Codon has been in business for about five years, and has been working on ways to synthesize DNA and other genetic material. We have heard that the reason for the shutdown was their inability to raise more money.
There are several reasons that so many small biotechs are having financial problems. Launching an IPO is extremely difficult in this environment right now. Also, Venture Capitalists have also been hit by the stock market meltdown, and free cash is at a premium. They appear to be taking the more conservative route with their investments and putting less money into new companies and more into companies that will have a shorter turn-around to profitability or a sale.
In order to get the attention of potential investors today, a small biotech needs to have a strong product on the verge of commercialization.
I’m still surprised that they have shut down because they were backed by some of the best financed VC’s in the industry such as Flagship Ventures, Highland Capital Partners and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
Vertex Pharmaceuticals announced late Friday changes in management.
Joshua Boger the current President/CEO/Founder will be retiring May of 2009.
Current Vertex Board Member Matthew Emmens is now appointed President and will transition to his new titles of President/CEO/Chairman of Board in May 2009.
Following is a copy of the company Press Release:
The board of directors of Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ: VRTX) today appointed Matthew Emmens President, and announced that he will transition to President, CEO and Chairman in May 2009 upon Dr. Joshua Boger’s retirement. Mr. Emmens has been a Vertex director since 2004, and previously served as CEO of Astra Merck, Inc., and of Shire plc where he continues as Chairman. Dr. Boger, who founded Vertex in 1989, will retire from his position as Chief Executive Officer of Vertex on May 23, 2009. Dr. Boger and Mr. Emmens will work closely together during the leadership transition period. Charles Sanders, M.D., Vertex’s Chairman, will remain as lead director on Vertex’s board, following Mr. Emmens’ appointment as Chairman. Dr. Boger, 57, will also remain an active member of the board. (more…)
I know that biosafety lab space can be difficult to find. This would be a good home for a new venture working on antiviral therapeutics or vaccines or similiar products. By the way, I am not being paid to promote this, but am happy to do so for free. Of course, if this gets popular enough, in the future I might charge a fee.
Eurofins AVTech Laboratories is offering new, state-of-the-art lab space for lease at its Portage, Michigan facility. The available space totals about 6,000 square feet. It was designed for studying drug resistance of infectious agents including HIV and HBV, but would be ideal for a variety of uses including almost any cell-based R & D activities or vaccine development, including pilot-scale vaccine production.
Some of the features of the available space include:
- Private access
- BSL-3 HVAC
- Pass-through autoclave
- Floor drain containment/decontamination sump
- Generator back-up (full facility)
- UPS system (Critical Circuits)
- Recirculating RO water system
For more information, call Bill Pfund at 269-488-7016 or email to WilliamPfund@EurofinsUS.com.
I generally don’t like to just copy and past an article to my blog. I much prefer digging for information and writing my own articles. But every so often something comes up that I think is better if I just copy and paste. So following is some information on experiments done at the University of Jerusalem. The article was written by Jerry Barach at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Jerusalem, December 28, 2008 Scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have succeeded in reversing brain birth defects in animal models, using stem cells to replace defective brain cells.
The work of Prof. Joseph Yanai and his associates at the Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School was presented at the Tel Aviv Stem Cells Conference last spring and is expected to be presented and published next year at the seventh annual meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research in Barcelona, Spain.
Involved in the project with Prof. Yanai are Prof. Tamir Ben-Hur, head of the Department of Neurology at the Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School, and his group, as well as Prof. Ted Slotkin at Duke University in North Carolina, where Prof. Yanai is an adjunct professor.
Neural and behavioral birth defects, such as learning disabilities, are particularly difficult to treat, compared to defects with known cause factors such as Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s disease, because the prenatal teratogen the substances that cause the abnormalities — act diffusely in the fetal brain, resulting in multiple defects. (more…)
From Anne Trafton, MIT News Office December 22, 2008
MIT engineers have found that antibodies do not need a particular sugar attachment long believed to be essential to their function, a discovery that could make producing therapeutic antibodies much easier and cheaper in the future.
Therapeutic antibodies are a promising new type of treatment for cancer and other diseases, but their practicality has been limited by the fact that only mammalian cells have the right machinery to build the sugar attachment.
“To date, people have faced limitations in how they were going to make these antibodies because they appeared to require these (sugar) structures,” said Dane Wittrup, the C.P. Dubbs Professor of Chemical Engineering, Biological Engineering, member of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, and senior author of a paper on the work that appeared in the Dec. 12 online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (more…)
The NCI is looking for someone to collaborate with them on a new simple genetic test for kidney disease. For more detailed information, check out the Collaborations page of this blog.
Engineers at MIT have developed carbon nonotubes into sensors for cancer drugs and other DNA-damaging agents inside living cells. The sensors, made of carbon nanotubes wrapped in DNA, can detect chemotherapy drugs such as cisplatin as well as environmental toxins and free radicals that damage DNA.
For more detailed information, check out the MIT website at http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2008/nano-sensor-1214.html
Is this going to be a major new trend? Traditionally Universities have created start-up incubators that usually only provided cheap lab space and access to shared equipment. I know both Biogen Idec and Pfizer have created their own incubators.
As I understand it, Biogen Idec plans to invest from $3 to $10 Million in new firms housed in their incubator in return for exclusive rights to the ventures’ potential discoveries. I hear Biogen also had negotiated an acquisition price for each startup before it moved in. There are currently two startups at the Incubator in Cambridge, Massachustts–Escoublac and Provasculon. There is room for three more startups.
If you are interested in selling to them or otherwise doing business with them, or even getting a job there, I do know the names of a few people that work at those companies.
Escoublac is exploring a link between bone biology and metabolism which may create new treatments for metabolic diseases including Type 2 diabetes and obesity. Contact information for people at Escoublac that I know of is Nils Bergenhem the CSO. His phone number is 617-914-7967 and his email address is nils.bergenhem@escoublac.com. I have heard the names of a couple of scientists that may work there as well, Eric Grund and Rebecca Ward.
Provasculon has licensed new forms of SDF-1 (Stromal Cell-derived growth factor) that has been shown to resist inactivation. It is thought that it might be useful in fighting cardiovascular diseases and diabetic ulcers. Anthony Sandrasagra is the CSO and can be reached at 617-914-0763 and his email address is tony.sandrasagra@provasculon.com. Vincent Segers may be there as well, and I understand he is a Founder and Senior Scientist.
They do small molecule product candidates directed towards clinically validated targets. They have products in the pipeline for Diabetes, HCV and Cancer.
Back in January 2008 they filed a Registration Statement for a proposed IPO. I’ve heard rumors that they still plan on going through with the IPO, but I can’t imagine it happening in this environment. Plus they have nothing in Phase 3 yet, so I’m not sure how excited investors would get.
From a CombinatoRX News Release:
They have announced major new restructuring to enable them to ID novel product candidates. This restructuring will include a further reduction of their Cambridge workforce by about 30 employees, bringing the total workforce reduction to about 65%. They feel those measures should allow the company to operate without further equity financing for at least 4 more years. The news release sounded optimistic, but if I were an employee working there, I would have to consider polishing up my resume.
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