EJ BioMed in Bed with Stryker

EJ BioMed, a spin-off from Ft. Collins, CO-based Eldon James Corporation, who focuses on production of critical use components for medical devices, recently announced an exclusive supplier deal with Stryker (NYSE: SYK) to design and produce tubing and fittings for next-gen Stryker Medical hospital mattresses. The new 105-pod cushion matrix mattress was developed to prevent pressure ulcers by incorporating a unique technology to eliminate the need for repeatedly turning patients.

Live Blogging from the RMLSIC

UPDATE (Breakfast) - Roy Davis, VP Corporate Development at Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) and President JNJ Development Corporation opened the first full day of the RMLIC. He focused on “Creating New Business Opportunities at Johnson & Johnson” and stressed how a targeted focus on fostering innovation outside the entity (in addition to internal development) is in place which may ultimately benefit JNJ. Highlighting current P&L and capital stresses faced by the earliest start-up to the behemoth large-cap big pharma and associated headwinds in the current economic climate have increased the challenge to manage business for the long term. Red Script Ventures was founded by JNJ Dev Corp in part to help address the challenges of making the leap from not the incremental technological progression but to larger replacement technological leaps. Historically JNJ would participate in investing at the B round or later. Today Red Scrip Ventures participates in early-stage equity investing and provides value-add business acceleration and incubation services via leveraging access to the significant resources available throughout the entire JNJ enterprise. One caveat, and an obviously understandable one, Red Script must be the only strategic investor participating in a particular deal. Off to the first round of presentations…I’ve selected the Dx track.

Laptop…check, wifi…check, Conference pass…check! CLSDF is primed to live blog the 2009 Rocky Mountain Life Science Investor Conference coming to you from the Ritz-Carlton Denver in the Mile High City. Check back throughout the day for updates, likewise I’ve embedded my twitter-feed below, as certain ‘tweets’ may be more timely and serve as a good backup if the wifi is disrupted (or follow along at http://twitter.com/arubenstein). Note that I will be updating the embedded picture album below throughout the day as well. If you are reading this post in an email or RSS feed be certain to visit http://CLSDF.com to observe the updates.

The Conference got off to a delightful start at the Governor’s Residence at Boettcher Mansion, well technically our group was directed to the on premises ‘Carriage House’, simply lovely nonetheless. A few opening remarks by CBSA President John Collar before hearing a brief history of the Colorado life science ecosystem from Morgenthaler Ventures Partner Chris Christoffersen. Then it was off to the Cotes du Rhone, delectable tapas and some serious elbow rubbing.

Next up i. breakfast speaker and ii. the first group of presenting companies. Stay tuned…

1 IPO! 2 IPO?? 3 IPO???

UPDATE: Lots can happen between an early morning blog post and the end of the business day. In this case Omeros has set its IPO terms; 6.82M common shares offered between $10 and $12 per share. So the company is hoping to raise between $68.2 and $81.8M. The planned ticker to trade under is NASDAQ: OMER. Bring on the opening bell!

First Fed Chairman Bernanke says that the worst recession since the Great Depression is seemingly behind us, then my home re-appraises for 30K higher than what was hoped and prayed for, and now…all sorts of activity in the life science IPO market. What is going on here? Have we hit bottom? A quick scan to my right of the early CNBC coverage and I see that the market is up +31 at the open, green, green, green everywhere I look. Really? Hmmm…well ever the optimist, I too am swinging from Bear to Bull and in fact would like to go out on a limb here and have CLSDF call Tuesday 16 September 2009 as the bottom.

The public life science markets have been en fuego the last few months; just take a look at the NASDAQ Biotech Index (below) and similarly the 2Q09 OnBioVC Trend Analysis [HERE] shows similar positive investment growth in the private life science companies.

Last month Nashville, TN-based Cumberland Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: CPIX) went public raising $85M @ $17 per share and was essentially the first IPO in about two years sans the Bristol-Meyers Squibb (NASDAQ: BMY) spin-off of the Mead Johnson Nutrition (NYSE: MJN) unit. Since its debut Cumberland has more or less maintained its strength and avoided a major sell-off, at last check it is trading at $15.40. And just last week Cumberland launched their fever and pain drug Caldolor®, an injectable form of ibuprofen intended for patients who are hospitalized and cannot take oral drugs.

Now with Cumberland a public entity and certainly enjoying the time, effort and expense of remaining a public going-concern here comes the flood of filings behind them. Well OK, perhaps just a trickle, but the trickle may be the preface to the flood.

Filing paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission is the Seattle-based biotech Omeros, a clinical-stage company whose most advanced product candidate is OMS103HP, designed to improve postoperative joint function and reduce pain following arthroscopic anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction surgery. Currently in Phase III an NDA filing is expected to be submitted to FDA in 2H10. The planned offering would be underwritten by Deutsche Bank Securities, Wedbush Pacific Growth Life Sciences, Leerink Swann, and Needham & Company, according to the filing.

Similarly Research Triangle Park, NC-based Talecris has also filed paperwork with the SEC regulatory agency. With more than 4,500 employees and annual revenues north of $1.4B a Talecris IPO is certain to dwarf what happened with Cumberland and Omeros, if they can get out, being a pre-revenue entity. It would not be surprising to see upwards of $1B raised on this offering. Talecris is marketing Gaumnex® for immune therapy deficiencies, Prolastin® for alpha1-antitrypsin deficiency and Koate-DVI® for hemophilia.

Clearly there is a buzz of activity transpiring in the space. Where will you be positioned when the flood gates open?

Checking in with Juvaris Biotherapeutics

Recall that Steven Dow, DVM, Ph.D., Professor in the departments of Clinical Sciences and Pathology in the College of Veterinary Medicine at Colorado State University, co-founded Juvaris Biotherapeutics.

Good or bad, Juvaris is now a Burlingame, CA-based biotechnology company, developing adjuvanted vaccines for infectious diseases. Recently a definitive agreement with Antigen Discovery, Inc. was announced providing Juvaris access to ADi's proprietary high-throughput protein microarray screening system to discover novel disease-specific antigens. Juvaris will sponsor research for multiple disease targets and pay ADi upfront payments, development milestones and royalties on licensed products in exchange for full product development rights to all fields except diagnostics, which will belong to ADi.

This deal comes on the heels of reporting results demonstrating that their universal influenza vaccine produces robust antibody responses and complete protection in H1N1 and H3N2 pre-clinical challenge models. Juvaris’ universal influenza vaccine has demonstrated significant induction of immunity with a novel construct of M2e, which is a conserved sequence found on all influenza A strains. The Juvaris universal flu vaccine is composed of conserved antigenic epitopes for both influenza A and B strains combined with its proprietary adjuvant, JVRS-100. The objective of the universal influenza vaccine is to improve the reliability and quality of protection by raising cross-protective immunity to all strains of influenza.

In clinic the JVRS-100 vax appears promising as well… In a Phase I study, 128 young adult subjects in groups of 20-24 were vaccinated with a licensed trivalent influenza vaccine with or without JVRS-100. Subjects receiving JVRS-100 adjuvanted vaccine were shown to have antibody responses to influenza A that were approximately two-fold higher than recipients of unadjuvanted vaccine. The adjuvant was well tolerated, and the incidence of adverse events following vaccination with JVRS-100 at effective dose levels was similar to that in the vaccine-alone groups.

The future appears encouraging for Juvaris, with a deal with Bayer Animal Health on the books and a diverse opportunity in seasonal, pandemic and universal influenzas, and herpes simplex virus-2, look for the company to close a new round of funding soon, possibly led by Kleiner Perkins again, to be reported at OnBioVC.

The Term Sheet | ‘Don’t Miss’ Seminars

There are a couple of upcoming seminars that are architected to yield some sophisticated insight on typically complex issues around financing early-stage life science companies. The first event courtesy of the Colorado Bioscience Association is Negotiating the Venture Term Sheet (25 September 9am, @ Cooley Godward – to RSVP or for more info click [HERE]). This will be a mock role-play term sheet negotiation providing perspective from both sides of the table as well as some tips on how to resolve impasses. The second event courtesy of the Society of Physician Entrepreneurs and Holland & Hart is Fundraising and Securities Law (14 October 7:30am, @ Bioscience Park Center – to RSVP or for more info contact Molly Edwards meedwards@hollandhart.com). This seminar is focused on understanding securities laws related to fundraising from an angel investor (not VC/PE/IB) perspective (qualified accredited investors).

Aggregated below are some insights on common terms within the term sheet provided courtesy of local Boulder VC Brad Feld. Though Brad is focused on IT investing naturally there is plenty ‘o relevant overlap on the life science entity term sheets. This content should provide you with a solid foundation and load you up with relevant questions to bring to the seminars.

Keep in mind however how asymmetric views may be brought forth by all of these resources. I would love to use Colorado Life Science Deal Flow to facilitate a deeper conversation focused on fundraising, including Angel/VC/PE/IB/etc. So if you have thoughts and/or experiences to share please leave a comment at the bottom of this post at http://CLSDF.com or email me and indicate whether or not you would like your comments published in follow-on posts.

Finally, you may wish to bookmark this particular post so that the following terms discussions are easily referenced.

Term Sheet | Price
Term Sheet | Liquidation Preference
Term Sheet | Board of Directors
Term Sheet | Protective Provisions
Term Sheet | Drag Along
Term Sheet | Anti-Dilution
Term Sheet | Pay to Play
Term Sheet | Dividends
Term Sheet | Redemption Rights
Term Sheet | Conversion
Term Sheet | Conditions Precedent to Financing
Term Sheet | Vesting
Term Sheet | Information and Registration Rights
Term Sheet | Right of First Refusal
Term Sheet | Voting Rights and Employee Pool
Term Sheet | Restriction on Sales and Proprietary Info
Term Sheet | Founders Activities
Term Sheet | Initial Public Offering Shares Purchase
Term Sheet | No Shop Agreement
Term Sheet | Indemnification and Assignment
Term Sheet | Compelled Sale Right

Tom Cech | On CNBC Squawk Box

Tom Cech recently appeared on the CNBC pre-market morning program Squawk Box to discuss a variety of topics including the future of biomedical research, the Colorado Initiative in Molecular Biotechnology and the 1989 Nobel Laureate’s return to the University of Colorado where he will also be resuming teaching freshman chemistry.

It is always fascinating to listen to Dr. Cech but what made this particular interview so special was the combination of not only who was answering the questions but who was asking the questions, that was CNBC Squawk Box anchor and University of Colorado, Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology graduate Joe Kernen. After Joe graduated CU MCDB he went on to graduate school at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where his work focused on erythroleukemia cells, and led to publications in CELL, Developmental Biology, and Cold Spring Harbor Symposia on Quantitative Biology, and then focused his career on Wall St.

The eight minute interview is embedded below. If you are reading this post via an email or RSS subscription please click [HERE] to watch the video at http://CLSDF.com.

SharesPost | Private Company Transactions

In the spirit of cool…I stumbled upon SharesPost – a sort of CraigsList meets ebay for buyers and sellers of private company equity. Talk about creating a new marketplace. Naturally there is a lot of legalese required to complete such a transaction, from investor qualification to transact, to escrow and indemnification agreements and beyond. Now I’m no attorney, nor do I play one in the blogosphere but it does appear, to my naive eye, that SharesPost does yeomen’s work to address all of the requisite issues in and around private placements. In addition to the marketplace platform is some very robust company research that is often challenging to come by, particularly for privately held entities.

Though the SharesPost market is not surprisingly weighted towards technology companies there are some biotechs listed including a few molecular diagnostics companies, Navigenics and XDx, and Greystone Pharmaceuticals. You can see price-per-share offers on both the buy and sell side along with implied valuations for each offering, now that is cool. And the coolness does not stop there – research analyst opinions provide estimated target prices too. I would be a bit careful here however with these reports and valuations, though they do contain relationship disclosures there are often mountains of material facts that are not accessible.

But hey…if someday you may think, geez…I sure wish I could have bought some shares of Facebook or LinkedIn before they went public, well...now you can – and it will cost you $14.75 and $11.25 per share respectively.

All material contained herein is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as an offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell securities.

CIMB-Caruthers Groundbreaking | 9 Sept

Some of you may have had your head buried in a text book, an .xls file or bent over the lab bench with pipette in hand (or more likely...all three) and therefore have not heard about the Colorado Initiative in Molecular Biotechnology yet. CIMB’s mission is to foster new research, teaching, and technology development at the interface of life sciences, physical sciences, mathematics, computational sciences, and engineering. The focus of this initiative is to understand and manipulate living cells and control cellular behavior through a global analysis of molecular events using methods that span a continuum from basic to applied research. The area referred to as "molecular biotechnology" includes new methods in genomics, proteomics, molecular and cellular imaging, biophysics, mathematical analysis, materials engineering and chemical synthesis, which are leading the way towards fundamental changes in experimental sciences.

On Wednesday 9 September at 4:15pm Colorado Governor Bill Ritter, University of Colorado President Bruce Benson, Nobel Laureate and CU Distinguished Professor Tom Cech, CU-Boulder Chancellor Philip DiStefano and members from the entire CU-Boulder community will gather on the CU-Boulder East Campus to celebrate the groundbreaking of the Jennie Smoly Caruthers Biotechnology Building, the new home to CIMB. Come be a part of this wonderful celebration and Colorado life science milestone.

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Back-to-School BioBeers!

It’s Back-to-School & Back-to-Denver for BioBeers. We hope the summer was a fruitful time for you. Needless to say we are excited to kick-off ( yet) another exciting season of BioBeers, coming to you from live from high above the Mile High City – 27 floors high to be exact – at the swanky Peaks Lounge in the Hyatt Regency – Denver.

Equally as exciting will be the preface to BioBeers,that is the first annual Rocky Mountain Life Science Investor Conference! The Conference features investors from San Fran to Boston and presenting companies not only from here in Colorado (like…Beacon Biotechnology, Biodesix, BiOptix, GlobeImmune, MyoCept and ValveXchange, to name a few) but also from Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Montana (like…Axial Biotech, Castle Biosciences, LigoCyte Pharmaceuticals, Medipacs, NanoMR and Numira Biosciences, to name a few).

We would also like to extend a warm welcome to all of our guests from out of town to come join us at BioBeers and unwind after what is certain to be an exciting, though long, day of presentations and partnering meetings. Peaks Lounge is a delightful 7 short block walk from the Ritz Carleton. Hope to see you there!

Be certain to follow BioBeers on Twitter | @BioBeers

When: September, 17th @ 6:30pm
Where: Peaks Lounge @ Hyatt Regency Denver, 27th Floor (650 15th St.)

Mark your calendars and please be certain to RSVP at http://BioBeers.com for the 17 September event.

BioBeers: Connecting Bio-Entrepreneurs Since 2007

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Venrock | Building Companies for 40 years

The history of Venture Capital dates back to 1946 courtesy of the American Research and Development Corp., founded by Georges Doriot, who is subsequently considered to be the father of VC. Though many may argue the following (myself included)…The birth of biotechnology can be pegged to the 1953 presentation of the DNA double-helix structure by Watson and Crick (and others). So then one may postulate that these two industries, VC & biotech, have more or less grown-up together. Talk about symbiosis…survival of each seemingly dependent upon the other (that is when considering life science specific venture funds).

One fund in particular has been masterfully catalyzing biotechnologies now for some forty-years…Venrock, who to date has invested approximately $2.4 billion in 437 companies since fund inception yielding and incredible 124 IPO's and 129 M&A exits. Simply an amazing track record! Some of these companies include Geron (Nasdaq: GERN), Gilead Sciences (Nasdaq: GILD), Idexx Labs (Nasdaq: IDXX), Ligand Pharma (Nasdaq: LGND), Millenium Pharma (Nasdaq: MLNM) and Sepracor (Nasdaq: SEPR) just to name a few.

In celebration of their rich (pun intended…) history and 40-year milestone Venrock has published Shaping the Future: 40 Years of Innovation. If you have an entrepreneurial streak in you set aside some time to enjoy the following focus on 40 start-ups (bio and non-bio) and the entrepreneurs that created them. (If you have trouble observing the slide presentation in your CLSDF email subscription take a look [HERE]).

Venrock: Shaping the Future, 40 Years of Innovation

View more documents from Dev Khare.

The Best $200 You Can Spend on 9/17!

If you have not heard about the upcoming Rocky Mountain Life Science Investor Conference at the Ritz Carlton – Denver on 17 September, yet, you sure will get an earful about it here at CLSDF.

Today’s post particularly applies to those companies who have applied to present at the RMLSIC and were not selected as well as those entities who have not applied (perhaps you thought you were not ready to present yet?). Knowing that capital raising in our world is essentially, well…essential, the perspective of institutional life science investors is key in helping to highlight and address the critical “commercially relevant” questions that an early-stage entity must focus upon in order to efficiently leverage finite resources.

Denver will play host to 16 (at least) funds at the RMLSIC. By spending $200, for entities spun-out of universities (or $500 for companies without university affiliations) you can sign up for the RMLSIC BioPartnering Program – the program goal is to provide an opportunity to meet one-on-one with investors who are (believe it or not…) very interested to hear, comment and perhaps criticize what you have cooking in the lab. These VC’s are keenly aware of how “early” your entity is, and they are more than OK with that because there is an opportunity to help suggest a commercial trajectory – after all though the experiments you are planning for or running might make for a cool paper in Nature they very likely may not yield the data that can lead to a partnering deal with big pharma or a Series A financing - as such having the opportunity to influence your design today may make your company "investable" tomorrow.

So go to RMLSIC BioPartnering and find out what you don’t know! Why you could not even get to San Fran or Boston for $200! Here is an opportunity to secure high-quality meetings with high-quality investors in your own backyard. Without a doubt this is the best money you can spend on 9/17!

For more information and to sign-up contact the wonderful folks at CBSA:

April Giles agiles@cobioscience.com
Leah Kientz lkientz@cobioscience.com
(303) 592-4073
http://www.rmlic.com/partnering.html

DON'T MISS OUT ON THIS WONDERFUL OPPORTUNITY! SIGN-UP TODAY!

Allos THx | He Said, She Said Monday…

FDA will seek input from the Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee on Wednesday 2 September re: review of Allos Therapeutics’ (NASDAQ: ALTH) New Drug Application for pralatrexate (Folotyn); for the treatment of patients with relapsed or refractory peripheral T-cell lymphoma. It appears as though reviewers have questioned some findings reported by the Company on the effectiveness of its proposed drug.

FDA issues with the Allos application appear to be:

1. The clinical significance of tumor response and duration of response, and
2. Whether the benefit:risk ratio is favorable
   

Allos reported, in-part, that 29 patients, or 27%, responded to treatment with Folotyn however, agency reviewers are challenging the verification on one or more of these responses and one or more of their associated durations.

Take a look at the FDA Briefing Document [HERE].

Don’t Call It A Comeback!

Question: What do Brett Favre, LL Cool J and CLSDF have in common?

Answer: Well OK, a bit of a rhetorical question…But after nearly 14-months to the day Colorado Life Science Deal Flow, version 1.5, is back! Perhaps maybe not better than ever (yet) as we effort to shake off the cobwebs and get the digits dancing across the keyboard again; after-all, 14 months in blogosphere time equals about 6.5 people years. Nevertheless, do note that the new look and feel of CLSDF v 2.0 is well underway and has been engineered to feature all sorts of shiny new bells and whistles, guaranteed to please.* Be certain to keep a lookout for the CLSDF Version 2.0 Re-Launch Party invitation (or request your invite via email to arubenstein@rnaventures.com).

For those of you diehard CLSDF fans, and you know who you are, first of all – thank you, and second, get a life, what is wrong with you people?!?! In all seriousness, it is an incredibly humbling experience to have this blog perceived to be a valuable resource and is a wonderfully rewarding opportunity to be able to bring forth relevant content…with a twist or two.

I anticipate a bit of a shift for version 2.0, certainly life science news and stories will continue to be addressed however, the new CLSDF is not focused upon delivering breaking information about our life science eco-system. In order to keep your finger on the pulse it is highly recommended that you visit (or subscribe to…) Rocky Radar - Colorado’s Technology Record (be certain to enter your email in the life science specific box at http://www.rockyradar.com/email-subscription). The all new CLSDF will function as a platform for me to wax poetic on (primarily) life science issues and events that at times reach beyond the borders of our uniquely special home here in Colorado.

So again, thank you to all of the CLSDF readers and fans for the years of continued and steadfast support you have given me and my family. Sit back, turn up the volume, relax and enjoy…

Dont call it a comeback
I been here for years
Rockin my peers and puttin suckas in fear
Makin' the tears rain down like a mon soon
Listen to the bass go boom
Explosion overpowerin'
Over the competition Im towerin'
Wreckin' shop when I drop these lyrics that'll make you call the cops
Don't you dare stare, you betta move
Don't ever compare
Me to the rest that'll all get sliced and diced
Competitions payin' the price...

*Corporate legal insisted to include this disclaimer that CLSDF, it’s heirs, pets, lackies and bookies furnish content on this web “as-is,” without warranty of any kind, expressed, written, or implied, including but not limited to implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement, nor can guarantee in reality the validity of any guarantee.

Thank You, Colorado. It Has Been Magical…

Dear Cherished CLSDF Readers,

It is with a crashing wave of mixed emotions that I report this to be my final post as author of CLSDF. It is nearly three years to the day and over 500 posts since CLSDF launched, first as an experiment in learning about the blogosphere and new technologies yet rapidly evolved into an information node for members of the Colorado life science ecosystem and beyond.

When I began tinkering with this blog I never dreamt it would develop into the resource that you have indicated to me it is through countless emails, calls, meetings, texts, instant messages, tweets and blog comments. An infinite loop emerged, for the more acknowledgement and appreciation that was expressed by the reading audience the more motivated I became to deliver meaningful content in a consistent and reliable manner.

Perhaps the most selfish element extracted from authoring CLSDF has been the opportunity to connect with an incredibly vast array of special individuals, in Colorado and beyond. Relationships were forged that undoubtedly never would have without the blog. It truly has been an honor and a privilege and just plain fun for generating content never once felt like work to me, CLSDF is a chimera of my passions for the life sciences and the people who dedicate their lives to the advancement of global healthcare.

There have been so many people to whom I am forever indebted to and appreciative of. Too many to name here, but if you take a look at the acknowledgments page in CLSDF 2007: What’s In A Year (HERE) you will see what I am talking about. One person though whom I am moved to highlight is Robin, my betrothed, who showers me with extraordinary levels of support and encouragement; I truly feel like the luckiest man in the world to have her in my life.

As I began to share the news of the unwinding of CLSDF with community members it became unambiguously clear to me that the blog has grown to be bigger than me, and though I will no longer be banging out posts on my keyboard it is imperative that this resource continue to be available to our ecosystem. With that in mind I am actively pursuing the identification of the individual (or individuals) to whom the baton may be confidently passed. So if you enjoy looking under the hoods of life science companies, interfacing with amazing people and adding a bit of a personal flair to the news please email me (arubenstein@rnaventures.com). It may be next week or next month or next year (hopefully it does not take that long) but CLSDF version 2.0 will be back and better than ever. Perhaps you know someone who would be perfect to take the reigns, please send them my way.

Finally, I can hardly contain my level of excitement as I prepare today to embark upon my next journey. It is an extraordinary opportunity and am truly blessed to be able to participate. As a youngster I enjoyed the regular occasions to be deposited in front of the tele by Dad to enjoy with him the long running CBS series Sunday Morning, little did I know the impact that then host Charles Kuralt would have in contributing to my affinity for prose, poetry and journalism. And so I find it ironically fitting that I part levering some of his echoing words...

"Time for us to part, you and I. Saying goodbye to the readers of Colorado Life Science Deal Flow is like saying goodbye to old friends. That’s the way I feel. Thank you for making me feel that way. There is a rhyme by Clarence Day which says what I want to say: 'Farewell, my friends-farewell, and hail/I'm off to seek the Holy Grail/I cannot tell you why. Remember, please, when I am gone/'twas aspiration led me on./Tiddly, widdly, toodle-oo/All I want is to stay with you.' But...here I go. Goodbye."

GlobeImmune is Fierce!

Congratulations to GlobeImmune for being named to Fierce Biotech’s 2008 Fierce 15 List (click HERE for a link to see the other 15 companies)! What makes it Fierce: GlobeImmune's third round of financing last fall was its biggest, $41.2M, bringing its total venture haul to north of $88M. Wexford capital led the round and Celgene, Boston Life Science Venture, Morgenthaler Ventures and Biogen Idec all participated. The money takes the company to a crucial inflection point: Phase II data that determines if the company's platform technology can deliver the kind of T-cell response it is looking for. GlobeImmune has three mid-stage studies underway to determine if its genetically modified recombinant yeast can induce T-cells to attack pancreatic cancer and hepatitis C.

GlobeImmune has been developing Tarmogens (Targeted Molecular Immunogens) based on scientific research in-licensed from the University of Colorado. And its development programs in divergent areas like hep C and cancer underscores just how broad a range the company could have. One successful program could lead to several more. Enrollment for the hepatitis C Phase II was wrapped in May. The study for pancreatic cancer is underway and a Phase IIa in non-small cell lung cancer--enrolling patients with a ras mutation--was launched in March. A successful mid-stage trial sets the stage for broadening the company's research activities, is likely to excite new partnership interest and also moves the company one step closer to evaluating its worth in a potential IPO.

*NOTE* Feel the power of the Colorado BioScience Association (HERE)!
*NOTE* Take a look at the new Boulder Biotech Company Tree (HERE)!
*NOTE* Read the new eBook CLSDF 2007 - What's In A Year? (HERE)!

If you enjoyed this post get free email or RSS updates (here).

Colorado: An Emerging Cluster!

On the heels of last weeks publications from Families USA’s Global Health Initiative report, ranking Colorado No. 4 among states that generated the most economic activity per dollar of funding from the NIH, and the 2008 Milken Institute State Technology and Science Index ranking Colorado 3rd, trailing only Massachusetts and Maryland, based on technology and science assets and the ability to lever said assets for economic growth, comes now from Genome Technology a report on Best Biotech Places and Emerging Clusters (HERE). In addition to highlighting Colorado as a premiere emerging cluster the other US-based emerging clusters included Texas, Tennessee, Kansas, Alabama and New York. Clearly Colorado has made tremendous strides of late and remains affixed on a very promising trajectory!

BioBeers Tonight: Be There or Beware

But before you attend BioBeers be certain to attend the Colorado Bioscience Association BioBoulder Networking Reception 5:30 – 7:00 at Rembrandt Yard. More info (HERE). Then just when you think it is time to head home for dinner, enjoy a summer evening with the family and walk the dog beware, because it is actually time for BioBeers 7:00 – ?, just a few blocks away at the Foundry Roof-top Deck. More info (HERE). It is an all night BioBoulder networking extravaganza.

There is also a little wrinkle thrown in for tonight. We are holding an informal poll to help determine where to feature the next BioBeers, how can you cast your vote? Simple…if you are a Denverite headed north for the night check in with me and if you are a Ft. Collinsite headed south for the night check in with me. If more friends from the north arrive at BioBeers then it is Ft. Collins for July, if more friends from the south arrive at BioBeers then it is Denver for July, and if it is a tie then it is back to Boulder for July.

*NOTE* Feel the power of the Colorado BioScience Association (HERE)!
*NOTE* Take a look at the new Boulder Biotech Company Tree (HERE)!
*NOTE* Read the new eBook CLSDF 2007 - What's In A Year? (HERE)!

If you enjoyed this post get free email or RSS updates (here).

Replidyne: Fare The Well Faropenem…

An unfortunate day indeed as Replidyne (NASDAQ: RDYN) has terminated their licensing deal with Asubio Pharma for its lead drug candidate Faropenem and subsequently is expecting a charge of approximately $4.1M. Recall, Replidyne discontinued enrollment in a late-stage study testing its faropenem medoxomil oral antibiotic as a treatment for patients with acute chronic bronchitis due to an inability to secure a partner for the clinical program.

Concomitant to the terminated license agreement is termination of the supply agreement with Nippon Soda Co. Engineering costs and delayed compensation fees comprise a portion of the expected $4.1M charges.

The decision to end Faropenem is disappointing in a variety of dimensions and to a certain extent somewhat surprising that a partner could not be identified given how mature the asset is. The termination decision was executed in order to preserve cash and focus attention on the previously discussed strategic initiatives of the C. difficile infection program and novel anti-infective programs based on DNA replication inhibition technology. As of 31 May Replidyne had cash and short term investments totaling $71.5M.

*NOTE* Feel the power of the Colorado BioScience Association (HERE)!
*NOTE* Take a look at the new Boulder Biotech Company Tree (HERE)!
*NOTE* Read the new eBook CLSDF 2007 - What's In A Year? (HERE)!

If you enjoyed this post get free email or RSS updates (here).

Back in the Saddle...

I’m playing catch-up today after attending the week long BIO2008 conference last week. It was an incredible experience (again) on a variety of levels and so too was the opportunity to again be an invited conference guest blogger. Despite the technological hurdles faced I was able to get to a few postings, here is a review and links:

• Catching My Breath
• Forest City Enterprises – Building Colorado Science + Technology Park @ Fitzsimons
• Attacking the Valuation Question at BIO2008
• Colorado @ BIO2008
• Something Funny on the Way to a Breakout Session
• BIO EVE & BIO Day 1 – Anticipate Fashion Faux Pas
  

Something Funny on the Way to a Breakout Session

Sitting in amazement of the logistical tango displayed by the BIO organizers on just exactly how does one feed 20,000+ attendees in a sophisticated and elegant manner, needless to say the Keynote Luncheon #1 was executed to perfection. Whilst hacking away at a blog post my PC endured the dreaded blue screen of death. What’s worse is that the drive has spun out into an infinite loop of blue-screen-reboot-repeat. Not so funny…luckily I have access to the beautifully appointed BIO media/press room. Thank you BIO! So the posts may not come as fast and furiously as was anticipated. Oh well, best laid plans of mice and men…

A reader of the AR Post’s will undoubtedly pick up a common denominator, that being Colorado, for obvious reasons, as I write the Colorado Life Science Deal Flow blog. I could barely contain my excitement while in the first Breakout Session Do You Have a Clue What Big Pharma is Looking For?, not one, not two but three Colorado companies/assets were mentioned in the first few breaths of the panelists, they being:

Pharmion
Array Biopharma
Macugen

Whilst departing lunch, head hung low as a result of my technological woes with one seemingly former laptop, I could not make it a ten-feet without running into a few more Colorado biocompatriots including Dan Stinchcomb, President & CEO of InViragen and Rick Silva, Director of the University of Colorado Technology Transfer Office .

Back to the Breakout Sessions Finance Track for Ice Cold to Red Hot: Turn-Around in the Diagnostics Value Proposition. Hope to see you at the party tonight on the USS Midway.