL
Market Cap On
Oct. 9, 2007
Ticker
SymbolFields Of Research Major Products Executive(s) and Title(s) Year Established
1
Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc.
9360 Towne Centre Drive
San Diego, CA 92121
(858) 552-2200, (858) 552-2212
www.amylin.com
$ 6, 33 7,923, 000 A MLN
Developing innovative medicines to
improve the lives of people with meta-
bolic diseases
Smylin, Exentide, Exenatide LAR,
AC2592 (GLP-1), AC3056, AC
162352 (PYY[2-26])
Daniel M. Bradbury, President/CEO; Alain D. Baron, Sr. VP,
Research; Mark G. Foletta, CFO/Sr. VP, Finance; Mark J. Gergen,
Sr. VP, Corporate Development
1987
2
Invitrogen Corp.
1600 Faraday Ave.
Carlsbad, CA 92008
(760) 603-7200, (760) 603-6500
www.invitrogen.com
$3,909, 779, 000 IVGN
Gene cloning and expression, elec-
tropharesis, protein purification, char-
acterization and production, enzyme
chemistry, molecular labation and
detection
Research tools in kit form, catalog,
custom products and services for
biotechnology and biopharmaceutical
researchers and companies worldwide
for life science discovery, develop-
ment and production
Gregory T. Lucier, Chairman/CEO; David F. Hoffmeister, Sr.
VP/CFO; Karen S. Gibson, Sr. VP/CIO1987
3
Gen-Probe Inc.
10210 Genetic Center Drive
San Diego, CA 92121
(858) 410-8000, (858) 410-8625
www.gen-probe.com
$3, 716, 12 1, 000 GPRONucleic acid diagnostics for human dis-
ease
Rapid, accurate nucleic acid tests to
diagnose human diseases and screen
donated blood
Henry L. Nordhoff, Chairman/President/CEO 1983
4
ResMed Inc.
14040 Danielson St.
Poway, CA 92064
(858) 746-2400, (858) 622-2043
www.resmed.com
$3,242,184,000 RMD Sleep-disordered breathing
Devices to treat sleep-disordered
breathing and other respiratory disor-
ders
Peter C. Fa rrel l, Founde r/CE O; Ki eran Ga ll ahue , Pre side nt 1989
5
Illumina Inc.9885 Towne Centre Drive
San Diego, CA 92121
(858) 202-4500, (858) 587-4297
[email protected], [email protected]
www.illumina.com
$3,128,722,000ILMN Large-scale analysis of genetic varia-
tion and function
Integrated array-based systems,reagents, software and services for
large scale genetic analysis including
genetyping and gene expression pro-
filing
Jay T. Flatley, President/CEO; Christian Cabou, Sr. VP, GeneralCounsel; Christian Henry, Sr. VP/CFO; Arthur Holden, Sr. VP/Corp.
Market Development; Tristan Orpin, Sr. VP, Commercial
Operations; John Stuelpnagel, DVM, Sr. VP/COO/General
Manager, MicroArray Business; John West, Sr. VP, General
Manager, DNA Sequencing
1998
6
Isis Pharmaceuticals Inc.
1896 Rutherford Road
Carlsbad, CA 92008
(760) 931-9200, (760) 603-4650
www.isispharm.com
$ 1,3 56 ,94 7, 00 0 I SI S
RNA-based drug discovery and devel-
opment to treat metabolic, cardiovas-
cular, inflammatory and viral diseases,
and cancer; biosensor to identify infec-
tious organisms; small molecule drugs
that bind to RNA
RNA-based drug discovery and devel-
opment to treat metabolic, cardiovas-
cular, inflammatory and viral diseases,
and cancer
Stanley T. Crooke, Chairman/CEO; B. Lynne Parshall,
Director/Exec. VP/CFO/Secretary; Jeffrey M. Jonas, Exec. VP;
C. Frank Bennett, Sr. VP, Research
1989
7
NuVasive Inc.
4545 Towne Centre Court
San Diego, CA 92121
(800) 455-1476, (858) 909-2000
www.nuvasive.com
$1,276,284,000NUVA
Medical device com pany Spine surgery product sAlexis V. Lukianov, Chairman/CEO; Keith Valentine,
President/COO; Kevin C. OBoyle, Exec. VP/CFO1995
8
DJO Inc.
1430 Decision St.
Vista, CA 92081
(760) 727-1280, (760) 734-3595
www.djortho.com
$1,17 3,975,000 DJO Ort hopedicsProducts and services for the ortho-
pedic sports medicine market
Leslie H. Cross, President/CEO; Vickie Capps, CFO/Principal
Accounting Officer/Exec. VP/Treasurer; Luke T. Faulstick, COO1978
9
Halozyme Therapeutics
11588 Sorrento Valley Road, Suite 17San Diego, CA 92121
(858) 794-8889
www.halozyme.com
$661,048,100 HALO Therapeutics and b iopharmaceuticalscGMP Halozymes first recombinanthuman enzyme Cumulase and Hylenex
Jonathan E. Lim, President/CEO/Director; Gregory I. Frost,VP/CSO/Director; David A. Ramsay, MBA, VP/CFO; Robert L.
Little, VP/CCO
1998
10
Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc.
6166 Nancy Ridge Drive
San Diego, CA 92121
(858) 453-7200, (858) 453-7210
www.arenapharm.com
$ 659,977, 400 A RN A G p ro te in -coupled recep tors Drug d iscove ry a nd d evelop me nt
Jack Lief, Chairman/President/CEO; K.A. Ajit-Simh, VP, Quality
Systems; Dominic P. Behan, Director/Sr. VP/CSO; Robert E.
Hoffman, VP, Finance/CFO
1997
11
Quidel Corp.
10165 McKellar Court
San Diego, CA 92121
(858) 552-1100, (858) 453-4338
www.quidel.com
$ 65 6,49 8, 50 0 Q DEL
Reproduction, infectious diseases, gen-
eral health screening, bone health and
autoimmune disorders
Manufactures and markets point-of-
care rapid diagnostic tests for the
detection of medical conditions and
illnesses
Mark Pulido, Chairman; Caren L. Mason, President/CEO; Thomas
Brown, Vice Chairman; Rod Dammeyer, President1979
12
Acadia Pharmaceuticals Inc.
3911 Sorrento Valley Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92121
(858) 558-2871, (858) 558-2872
www.acadia-pharm.com
$589,298,000 ACAD Central nervous system disorders
Drug discovery and development for
the treatment of central nervous sys-
tem disorders
Uli Hacksell, CEO; Thomas H. Aasen, VP/CFO/Secretary/Treasurer 1993
13
Ligand Pharmaceuticals Inc.
10275 Science Center Drive
San Diego, CA 92121
(858) 550-7500, (858) [email protected]
www.ligand.com
$563,291,600 LGND.PK
Cancer, pain, dermatology, mens and
womens health, osteoporesis, metabol-
ic disorders, cardiovascular and inflam-matory diseases
Avinza, ONTAK, Targretin capsules,
Targretin gel, Panretin gel
John Higgins, President/CEO; Martin Meglasson, VP, Discovery
Research; Zofia Dziewanowska, VP, Clinical Research; Syed Zazmi,
VP, Business Development Strategic Planning; John Sharp, VP,Finance/CFO
1987
14
Cypress Bioscience Inc.
4350 Executive Drive, Suite 325
San Diego, CA 92121
(858) 452-2323, (858) 452-1222
www.cypressbio.com
$ 55 8, 15 9, 70 0 CY PB
Providing products for the treatment of
patients with functional somatic syn-
dromes and other central nervous sys-
tem disorders
Drugs and drug development
Jay D. Kranzler, Chairman/CEO; Sabrina Martucci Johnson, Exec.
VP/CBO/CFO; R. Michael Gendreau, VP, Clinical
Development/CMO; Srinivas G. Rao, CSO
1981
15
Neurocrine Biosciences Inc.
12790 El Camino Real
San Diego, CA 92130
(858) 617-7600, (858) 617-7602
www.neurocrine.com
$38 5, 59 7, 00 0 N BI X
Insomnia, anxiety, depression, diabetes,
multiple sclerosis, irritable bowel syn-
drome, eating disorders, pain and
autoimmunity
Biotechnology and drugsJoseph A. Mollica, Chairman; Gary A. Lyons, President/CEO; Kevin
Gorman, COO; Tim Coughlin, CPA, VP/CFO1992
16
Senomyx Inc.
4767 Nexus Centre Drive
San Diego, CA 92121
(858) 646-8300, (858) 404-0752
www.senomyx.com
$362,265,300 SNMX Products relevant to taste and olfactionDiscovery and development of savory,
sweet and salt flavors
Kent Snyder, President/CEO; Mark J. Zoller, CSO/Exec. VP,
Discovery and Development; John Poyhonen, CFO/CBO/Sr. VP1998
17
Dexcom Inc.
5555 Oberlin Drive
San Diego, CA 92121
(858) 200-0200, (858) 200-0201
www.dexcom.com
$3 02 ,4 29, 300 DXCMGlucose monitoring in people with dia-
betes
Continuous Glucose Monitoring sys-
temsTerrance H. Gregg, President/CEO; Jess Roper , Interim CFO 1999
18
Somaxon Pharmacueticals Inc.
3721 Valley Centre Drive, Suite 500
San Diego, CA 92130
(858) 509-3670, (858) 509-1589
www.somaxon.com
$208,866,200 SOMX Pharmaceuticals SilenorKenneth M. Cohen, President/CEO; Susan E. Dube, Sr. VP,
Corporate Development2003
19
Vical Inc.
10390 Pacific Center Court
San Diego, CA 92121
(858) 646-1100, (858) 646-1150
www.vical.com
$ 19 8, 31 8,40 0 V IC LGene-based vaccines and pharmaceuti-
cals for human therapy
DNA vaccines for infectious diseases,
gene-based cancer immunotherapies,
gene-based therapeutic proteins
Vijay B. Samant, President/CEO; Jill Church, VP/CFO/Secretary;
Robin Jackman, Sr. VP, Business Operations; Alain Rolland, Sr. VP,
Product Development
1987
20
La Jolla Pharmaceutical Co.6455 Nancy Ridge DriveSan Diego, CA 92121(858) 452-6600, (858) 452-6893www.ljpc.com
$1 61 ,0 75 ,70 0 LJ PC An ti bo dy -m ed iat ed di sea se s R iqu en t, To lera ge n, LJ P 10 82 D ei rd re G ill es pi e, Pre si de nt /C EO; N iv C av iar , Exe c. V P/C BO/C FO 19 89
8/14/2019 Inside Biotech, 2007
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5THURSDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2007 Inside Biotech THE DAILY TRANSCRIPT
625 Broadway ste. 1210
San Diego, CA. 92101(619) 238-1179
The Burnham Life Sciences Group:
San Diegos recognized leader inbiotech real estate for 25 years
The Burnham Life Sciences Group is SanDiego Countys oldest and most experienced realestate team specializing exclusively in meeting theunique needs of the biotechnology industry.Beginning with Hybritechs first facility, the BurnhamLife Sciences Group has continued to be San Diegosleading provider of biomedical real estate services,routinely negotiating more than 65 percent of life sci-ences-related leases in the region.
According to Brent Jacobs, a senior vice president with Burnham and founder of the Life SciencesGroup, the team prides itself on being the real estatebroker of choice for life sciences firms of any stage.This sector of the commercial real estate industry isso specialized that it requires a higher level of atten-tion, involvement and understanding of the industryitself, said Jacobs, who is joined on the team byGreg Bisconti and Brian Cooper. We are structured
to provide the highest level of service possible to ourclients, and we demonstrate our dedication to theirsuccess through personal involvement in promotingissues of importance to the industry.
The Burnham Life Sciences Groups industry lead-ership is evident by its board-level involvement inorganizations like BIOCOM and the BurnhamInstitute for Medical Research.
Not only does this help us to better understand thechallenges these life science companies face, but weare able to better anticipate their needs and affectpositive change on their behalf, said Bisconti, whoseroots as a financial analyst and experience as a bro-ker in the tech-driven San Francisco Bay Area allowhim to provide bottom-line technical analyses of eachclients real estate alternatives. As part of the CON-NECT Framework workshops, he conducts annualseminars on common pitfalls in laboratory leases.
Tracking trends and translating data into concreterecommendations for biotech companies is central tothe value Burnhams team provides to clients. Theteam tracks inventory and vacancy trends throughoutSan Diegos lab market, and is the only group of itskind to produce an annual market report based onthese findings.
Staying in front of where the market is moving isextremely important, Cooper said. By analyzingthe trends in on- and off-market opportunities bysubmarket and square footage, we can provide real-time recommendations to our clients that no one elsecan.
Cooper has a hand in all aspects of marketing,analysis and transaction management, in addition toestablishing new relationships.
Our constant and multilevel involvement in thelocal biotechnology community gives us an
unmatched level of knowledge regarding the healthand future plans of biopharmaceutical companies inthe region, he said. Ultimately, our ability to antic-ipate market trends translates into maximum negoti-ating power for the companies we represent.
The Burnham Life Sciences Group is a specializedindustry group within Burnham Real Estate, a com-pany providing comprehensive real estate services toclients throughout the southwestern United States.Established in 1891 and headquartered in SanDiego, the company has four regional offices inSouthern California and one in Las Vegas. Companyservices include traditional brokerage along withcorporate services, asset services, capital markets,advisory services, strategic corporate consulting andproject management. Visit the Web site at
www.burnhamrealestate.com.
Submitted by Burnham Real Estate
Close-up: Kent Snyder
Senomyx savors market niche in science of flavor enhancementBy ELIZABETH MALLOY
The Daily Transcript
The next time you bite into aNestls candy or down a coldCoca Cola, know that the flavorrush might come courtesy of aSan Diego laboratory.
Senomyx (Nasdaq: SNMX) is aLa Jolla biotech company thatdoesnt create pills or insulintrackers, but flavors. The compa-
ny has contracts with some of thebiggest names in the food indus-try. But beyond just creating new
versions of sweet and sour, thecompany is also trying to help thefood industry make its productshealthier, by creating compoundsthat allow foods to be less sugaryor salty, without losing their taste.
Were not really trying to cre-ate necessarily new flavors. Mostof our programs improve thenutritional profile of the food and
beverage products, said KentSnyder, president and chief exec-utive officer of Senomyx. In somecases were trying to modulate thetaste of products, for example, by
blocking the bitter taste.From a business standpoint,
this helps Senomyx carve out anitch market. Other than a smallcompany in New Jersey calledRed Point Bio, there is a not a lot
of competition. Large flavor com-panies like International Flavorsand Fragrances (NYSE: IFF) inNew York City, or Firmenich andGivaudan in Switzerland actuallycreate flavors, as opposed to
working with taste modulators, which is what Senomyx does.Taste modulators are compoundsthat react with the tongues tastereceptors. Theyre similar to fla- vors, but rather than creating acertain taste, more often tastemodulators make the tonguethink something that would reg-ularly feel salty, sweet or bitterfeel less so.
Senomyx collaborates withCoca Cola (NYSE: KO),Campbells, Nestl, CadburySchweppes (NYSE: CSG), Kraft(NYSE: KFT), Sole and theJapanese company Ajinomoto.The company conducts allresearch and development on siteand discovers its own compounds.It licenses some technology, suchas the science of taste receptors,and it does have a licensed com-pound library. Snyder said all thecompounds that go into finaldevelopment are discovered bySenomyx scientists.
What were trying to do is tofind flavor ingredients that inter-act with the taste receptor itself,Snyder explained. He used a pro-
ject they are working on to reducethe amount of added sugar andsweetener in food as an example.The way to look at it is it makes
the taste receptor act more effi-ciently, so a lesser amount ofsugar is required to activate thatreceptor. So its more healthy, butsends the same sweet taste signalto the brain as if you had some-
thing thats fully sweetened.To check if their flavor modifiers
are working, Senomyx does tastetesting on site in laboratory.Tasters are trained, then broughtto a room where they sit in a boothand have flavors, or flavors cookedin food, pushed to them through alittle door. A computer sits on adesk in front of them and theyanswer questions about what they
taste. Tasters are served water andcrackers to cleanse their pallets, asif theyre tasting wine.
We have panels of consumersthat come in on a regular basisthat are trained in certain tastes sothey can detect those, Snyder said.
Senomyx was incorporated in1998 and opened its labs in 2000.The company went public in2004. The companys stock hashovered around the $13 per sharemark for the past six months,spiking as high as $15.14 in earlyJune, and falling as low as $10.21in early August.
Snyder, a Kansas City native,came to Senomyx in 2001. Beforethat hed spent about 11 years at
Agouron Pharmaceuticals, whichis now part of Pfizer (NYSE: PFE).
The original technology forSenomyx came out of theUniversity of California, San
Diego. A professor named CharlesZuker characterized mammaliantaste receptors, and Senomyxlicensed the technology. Senomyxnow has about 120 employees, 75percent of whom are in R&D.
Photo: J. Kat Woronowicz
Kent Snyder, president and CEO of Senomyx, says his company is not necessarily trying to create new flavors,but rather find ways to make taste receptors act more efficiently.
There is a small business develop-ment staff that tries to form newcollaborations for the company
with food vendors.Some of Senomyx products are
on the market now. Nestl is sell-ing two products with the compa-nys savory flavor ingredient,
though neither is currently avail-able in the United States. Fromdiscovery until market generallytakes Senomyx about five years.
A lot of big food companiesSenomyx works with have theirown internal R&D teams, butthey work more on the food itself.
Snyder said his companys part inthe process is unique.
Were doing something thatsquite different than what theyredoing, Snyder said. Thats whythey have come to us.
[email protected] Code: 20071018crf
DNA decoding maps mainstreamfuture; lower costs may makegene sequencing more common
By KEITH J. WINSTEINThe Wall Street Journal
This past summer, biologist J.Craig Venter published his owncomplete genetic blueprint on theInternet, a multiyear effort thatcost more that $60 million.
Now, Dr. Venter is decodinghimself again, this time using
new, less costly technology. Hehopes by December to redo thegene job for just $300,000.
The price of reading a personsgenome is plummeting, raisinghope for new medical discoveriesand cures. It cost the HumanGenome Project $3 billion toextract the first complete genetic
blueprint, which was completedin 2003. Now four companies areracing to bring the cost to below$10,000.
At that price, it may becomemore common for patients tohave their genes sequenced formedical tests. Cancer researchershope to use sequencing to learn
what went wrong in the DNA ofcells that became tumors. Drugcompanies hope to usher in an eraof personalized medicine withcustom-made medicines thatchange cell behavior.
Whichever company reachesthe $10,000 mark first has a shotat winning a $10 million prizeoffered by the X PrizeFoundation, based in SantaMonica, Calif., which is trying toencourage faster and cheapergene sequencing.
Once people see the value ofthis information, nobody will
want to go backwards, saysVenter, who has put up $500,000of the prize money.
The contenders Illumina Inc.(Nasdaq: ILMN), of San Diego;
Applera Corp.s (NYSE: ABI)Applied Biosystems unit in FosterCity, Calif.; Roche Holding AGs(NYSE: AG) 454 Life Sciences inBranford, Conn.; and HelicosBioSciences Corp. (Nasdaq:HLCS), of Cambridge, Mass. havent achieved the $10,000level yet. It currently costs
between $300,000 and $3 mil-
lion to sequence a genome. But with better chemicals and fastercomputers, the companies say, thecost will fall to $10,000 within afew years.
One reason for the advances isthat sequencing machines nolonger have to start from scratch.Human DNA is made up of 23pieces, or chromosomes, and eachchromosome has roughly 100million chemical letters arrangedlike beads on a string As, Ts,Cs and Gs. It isnt possible todayto read 100 million letters at atime, so to sequence a personsDNA, researchers traditionallychopped up the chromosomesinto overlapping pieces, eachabout 700 letters long.
TechTIPS takes UCSD
innovations to the publicSource: TechTIPS
University of California, SanDiegos Technology Transfer &Intellectual Property Services(TechTIPS), established in 1994,manages UCSDs intellectual prop-erty. Through proper stewardshipof university intellectual propertyand innovations, TechTIPS facili-tates the transfer of UCSD innova-tions for the public benefit;enhances the research and educa-
tion experience of the UCSD com-munity; promotes and targets eco-nomic development by leveragingUCSD innovations; and providesincentives to researchers to stimu-late technological innovations.
TechTIPS matches academicinnovations to business partnersthat are most suited to commercial-ize specific technologies. Whileserving and protecting the interestsof the university and itsresearchers, TechTIPS activelymarkets available technologies
with the goal of finding corporatepartners to share in the risks and
benefits of commercializing early-stage technologies.
From over $700 million in extra-mural research funding per year,UCSD researchers generate over300 innovations annually. TheSchool of Medicine, School ofPharmaceutical Sciences, MedicalCenter and Division of BiologicalSciences exhibit UCSDs strength inthe health sciences sector by con-tributing significantly to this largeportfolio with more than 60 per-cent of the innovations being life
sciences/biomedical technologies.In recent fiscal years, over 70
licenses were granted annually tocommercialize life sciences andphysical sciences technologies. Aspart of our technology transfermission, TechTIPS prefers tolicense technologies to local busi-nesses to promote regional eco-nomic development. In somecases, licenses are granted as thefounding technology of newlyformed companies, creating new
jobs and attracting venture capi-tal to our region. To date, morethan 100 startup companies have
been formed with licensed inno-vations from the TechTIPS office.
TechTIPS organizes seminarsand workshops to educate the uni-
versity community on intellectualproperty and technology transfer,and networking events to promoteuniversity and industry interac-tions. In addition, TechTIPS co-sponsors entrepreneurial/network-ing events, such as a startup boot-camp conference and an innova-tors showcase, that are open to the
business community. Recently, to
promote the licensing of universitytechnologies, TechTIPS has sup-ported a $50K Business PlanCompetition organized by universi-ty students.
For companies in search of newtechnologies, TechTIPS has morethan 1,400 innovations availablefor licensing. In the
biomedical/biotech area, the tech-nologies include: therapeutics andpharmaceuticals, delivery systems,diagnostics, medical devices andresearch reagents and tools. A list-ing of available technologies can befound on the TechTIPS Web site atinvent.ucsd.edu.
Source Code: 20071018cri
In both the government-fundedHuman Genome Project and
Venters first effort, scientists useda technique invented in the 1970scalled Sanger sequencing to inputeach piece into a computer. Thenthe overlapping pieces were put
back together, with software, toform an entire chromosome, a
painstaking process somewhatlike putting together a jigsaw puz-zle without a picture on the frontof the box.
The new machines take advan-tage of those existing genetic
blueprints in effect, supplyingthe missing picture. Instead ofdividing chromosomes up into700-letter strings, the newsequencers make the jigsawpieces much smaller some-times 25 or 30 chemical letterslong and read many pieces atonce. For example, Helicosmachine, which isnt yet on themarket, will be able to scan in atleast 300 million such piecessimultaneously, compared with
just 96 for the older machines.The newer machines run faster
than the old methods and requirefewer chemicals, which accountfor the bulk of gene sequencing
costs. The new machines matchthe tiny pieces to where they fitbest on the existing genetic blue-prints, a process known as rese-quencing.
To date, only one new machinehas successfully resequenced ahuman genetic blueprint Roches 454 Genome SequencerFLX, which costs about$500,000. This summer, the com-pany assembled the genes ofJames Watson, the DNA pioneer,
by putting together pieces of hisDNA about 250 letters each ontop of the blueprint published bythe Human Genome Project. Thecompany estimates it costs about
$2 million to $3 million, and takesabout a month, to sequence ahuman genome with its machine.
Venter says he plans to rese-quence his own DNA for$300,000 using a new machinefrom Applera called the SolidSystem. The aim is to test theaccuracy of the new, faster sys-
tems, and compare them againstthe copy of Venters DNA pub-lished this summer using the oldmethod. After that, his researchinstitute plans to sequence
between 10 and 30 humangenomes in 2008, with the goal offinishing 10,000 such sequencesin the next 10 years.
Illumina says it has sold morethan 100 of its sequencers, knownas the Genome Analyzer. Thecompany also is one of the biggestsellers of DNA arrays, or genechips, a hot product that allowsdoctors and researchers to test ifpatients have certain genes.Sequencing, which can test forevery single gene at once, threat-ens to make such chips obsolete, ifit can be made more affordable.What well see is sort of a gradualtransition in the marketplace assequencing becomes easier and
cheaper, said Adam Lowe, aspokesman for Illumina.Another candidate in the race is
Helicoss Heliscope, which thecompany calls the first DNAmicroscope. Unlike the othermachines, Helicos skips a step
where pieces of DNA are duplicat-ed before being read into a com-puter. Helicos says that will makeits machine cheaper and easier tooperate. The company estimatesits equipment, set for release laterthis year, will cost $2 million.
With it, the price of sequencing apersons genome will drop to$100,000, the company says.
Source Code: 20071018crl
8/14/2019 Inside Biotech, 2007
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6 THURSDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2007 Inside Biotech THE DAILY TRANSCRIPT
Biotech roundtable
Research, entrepreneurial spirit continueto attract life-sciences companies to region
By ELIZABETH MALLOYThe Daily Transcript
There was hand wringing in SanDiegos life science community last
year when three of the most promi-nent research institutes acceptedincentives from Florida to open
campuses there. But one localleader says San Diego shouldnt be
afraid of the Sunshine State.Weve got a 30-year history
here of building a foundation fromthe ground up, said Joe Panetta,president and chief executive offi-cer of the local biotech trade orga-nization BIOCOM, speaking at a
recent Daily Transcript round-table discussion. You dont create
Allphotosby:J.KatWoronowicz
Magda Marquet, co-president and CEO of Althea Technologies, said
the city of San Diego doesn't have to do much to entice biotech compa-nies to the area because we all want to come here.
Paul Laikind, founder and CEO of Metabasis Therapeutics, said biotechcompanies see each other more as fellow collaborators than competi-
tors.
a biotech industry overnight, and you certainly dont create one ofthe magnitude and at the level ofsuccess we have here overnight.
San Diegos life-sciences com-munity boasts about 500 compa-nies of varying size, has created
35,000 to 45,000 new jobs andhas an economic impact of $8 bil-lion to $9 billion, Panetta said. Inother parts of the country, likeFlorida, state and local govern-ments have made a big push to
bring more biotech jobs to thearea, as its a high-paying, cleanindustry, with strong futuregrowth implications.
San Diegos local governmenthas not offered much in terms ofincentives for people to come toSan Diego, Panetta said, but inmany ways, it doesnt have to.Other members of the life sciencecommunity agreed.
The reason San Diego doesntdo anything is that we all want tocome here, so they dont need to,said Althea Technologies co-President and CEO MagdaMarquet, who herself came to SanDiego years ago from the small
European country of Andorra.Other places, theyll give you landfor free, theyll give you labs forfree, theyll give you equipment,
but you still dont want to go.San Diegos weather and the
business communitys entrepre-neurial spirit are two big draws forthe area, life science officials said,
but its history of biotech researchis what keeps it thriving. The SalkInstitute, the University ofCalifornia and the ScrippsResearch Institute were all earlyscience pioneers, which fosteredan environment of ideas and begatcompanies.
Paul Laikind, the founder andCEO of Metabasis Therapeutics(Nasdaq: MBRX), said biotech isdifferent from most industries inthat companies see each othermore as fellow collaborators thancompetitors and thats especial-ly true in San Diego. Panetta said
BIOCOM was created to encour-
age that sense of community, andhe thinks its why the industry hasthrived in San Diego.
Youve got the people, the dol-lars, the science and then throw in
the collaboration, and those arethe elements (for success),Panetta said.
Yet the life science industry is ata disadvantage when it comes toinvestors. It takes so long for anidea to evolve into a treatment that
Wall Street often keeps a distance.Chris Brunley of the young
company Phenomix Corp. saidmost of his investors are in theBay Area. Phenomix set up in SanDiego, though, because companyfounders liked being close to thesources generating new technolo-gy and to the deeply rooted com-munity here. Now that some bigpharmaceutical companies suchas Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) have set up
branches in San Diego, smallercompanies see licensing or part-nership opportunities as well.
Brunley said even a company ofPhenomixs small size doesntneed a lot of help from the munic-
ipal government. According to
Joe Panetta, president and CEO of BIOCOM, said one reason thebiotech industry has succeeded here is the environment of collaboration.
The w eather, t he business c ommunit ys entrepreneurial spirit and the history of biotech r esearch are wh atkeep the industry thriving in San Diego, said participants in a recent roundtable discussion.
Panetta, the one way San Diegocan help is to understand what thelife science industry does needfrom local government. In recent
years, he said, the city of SanDiego has become a good partner.
Where this citys been terrific, Ithink, is in creating efficiencies in
permitting and on the regulatory
side, and just simply understand-ing the biotech business in a waythats made it easier for companiesto go in and do business with thefire marshal or the buildingdepartment, Panetta said. That
wasnt the case 15 years [email protected]
Source Code: 20071018crg
Biotech group pools efforts to meet industry needsBy SANDRA SLIVKAand SUSAN BAXTER
San Diego Biotechnology Education Consortium
Increasingly, college graduatesand scientists are unable or find-ing it extremely difficult to transi-tion from academic degree pro-grams or research institute posi-tions to local life-sciences compa-nies due to their lack of under-standing of the commercial workenvironment and unique industryfundamentals. Conversely, life-sciences companies in San Diego
continue to recruit more experi-enced employees from otherregions or other local companiesto fill their open positions, ratherthan investing in on-the-jobtraining of local talent. This is nota sustainable practice for theregion due to the expense fromfinancial, human resources andregional work force developmentperspectives.
A consortium of universities,community colleges and indus-try associations in the San Diegoregion plans to jointly offer aLife Science IndustryImmersion Course to addressthese unmet needs, from boththe candidate and employer per-spectives.
The San Diego BiotechnologyEducation Consortium was found-ed in 2004 to serve the San Diego
biotechnology industry by sup-porting increased collaborationand articulation among membereducational programs, assessingand addressing industry needs,and facilitating placement ofinterns within the industry.Participating consortium mem-
bers include: BIOCOM, theregional industry organization
with more than 550 members;
CONNECT, which fosters technol-ogy and life-sciences businessentrepreneurship in the San Diegoregion; the San Diego WorkforcePartnership, which providesemployment-related services tolocal businesses and job seekersthrough a network of countywideOne Stop Career Centers; theCalifornia State UniversityProgram for Research andEducation in Biotechnology (CSU-PERB), which provides vision,leadership and support for
biotechnology education andresearch throughout the CSU sys-tem to promote biotechnology inCalifornia; San Diego StateUniversity; California StateUniversity, San Marcos; University
of California, San DiegoExtension; and the SouthernCalifornia Biotechnology Center,San Diego Miramar College,
whose mission is to promote workforce development through theCalifornia Community CollegeSystem.
The consortium plans to joint-ly offer an intensive certificate asa four-week program for the firsttime in summer 2008. The pro-gram will be characterized by acompetitive admissions process;
a high-quality, industry-drivencurriculum; and involved, indus-try partnerships and sponsors.
Student participants will beskilled scientists, with doctoratesor five years post-baccalaureateexperience in a research setting.Expert faculty, drawn from par-ticipating organizations and localindustry, will present principlesand practice associated with lifesciences product, process andregulatory development.Curriculum modules will featurehigh level, expert introductions totopics that encompass thebreadth of business and financialprinciples, as well as exposure toregulatory, ethics, legal, productdevelopment, GXPs, marketing,
must-know vocabulary and jobsearch preparation.
The program will include indepth, real-world case studiesand team projects. Certificateholders will have practicalunderstanding of life-sciencesbusiness and functional businessareas, familiarity with the localSan Diego business environ-ment, and networking opportu-nities with industry representa-tives and experts. The aim is totransition skilled researchers in
the region into industrialcareers, while also shorteningthe orientation time companiesexpect as new hires fit into theteam-based, multidisciplinarycorporate culture.
Companies and students inter-ested in the program should con-tact Sandy Slivka at (619) 388-7490 or Susan Baxter at (619)594-2822.
Slivka is director of theSouthern CaliforniaBiotechnology Center at MiramarCollege, and Baxter is executivedirector of the California StateUniversity Program for Educationand Research in Biotechnology.
Source Code: 20071018crj
New FDA drug research center holds promise, butcritics say industry influence poses worrisome risk
center leaves crucial decisions tothe appointed board from
where the center will be located tohow funds will be collected fromcompanies and distributed forresearch. And there are manyunanswered ethical questions,such as who will own patentsobtained from the foundationsresearch and how any potentialprofits would be shared or distrib-uted.
One crucial issue, though,seems to have been decided,according to FDA DeputyCommissioner Janet Woodcock:The FDA intends to put forwarda variety of research projects that
we think are important, but as with any foundation, the donors will have the primary say overhow the funds are used.
Company executives say its pre-mature to comment on questionsabout Reagan-Udall, but they dosay, as do FDA officials, that theyhope the foundation reverses analarming imbalance between howmuch companies spend on drugresearch and the number of drugsmaking it to market. Drug R&Dspending hit $43 billion in 2006, a150 percent increase the pastdecade compared with a 2.5 per-cent rise in the number of newFDA drug applications during thatperiod.
The problem is time and money.Companies on average spendalmost 15 years and $1 billion to
get a new drug to market, accord-ing to the PharmaceuticalResearch and Manufacturers of
America. The drug developmentprocess can involve tracking up to15,000 patients taking a drug foras long as five years.
At Reagan-Udall, FDA scien-tists, with private-sector funding,are hoping to do world-classresearch not being done elsewhere
while giving pharmaceutical com-panies a role in developing moreeffective drug approval methodsand standards.
Its part of the FDAs CriticalPath Initiative, unveiled in 2004,
which calls for the agency to work with industry and academia tospeed the critical path a drug
travels from discovery to market.But critics question the potentialtrade-offs.
FDAs primary role is regulatingdrugs and protecting the publichealth, said David Ross, a formerFDA safety reviewer at theDepartment of Veterans Affairs.If you start blurring that line
between regulation and collabora-tion, you have real problems.
For example, Ross, who left theFDA last year over a drug safetydispute, is concerned, as are oth-ers, that the FDA might be per-suaded to quickly adopt a contro-
versial drug-testing process thatuses biological indicators, such as
blood pressure and cholesterol lev-els, to determine a drugs safety.
Drug companies have taken theunusual step of sharing researchdata on these indicators, called
biomarkers, to see if the size andduration of patient drug trials can
be reduced. Some critics call theiruse a high-risk gamble.
Biomarkers are a bit like dyna-mite in that they can be extremelyuseful but they can cause a lot ofdamage, Ross said.
He cites a biomarker that sug-gested irregular heart rhythms
were a key predictor of fatal heartattacks. Using the assumption, doc-tors prescribed heart-regulatingdrugs to millions of patients in the1980s, but abruptly halted thepractice in 1989 when a long-termstudy revealed patients were actu-
ally more than twice as likely to dieof sudden heart failure.
FDA officials counter that HIV biomarkers have turned out be areliable predictor of survival forpatients susceptible to AIDS, adisease that can fatally damage the
bodys ability to fight off serious ill-ness.
Rachel Behrman, who headsFDAs Office of Critical PathPrograms, says its too early toknow whether biomarker research
would be an initial project. She wants to focus on the opportuni-ties the center will offer.
This has to do with beingsmarter, Behrman said. Thats
what this initiative is about.Source Code: 20071018crn
By MATTHEW PERRONEAP Business Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) TheFood and Drug Administration ismoving with unprecedentedspeed to launch a drug researchcenter to be paid for by companiesit regulates.
The goal of the Reagan-UdallFoundation, approved by Congressand signed into law late lastmonth, is to streamline andimprove the development of drugsand medical devices, a goal longsought by regulators and the
biggest players in the industry,such as Merck & Co. Inc. (NYSE:MRK), Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE),Wyeth (NYSE: WYE),GlaxoSmithKline plc (NYSE:GSK) and Johnson & Johnson(NYSE: JNJ).
At a time when the FDAs repu-tation has been battered by per-ceptions that it is lax on some safe-ty issues and too cozy with drugmakers, consumer advocates saythe loosely defined partnershipincreases the agencys vulnerabili-ty to industry clout despite itspromise of groundbreaking suc-cess. Its an ambitious undertakingthat puts regulators and compa-nies in a relationship unlike that ofany other industry.
Congress required fast-trackcreation for the foundation. TheFDA filed a public notice Oct. 3that it was accepting board nomi-nations and will name boardmembers Oct. 27. Drug industryexecutives will likely hold fourseats on the centers 14-member
board. The rest will be academics,
consumer advocates and physi-cians, with no voting seats for FDAcommissioners or staff.
The boards makeup could allowdrugs to be developed more cheap-ly, improving pharmaceuticalindustry profits, but not necessari-ly result in safer and less expensivedrugs for consumers, critics worry.
Given FDAs track record in thepast, Im not confident in theirability to create something that isfree of influence from industry,said Francesca Grifo, a director atthe Union of ConcernedScientists. Her group and othershave argued the agency has
become too accommodating todrug companies the past 25 years,after they began paying FDA userfees for the review of drug appli-cations.
Time and again, weve seen thatpeople within FDA behave as ifindustry is their primary client,Grifo said.
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., a co-sponsor of the bill tocreate the foundation, says the billrequires effective safeguards toensure that the foundation is inde-pendent of both the FDA and itsdonors, whether those donors arefrom industry or are charitableorganizations.
Reagan-Udall will make newresearch tools and techniquesavailable to the entire researchcommunity, shortening the time ittakes to develop new drugs andreducing costs for patients,Kennedy added in an e-mailedresponse.
However, the law creating the
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gained insight into the demandsof employers and the workingenvironment of the biotech indus-try, all of which allowed me toexcel in my internship at Pfizer.
For teachers who are the keysto developing the regions future
work force the institute provid-ed direct experience with biotech-nology, medical device, diagnosticand related industry areas. Theygained hands-on laboratory cur-
riculum training, company extern-ship experiences and curriculumintegration, along with opportuni-ties to share and network.
The two-week paid program,hosted in Biogen Idecs (Nasdaq:BIIB) Community Lab, includedone week of industry introductionand laboratory curriculum train-ing based on the Amgen-Bruce
Wallace BiotechnologyLaboratory Program, followed bya week of industry experiences,curriculum connections, andimplementation workshops. It isestimated that each teacherreaches an average of 189 stu-dents per year.
To date, the institutes StudentInternship Program has placed118 students into hands-on indus-try internships. The institutesTeacher Externship Program hasempowered 54 teachers with thelatest industry-based techniques
and curriculum. In turn, they willhave exposed over 16,000 stu-dents to state-of-the-art careertraining and information by theend of the 2007-08 school year.
This innovative approach wasmade possible by a PresidentsHigh Growth Job Training grantfrom the Department of Laborand administered through the SanDiego Workforce Partnership.
This program has been a valu-able resource to local, state andnational work force developmentefforts, said Joseph Panetta, CEOof BIOCOM, the SouthernCalifornia life-sciences associa-tion with more than 550 membercompanies. Further funding forthis initiative will provide scienceeducation and training programsdesigned to produce a home-grown work force that willaddress the future growth of the
life-sciences industry.
The grant has provided theprogram with funding for the pastthree summers. However, as withany grant, sustainability of suc-cessful programs becomes anissue. The program costs about$225,000 per year to run. If just15 companies invest $15,000 forthe summer 2008 program, it
would mean an additional 25teachers could be trained and 50students placed into internships.
Companies can also invest in
the program by sponsoring indi- vidual students for $2,000 andteachers for $5,000, Wildricksaid. Each teacher trained will goon to reach approximately 180students each year, increasing theinvestment exponentially.
Sharma added: I have benefit-ed tremendously from this experi-ence, and I feel that students havea lot to gain from programs likethese. Providing programs such asLSSI is an investment in thefuture of our students, as well asthe future of scientific research.
Other partners who have madethe Institute possible includeBIOCOM, Biogen Idec, InvitrogenCorp., Southern CaliforniaBiotech Center at Miramar andthe Amgen Foundation.
Participating company hostsincluded: Accumetrics, AlexionAntibody Technologies, AnadysPharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: ANDS),
Arena Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq:ARNA), Assure Controls Inc.,BioServ Corp., Burnham Institutefor Medical Research, ConatusPharmaceuticals, Conservation andResearch for Endangered Species(CRES), The Do w Chemical Co.,eStudySite, Genentech (NYSE:DNA), Genomatica, Genoptix,Gen-Probe (Nasdaq: GPRO), IsisPharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: ISIS),Karl Strauss Brewing Co., Nanogen(Nasdaq: NGEN), Pfizer, SalkInstitute for Biological Studies, SanDiego State University Labs,Santaurus, SGX Pharmaceuticals(Nasdaq: SGXP), SCBC Miramar,SkinMedica, Sunrise ScienceProducts and The Scripps ResearchInstitute.
For more information on theprogram, contact Ashley Wildrickat the San Diego WorkforcePartnership, (619) 228-2965.
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Work forceContinued fromPage 1
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a rigid system, we like to questionthings, so when companies grow
beyond expectations and what weenjoy, we pass the baton, Greeneadded.
Not surprisingly, it takes a cer-tain personality type to be a serialentrepreneur. The types of people
who start biotech companies aretypically uncomfortable in large,conservative corporations, he said.They are risk takers. In a large cor-
porate environment, they cant takethe same risks.Panetta agreed. Most serial entre-
preneurs are intrigued by the excite-ment and vision of early-stage com-pany growth, not the day-to-dayoperations of a large commercial
entity. Frequently, they will get to acertain stage, then move on or sellthe company.
The end result is ultimately goodfor science and good for SanDiego. Creating companies morequickly than companies are goingout of business or merging creates agood distribution of companies atevery level, Panetta said.
A boon to the economySerial entrepreneurs also help
spawn a temperate climate for ven-ture capital. Past successes certainlyattract venture capital, said RichardMejia, director of life sciences for thepacific southwest region of Ernst &Young. To a large degree, venturecapitalists are looking for people
EntrepreneursContinued fromPage 1
egg, a process that can mimic nor-mal fertilization for a short time.Because these parthenogeneticembryos are incapable of reproduc-tion, it is expected that they will beless controversial than stem cellsderived from reproductively viableembryos.
Stemagen also has been expand-ing its work in somatic cell nucleartransfer (SCNT), commonly calledtherapeutic cloning. The companycurrently anticipates an upcomingannouncement on its achievementsin this discipline thus far.
When Proposition 71 was passed,the legislation called for the creation
of an oversight body called theCalifornia Institute for RegenerativeMedicine (CIRM) to handle the dis-bursal of grants and monies.
CIRM Chairman Robert N. Kleinsaid, The strong participation ofindividual investors in the first saleof stem cell research bonds isdeeply gratifying. Certainly many ofthe investors are patients sufferingfrom debilitating disease or injury.Theyre making an investment intheir future not simply theirfinancial future, but their futurequality of life. We are grateful to all
of them for their continued sup-port. We very much appreciate theefforts of State Treasurer BillLockyer, his deputy, PaulRosenstiel, his staff, and all theunderwriters for making this his-toric bond offering so successful.
While so far Proposition 71 fundshave been only available for non-profit organizations, Stemagens Wood said he expects CIRM tobegin issuing for-profit applicationssometime in early 2008.
He calls that a necessary step.Sometimes when you apply a
business approach to research,youre able to be more efficient andmake more progress, he said.
When CIRM makes Prop. 71 fundsavailable to for-profit companieslike Stemagen, we will have to con-tinue to show real progress.
Fortunately, Wood feelsStemagen is already uniquely posi-tioned to stand out among itsfriendly competitors because of itsnotable work and staff, led by ChiefScientific Officer Andrew J. French,acknowledged worldwide as anexpert in SCNT and other mam-malian cloning technologies.
With our scientific platform ledby one of the most experienced sci-
Stem cellContinued fromPage 1
Juan Carlos Izpisa Belmonte, a
professor in the Gene ExpressionLaboratory, garnered internationalattention most recently when heand his team published a studyexplaining how they regeneratedthe wing of a chick embryo aspecies not known for its ability toregrow limbs.
By manipulating a specific cell-signaling pathway, Belmonte wasable to deactivate the system in ani-mals with the ability to regrowlimbs (salamanders, frogs andzebra fish), while activating it inchick embryos, which regenerated aperfectly functioning wing afterremoving the original appendage.The study suggests that the poten-tial for such regeneration existsinnately in all vertebrates, includ-ing humans.
While manipulating the samesystem in humans is not possible atthis point, Belmonte hopes thesefindings may eventually offer
insights into current researchexamining the ability of stem cellsto build new human body tissuesand parts.
The Salk Institutes stem cell pro-gram has continued to strengthenwith the help of philanthropic con-tributions and more than $7.4 mil-lion in grants provided by theCalifornia Institute for RegenerativeMedicine. Construction is alreadyunderway at Salk on a new stem cellcore facility that will serve as a
training center for the next genera-tion of scientists who work in this
very promising field of research.Further securing Salks commit-ment to this emerging field is theinstitutes participation in the SanDiego Consortium for RegenerativeMedicine. Salks contribution tothis historic partnership is its teamof established stem cell experts as well as scientists whose work ingene expression and related fields iscentral to understanding how stemcells can be developed for therapeu-tic purposes.
Looking ahead, the institute isalso interested in the burgeoningfield of live cell imaging and bio-photonics, which uses single quan-tum units of light to see mole-cules. Applying such advancedtechnology overcomes the resolu-tion limit of light microscopy andenables scientists to understandhow single molecules and cellsfunction in real time and decipher what goes wrong when they mal-
function.Knowledge gained from this
advanced technology will helpresolve still-unanswered ques-tions surrounding many humanconditions. It will also enable Salkscientists to ask new questionsabout biological systems, trans-form the way they analyze com-plex systems such as the brain andrevolutionize the way diseases aretreated.
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Salk InstituteContinued fromPage 1
the trends and directions in ven-ture funding before raising moneyis essential.
Meet with venture firms priorto formally raising a new round offinancing. This approach pro-vides knowledge on the expecta-tions and preferences of theinvestors. The feedback can beused to design programs, obtaininsight into commercial implica-tions and determine the competi-tive landscape.
Use the time in betweenrounds of fundraising to buildrelationships and meet with ven-ture capitalists to receive feed- back. After explaining what thecompany does, follow up withquestions, such as: Do you likethe story? If we get to the nextpoint in our programs, wouldyou be interested in hearing thestory again? Would you invest inthe company at point B to get topoint C?
A no answer to any of theabove questions leads to an
opportunity to listen and learn.Phenomix asked investors toexpand on how the company didnot fit their investment strategy.Listening and learning, Phenomix
began utilizing its technologyplatform for drug discovery in thesecond year, so that drugs were inthe pipeline by the next round offundraising in 2004.
The Phenomix approach maybe longer and more time-consum-ing, but the resultant relationshipthat is built will help the companyand its investors survive difficultperiods, such as developmenthurdles or direction shifts.Regular communication with acompanys investors establishes ahigher level of trust that the com-pany will handle the issues anddeliver on its promises.
Shawver is chief executive offi-cer, and Burnley is executive vice
president and chief operating offi-cer at Phenomix Corp. in SanDiego.
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VC biotechContinued fromPage 3
The stock hovered around $3 ashare two years ago and trades atabout $17 today.
This makes the ability toacquire capital from the publicmarket much easier, he said. Thefinancial market is beginning torecognize the potential value of thedrugs and the technology that
weve created.The company, Crooke said, has
achieved success through the
intensity, work efforts and commit-ment of team members. Isis hashad extraordinarily low turnover,
he added, not because the road hasbeen easy, but because of the qual-ity of the dream.
No one ever claimed that work-ing at Isis was easy. Its demand-ing, but I do think its rewarding,and most people stay because itsan environment where intelligenceand innovation are rewarded, hesaid.
And what were trying to do hasgreat merit.
Klam is a San Diego-based free-lance writer.Source Code: 20071018cre
CrookeContinued fromPage 3
entists in the world, Wood said,we feel confident in our abilities toattract funding when the time isright.
Now, with the unexpectedlystrong response from individualinvestors in stem cell bonds, thatfunding was made all the moreavailable.
The interest rate on the bondswill be 5.168 percent, which is morethan one percentage point abovethe current rate on a three-year U.S.
Treasury note.The $250 million sale will pro-
vide the nations largest-ever stateinvestment in human embryonicstem cell research. It also marks thefirst time general obligation bondshave ever been used to directlyfinance the development of intellec-tual capital.
Jimenez is a San Diego-basedfreelance writer.
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BIOCOM Investor Conference to
showcase biotech, med tech firmsSource: BIOCOM
Offering investors an easy wayto learn more about the SouthernCalifornia life science industry,BIOCOM will host its secondannual BIOCOM andMontgomery & Co. InvestorConference on Nov. 1 and 2 at theSan Diego Marriott Del Mar.
With 58 companies presenting,the conference gives both publicand private life science compa-nies a chance to give their 20-minute investor presentations toa wide variety of venture, privateequity, institutional and retailinvestors.
Very rarely does a small privatestartup like Tracon Pharmaceuticalsget to present alongside estab-lished biotech leaders like AmylinPharmaceuticals, said Ian
Wisenberg, BIOCOMs senior vicepresident. We want this confer-ence to become the place forSouthern California biotech, medtech and device companies to beable to showcase themselves.
Established as part of
BIOCOMs broader efforts toraise the amount of investment inand awareness of the regions lifescience companies, the investorconference is in its second yearafter hosting more than 300attendees to presentations from48 companies at the same loca-tion in 2006.
With Montgomery & Co. asour presenting sponsor this year,our committee, staff and advisory
board have worked very hard tosecure top-level sponsors and pre-senters, Wisenberg said.
Sponsors at the 2007 InvestorConference include AcumenBioFin, CIBC World Markets,UBS Investment Bank,
Alexandria Real Estate Equities,
Biomed Realt y Trust Inc. andCalifornia ManufacturingTechnology Consulting.
Supporting sponsors includeBioCentury, California Equity
Research, Dow Jones, PorterNovelli Life Sciences and RRDonnelley, while affiliate spon-sors include Bank of America,Mentus Life Science and PRNewswire.
The format of the conference will be an opening reception onthe evening of Oct. 31, and thentwo full days with 58 companypresentations, ending early Fridayafternoon.
John McCamant, editor of theMedical Technology Stock Letter,San Diego Mayor Jerry Sandersand George Montgomery ofMontgomery & Co. will be speak-ers at the conference.
With 20 years of experienceediting an influential biotechinvestment newsletter,McCamant has become one of themost quoted experts in the lifescience industry. He will talk
about Medical Technology StockLetters investment philosophy,using companies from SouthernCalifornia as examples of whatthey look for in life science invest-ments.
San Diego Mayor Sanders willdiscuss righting the citys financialship, while George Montgomery,managing director of health care
banking, will host a panel on cur-rent trends in life science financ-ing and investment.
More information on theInvestor Conference, includingthe agenda for the conference, isavailable at www.BIOCOM.org.
Accredited investors will beadmitted for free.
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who have been successful and done itall before; this certainly lends credi-bility.
Ultimately, serial entrepreneur-ships offer a boon to the San Diegoeconomy. Right now we are seeinglarge amounts of money going toinvestments that will yield revenue products that are close to beingdeveloped and approved, Mejiasaid.
Last year, according to Ernst & Young/Dow Jones Venture One, venture capital investment inSouthern California for the life sci-ence industry topped $900 million.
Despite the never-ending proces-sion of new businesses, there is acohesiveness and synchronicity
within San Diegos biotech industry the players often depend on eachfor collective brainpower.
Greene said he enjoys lending hisexpertise to the younger genera-tion, many of whom have workedfor him in the past: Its like havinggrandchildren, all of the fun, noneof the headaches.
Moore is a San Diego-basedfreelance writer.
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