Note: Carl Nelson Consulting, Inc is not an investment adviser and may hold a financial interest or client relationship in companies discussed.

Looking for older stories? Visit the archives

Cellerant Therapeutics (San Carlos, CA; $3.8M SBIR) won a contract valued at up to $153 million over five years with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, the company said  [San Francisco Business Times, Sep 1, 10]  developing a novel, cell-based medicine (Myeloid Progenitors / CLT-008) as a treatment for chemotherapy- and radiation-induced neutropenia as well as for Acute Radiation Syndrome. [company website]

Achaogen  (South San Francisco, CA; no SBIR) won a federal government contract worth up to $64.5 million to develop an antibiotic to treat bubonic plague and other biologic threats. Four months after Achaogen raised a $56 million venture round, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority within the Department of Health and Human Services committed $27 million during the base two years of the contract. Options would bring the total to $64.5 million.  [Ron Leuty, San Francisco Business Times, Aug 30, 10]

EndoGastric Solutions  (Redwood City, CA; no SBIR), which is developing procedures for the treatment of upper gastrointestinal diseases, has completed a $30 million round of financing [San Francisco Business Times, Aug 30, 10]

FuelCell Energy, the state's largest fuel cell manufacturer, is narrowing its losses on its products, but its revenues were down from the third quarter of 2009. [Mara Lee, Hartford Courant, Sep 2, 10]

Cepheid up 10% [Sep 2, 10]

Expedited Transition of Propulsion Modeling & Simulation Capability  $1.2M  Phase 2 STTR A multivariate interface/data structure for insensitive munitions (IM) applications, technology and hazards/effects analysis can facilitate transition of propulsion modeling and simulation (M&S) capability. Expected benefits are reduced testing and overall acquisition cost and increased safety margins. etc, etc.  A million plus is tons of money for computer modeling that will make the government smarter.  It's a sign that MDA has more SBIR money than it ever wanted (which is none), that it has an immediate need for its urgent programs, and that it has no desire to use it for growth in US innovation.  Computer modelers are everywhere in America and need no government handouts to spur innovation in a low capital barrier to entry industry.  And anyone wanting a piece of the MDA SBIR pie must find ways to appeal to immediate application of its tech to MDA development/procurement.  Unfortunately, the outsiders have almost no way of penetrating the public information screen to find out what those perceived needs are. Advantage to companies already in the know.

Applied Signal Technology  (Sunnyvale, CA; $1M SBIR) which makes intelligence and reconnaissance products, up 10%  [Wall Street Journal, Sep 2, 10]  The company with 790 employees, makes a healthy profit, pays a good dividend, is buying back stack recently.  Why was DOD's Special Operations Command putting SBIR money into such a company?  Because DOD never heard of "market failure" and has no recognizable standards for what SBIR is for. 

AXTI up 10% [Sep 1, 10]

InfraReDx (Burlington, MA, no SBIR) medical device company, said it has gotten a regulatory clearance to market a coronary imaging system. [Boston Globe, Sep 1, 10]

Pfizer says it will buy  FoldRx Pharmaceuticals (Cambridge, MA; no SBIR) for an undisclosed amount, expanding its pipeline of potential products. .... developing potential treatments for diseases caused by protein misfolding, which is increasingly recognized as an underlying cause in many chronic degenerative diseases.[AP, Sep 1, 10]

Alloy Polymers (East Texas; no SBIR) a plastics compounding company recently canceled its state job creation contract, joining other businesses that have quit or changed their pacts under the Texas Enterprise Fund. ...  citing "business reasons," said Lucy Nashed , a spokeswoman for Gov. Rick Perry. Nashed said the company paid back with interest the $100,000 in taxpayer money it had received so far under the $200,000 agreement....  was to have created 52 new jobs in Houston County as part of the 2006 agreement. [Kelly Shannon, AP, Sep 1, 10]

Stanford researchers have developed a water-purifying filter that makes the process more than 80,000 times faster than existing filters. The key is coating the filter fabric – ordinary cotton – with nanotubes and silver nanowires, then electrifying it. The filter uses very little power, has no moving parts and could be used throughout the developing world. [Louis Bergeron , www.wateronline.com, Sep 1]

Energy Conversion Devices up 13% [Aug 31, 10]  after its fiscal fourth-quarter loss widened on higher costs, but the Rochester Hills, Mich., company's earnings still beat analysts' expectations. Energy Conversion forecast revenue for the new year and the first quarter below analysts' average estimates. [Wall Street Journal, Sep 1]

Import laws have teeth.  Three former executives of Spectranetics (Colorado Springs, CO; three Phase 1 SBIRs) medical-laser maker, are named in a 12-count criminal indictment that accuses them of illegally importing unapproved medical devices, the office of Colorado U.S. Attorney John Walsh announced.  [Denver Business Journal, Aug 30, 10]

For a world fretting over Chinese economic competition, the entities to fear are not government-backed juggernauts, but enterprises that spring on the scene lean and mean, planned and financed by investors who want to make money quickly. -  TC Fishman, China Inc, 2005

AgeneBio (Indianapolis, IN; no SBIR, founded 2008) received a $240,000 grant from the Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation to help develop a new class of compounds that have promise in treating a neurological condition that often progresses to Alzheimer's disease.   ... has a therapy in midstage clinical trials for the condition known as amnestic mild cognitive impairment. [Indianapolis Star, Aug 27, 10]

Trius Therapeutics is down 20% from its IPO Aug 2... developing technology for making a new class of antibiotic compounds, ended [its first trading day]—at its IPO price of $5 a share. Trius was forced to cut its price to $5 a share (from a range of $12 to $14 per share), and increased the size of its offering from 6 million to 10 million shares.  [Bruce Bigelow, signonsandiego, Aug 29, 10]

Immunogen up 10% [Aug 30, 10]

Many high-tech companies are holding healthy piles of cash, and with low returns in the investment markets, it makes more sense to spend it on acquisitions, analysts say.  [Samantha Bomkamp and Geir Molson, AP, Aug 30] Are acquisitions good or bad for small company high tech, and US high tech in general.  If you listen to the SBIR advocates, you'll hear it's bad because the small entrepreneur loses control of his company and its technology.  But that's just encouraging life-style companies to think small and protective. And the federal agencies play into that by continually funding such companies for low risk R&D.  The result is less innovation than would result from full exploitation of our capitalism in which making big profits encourages new attempts at innovation. C.mon government, if you're going to hand out money, push it to the companies and ideas most likely to compound it to economic growth. Forget the companies that already have had $30M SBIR and are still doing the same stuff, however technically competent. 

Southern California’s Tech Coast Angels (TCA) says today it is forming a new fund that will allow non-members [(who qualify as high net-worth investors) and institutional investors] to collectively participate in startup investments  [Bruce Bigelow, signonsandiego, Aug 29, 10]

ImmunoGen  plunged 38% yesterday after US regulators rebuffed a bid to gain fast-track status for a breast cancer drug it is developing with the Genentech unit of Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche Holding AG. [Boston Globe, Aug 28, 10]

Omeros up 10% [Aug 27, 10]

Laser Tissue Welding (Houston, TX; one SBIR) Using a laser to fuse tissue and stop bleeding without stitches.... founder Yasmin Wadia has invested $500,000 in cash and received $160,000 from the state’s Emerging Technology Fund. ... also received $1.3 million in federal grants. [Purva Patel, Houston Chronicle, Aug 28, 10]

Ensysce Biosciences (Houston, TX; no SBIR) Using carbon nanotubes to deliver treatments to individual cancer cells. ... Bob Gower founded the company in 2008 as spinoff of Carbon Nanotechnologies, ... Founder Gower has invested a little more than $1 million, Kirkpatrick said, and the state’s Emerging Technology Fund has committed $1.5 million if the company meets certain milestones. The company has already received $250,000 from the fund. [Purva Patel, Houston Chronicle, Aug 28, 10]

DNAtrix (Houston, TX; no SBIR)  Using a virus to attack cancer cells. ... conducting clinical trials on nine brain cancer patients at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center  ... received $500,000 from the state’s Emerging Technology Fund and is eligible to receive $500,000 more if it meets certain milestones. DFJ Mercury has invested about $480,000 in venture capital and the Marcus Foundation has given $2 million. ...  also received $4.5 million in federal grants for clinical production and testing. [Purva Patel, Houston Chronicle, Aug 28, 10]

Cree employees are building a showcase for the company's LED lights with a philanthropic twist: It's a Habitat for Humanity house. All the light fixtures in the house they're helping to construct  in Durham will feature Cree light-emitting diodes.  [David Ranii, Raleigh News & Observer, Aug 28, 10]

Cypress Bioscience (San Diego, CA; no SBIR)  says it paid $5 million to license an electronic nicotine delivery technology from Alexza Pharmaceutical that helps smokers quit smoking by enabling them to inhale reduced doses of nicotine without smoking cigarettes. .... also agreed to pay Alexza an additional $1 million technology transfer payment once certain milestones have been met. Alexza also gets 10 percent (subject to certain circumstances) in the net proceeds of any sale or license of its nicotine delivery technology.  ... Earlier this month, Cypress rejected a $160-million buyout offer .... At roughly the same time, laid off 123 employees, or 86 percent of its workforce, in a strategic reorganization  [Bruce Bigelow, signonsandiego.com, Aug 28, 10]

Solixia (Philadelphia, PA; no SBIR) got a $161K SBIR from NIH to develop a new approach to treat ovarian cancer ... [its] radioimmunotherapy, uses special molecules to deliver radioactivity specifically to ovarian cancer cells.  ...  Previous efforts to use radioimmunotherapy to treat cancer have generally failed to deliver enough radioactivity to solid tumors to produce a therapeutic response. Solixia believes its proprietary technology would circumvent that limitation. [John George, Philadelphia Business Journal, Aug 16, 10]  [CSO] Bryan Smith and [CEO] Irene Susantio graduated from Wharton [in 2008] after winning their school’s business plan contest [company website]

American university biology departments exist to transfer knowledge from old Jewish men to young Chinese women. -- TC Fishman, China, Inc, 2005 

Quincy Bioscience (Madison, WI; no SBIR) that makes an anti-aging dietary supplement from jellyfish protein has raised $250,000 ...  The investment brings to $1.5 million the amount  has raised in a planned $3 million funding round ...  markets an anti-aging dietary supplement called Prevagen at Rite-Aid stores, more than 1,000 independent health food stores, and through its own website.  [Kathleen Gallagher, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Aug 26, 10]

[Wisconsin] awarded Sun Power Biodiesel [Cumberland, WI; no SBIR) an $800,000 state loan funded by the federal stimulus package for Sun Power's expansion.  ... part of an assistance package that also includes a $349,825 Community Development Block Grant for the city of Cumberland to provide infrastructure for the project.  ... a cold-flow biodiesel producer founded in 2005. The biodiesel is produced from canola seed oil. [Thomas Content, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Aug 25, 10]

Good news and bad.  As the world's economies rebound, governments are investing heavily in innovation and research infrastructure. Australia and Ireland, for example, will fund significant investment in national innovation strategies. Australia will commit $1.1 billion to develop national clusters in targeted sectors, and Ireland will attempt to become the "innovation hub" of Europe.  [SSTI, Aug 26]  If government is doing it. we have less to fear from foreign innovation.

Neuralstem (Rockville, MD; $600K SBIR) up 7% on the NYSE after filing an application with the FDA to begin early-stage testing of a chronic spinal-cord injury treatment using stem cells. [Wall Street Journal, Aug 26, 10]

BioTime  (Alameda, CA; $300K SBIR) raised $9.2 million as investors exercised warrants [Ron Leuty, San Francisco Business Times, Aug 20, 10]

BioMarin (Novato, CA; $300K SBIR) will buy ZyStor Therapeutics  (Milwaukee, WI; no SBIR) and a possible treatment for a rare degenerative muscle disease in a deal that could be worth up to $115 million. It is the fourth major deal in less than a year for Novato  [Ron Leuty, San Francisco Business Times, Aug 20, 10]

Somaxon  (San Diego, CA; no SBIR) up 29% efforts to launch its new insomnia drug received a big boost Wednesday when consumer products giant Procter & Gamble said it would help the San Diego company sell Silenor to thousands of U.S. doctors and pharmacies.   [Keith Darcé, San Diego Union Tribune, Aug 26]

NIH announced Tuesday that it has suspended funding new human embryonic stem cell research and that all federally funded experiments already underway will be cut off when they come up for renewal if a new court order is not overturned. [Washington Post, Aug 25]

American Superconductor is expanding deeper into India with an order from a new Indian firm for wind turbine electrical control systems.  The order – for 17 systems that will be deployed in 2-megawatt, doubly-fed induction wind turbines [Mass High Tech, Aug 24, 10]

Nanocomp Technologies (Concord, NH; $600K SBIR) announced that it has been awarded a multi-million dollar [SBIR] contract to continue research into new materials for Air Force aircraft.   .... makes sheets of tissue-thin, super-tough carbon nanotubes that can be used in things like lightweight vehicle bodies or flexible body armor. ...  plans to move into a 100,000-square-foot manufacturing facility within the next year [Kyle Alspach, Mass High Tech, Aug 24, 10]

NeuroVista (Seattle, WA; no SBIR) has raised $16.5 million in equity financing led by an Australian firm and $5 million through a convertible debt agreement ....  founded 2005 by local entrepreneur and medical device innovator John Harris, is developing an implantable device designed to predict epileptic seizures before they happen  [Seattle Times, Aug 24, 10]

The technology sector's top eight companies sitting on $125 billion of net cash, deals look set to continue. ... In their most recent quarters, the top eight bought back $13 billion of stock. Some even pay decent dividends.  Still, with the sector generating tens of billions of dollars from operations each year, bank accounts should keep expanding despite buybacks and dividends   [Rolfe Winkler, Wall Street Journal, Aug 25]

Taligen Therapeutics (Cambridge, MA;  $1M SBIR) added on to its Series B Round with an additional $10 million, bringing the amount up to $36 million of a planned $65 million second round  [Mass High Tech, Aug 23, 10]

Medical instruments maker Harvard Bioscience (Holliston, MA; $800K SBIR) said it has acquired Coulbourn Instruments (Whitehall, PA; no SBIR) , a private company that makes lab equipment for assessing learning and memory.  Harvard Bioscience estimates the total market for the instruments Coulbourn produces is between $40 million and $50 million. And it expects the company to add about $4 million in annual revenue.  [AP, Aug 23, 10]

A U.S. judge blocked the federal government from funding research involving human embryonic stem cells, a surprise blow to one of the most promising yet controversial areas of current scientific research.  .... said it violated a law first passed in 1996 prohibiting federal money for research in which an embryo is destroyed.   [Wall Street Journal, Aug 24]  Stand by for science v. religion battles between those who want to understand life and those who already know unknowable answers. Economically, it gives the social conservatives a chance to divert attention from basic economic policy questions for which they have no good answers.  Note that the ruling applies only to federal funding which is running about $100M a year. The California group spends $250 million annually on stem-cell research, with some 30%-40% of the money directed to embryonic stem-cell research. "California may be the only safe haven now, at least temporarily, for human stem cell research," said Dr. Snyder.

Italian ... seismologists, volcanologists, physicists and engineers are being threatened with charges of manslaughter for failing to definitively predict an earthquake of magnitude 6.3 in the city of L’Aquila on April 6, 2009, which took more than 300 lives and injured an additional 1,600 area residents. The scientists find themselves in legal peril even though anything other than a loosely probabilistic assessment of earthquake risk is currently impossible... The threatened researchers belong to the Major Risks Committee... Major risk number one: membership in the Major Risks Committee. [Steve Mirsky, Scientific American, Sep10]

Anchor Therapeutics (Cambridge, MA; no SBIR) (formerly Ascent Therapeutics) closed on $10 million in a Series B funding round ... focused on developing peptide drug candidates, called pepducins, that modulate G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) [Mass High Tech, Aug 20, 10]

Antiviral drug developer Achillion Pharmaceuticals said that it plans to raise $50 million by selling stock to four venture capital firms. [Mass High Tech, Aug 20, 10]

Pharmaceutical developer EntreMed  (Rockville, MD; $1.5M SBIR) said this week that its market value is too low to meet requirements to retain its Nasdaq listing. [Washington Post, Aug 21, 10]

CeNeRx BioPharma (Cary, NC; no SBIR) completed a $13 million series C round of fundraising, the drug developer announced. ... to pay for phase II human trials of its lead product candidate, depression drug TriRima.  [Jeff Drew, Triangle Business Journal, Aug 13, 10]

Luminex (Austin, TX; $300K SBIR in 2003) was listed as 42nd fastest growing company by Fortune magazine. The testing equipment manufacturer was founded in 1995 and employs about 471 workers.  [Austin Business Journal, Aug 20, 10]

MELA Sciences up 10% [Aug 20, 10]

Obama administration officials are considering overhauling 26 troubled federal technology projects valued at as much as $30 billion as part of a broader effort by White House budget officials to cut spending.  Projects on the list are either over budget, haven't worked as expected or both, say Office of Management and Budget officials. ... The U.S. government spends about $80 billion annually on technology systems.     [Amy Schatz, Wall Street Journal, Aug 23]  But the prez can't forget that there are 535 competing technology experts in Washington. The same 535 that act as Secretaries of State and Defense.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of wrong ways to go about building the next Silicon Valley. ...  In a pattern that continues today, entrepreneurs who got rich in one wave of Silicon Valley innovation turned around and invested in the next wave. The venture-capital model was tailor-made for the Bay Area, which has been unusually risk-tolerant since the days of the California Gold Rush, with a community of investors willing to make bets on untested entrepreneurs, and to continue making such bets again and again. ...  isolated research parks can't lure talented people -- they've got to be someplace where the world's most talented people actually want to live. ...  The Valley came to be in good part because the people there didn't have to pay attention to much else other than the work itself. [Margaret O'Mara, Foreign Policy, Sep/Oct 10] And buzzword programs like Small Business Innovation Research run by federal agencies protecting their R&D interests could never foster a Silicon Valley world. It gets even worse when every two Senators from anywhere want a piece of the pie for their states. To keep the machine going, spread the money around and sponsor lemonade reports about how well it is going.

Small biz (under 50 employees) created 54.1% of new private sector jobs in the fourth quarter, and now for the rest of the news:   they wiped out 61.8% of all job cuts, says the Labor Department. Large firms added slightly more than they subtracted.  [Wall Street Journal, Aug 20] The SBIR advocates will be sure, as always, to trumpet the first number.

Iran said it has built an armed aerial drone. The announcement came a day after a ceremony to roll out Iran's first nuclear power plant, as Tehran continued to defy international pressure over its military ambitions. Western analysts brushed off the drone news as saber rattling. ... The weapon's effectiveness is in question amid doubts Iran could guide such a drone over long distances.  [Wall Street Journal, Aug 20] For diplomatic purposes it doesn't have to actually work; it just needs to sound like it might work.

Endocyte (West Lafayette, IN; $3.7M SBIR) filed for IPO. ... develops therapies to treat cancer and inflammatory diseases.  [Indianapolis Star, Aug 19, 10]

A private equity firm and a Canadian pension fund have agreed to acquire INC Research, (Raleigh, NC; no SBIR) that assists drugmakers with clinical trials.  [Raleigh News & Observer, Aug 20, 10]

Reva Medical (San Diego, CA; one SBIR) plans to raise $63 million through an IPO to fund tests of its experimental coronary stent that is absorbed by the body over time.  [Keith Darcé, San Diego Union Tribune, Aug 19, 10]

MabVax Therapeutics (San Diego, CA; $400K SBIR) clinical stage biotechnology company developing vaccine and antibody-based therapies as a way to prevent recurrent cancer, says it has received a follow-on [STTR] grant of $1.1 million from the National Cancer Institute.  [Bruce Bigelow, signonsandiego,com, Aug 20, 10]

Energy Conversion Devices down 11% [Aug 19, 10]

Enzo Biochem down 11% [Aug 19, 10]

Pawns.  Obama is urging Republican Congressional leaders to stop blocking a bill aimed at helping small businesses hire more people. [AP, Aug 219] Meanwhile, the Republicans blame the Dems for hurting small biz with the death tax.  Unfortunately, both sides treat small biz as a symbolic pawn in their great chess game for power while small biz lobbies to extract the maximum  handouts.

The former CEO of Sicel Technologies (Morrisville, NC; one SBIR) says the medical device company's failure to raise the venture capital it needed to continue operating wasn't his fault.....  said his efforts to raise about $20 million were undermined by a member of the board of directors. ... "There were serious problems agreeing upon realistic valuations."  [Raleigh News & Observer, Aug 18, 10]

TetraLogic Pharmaceuticals (Malvern, PA; no SBIR) completed a $32 million private stock sale, the proceeds from which will be use to advance the clinical development of the biopharmaceutical company’s experimental cancer treatments.  [John George, Philadelphia Business Journal, Aug 10, 10]

Sparks continue to fly over tech company Starfire Systems (Malta, NY; $1.7M SBIR) with Starfire’s former CEO again denying he tainted the company’s efforts to exit bankruptcy. ...  makes specialty polymers, used in the aerospace, energy and electronics industries (Notably, Starfire makes repair kits that NASA astronauts use to repair the space shuttle on missions). Starfire, with 15 employees, has continued to operate during bankruptcy  [Adam Sichko, The Business Review (Albany), Aug 13, 10] Got SBIR, sold product to the government, and went bust anyway for reasons they are still arguing about.

American Superconductor acquired a 25% stake in Blade Dynamics Ltd.,a U.K.-based designer and manufacturer of wind turbine blades, the company announced for $8 million in cash [Mass High Tech, Aug 17, 10]

Osteotech (Eatontown, NJ; $200K SBIR) soared 63% after Medtronic said it will buy the , company for about $123 million. ... a provider of human bone and bone-connective tissue used in transplants, has been embroiled in a proxy fight with a dissident shareholder. But Medtronic will pay a 65% premium to Monday's closing price. [Wall Street Journal, Aug 18]

Senomyx (San Diego, CA; one SBIR) rose 6% after it agreed to a four-year collaboration with large-cap PepsiCo to develop and commercialize artificial and natural sweeteners. Senomyx switched its allegiance from Coca-Cola to PepsiCo in favor of much more money. [Wall Street Journal, Aug 18]

Twenty-two months later, [CEO] Van Dell is expansive about what SolarBridge Technologies (Austin, TX; no SBIR) has accomplished. ....  has working product prototypes and a few business allies and customers, and it is on schedule to start production this fall. ... will make microinverters, which convert the direct electrical current produced by solar power panels into the alternating current that power utilities can use.  ....  attracted $1.5 million in a grant from the Texas Emerging Technology Fund and a $15 million second round of venture investment. [Kirk Ladendorf, Austin American Statesman, Aug 17, 10]

Zystor Therapeutics  (Wauwatosa. WI; no SBIR) has been acquired by BioMarin Pharmaceutical (Novato, CA; $300K SBIR), a deal that could attract investors for other Midwestern companies and venture funds.  ...  agreed to pay $22 million initially for privately held Zystor, based in Wauwatosa. BioMarin will pay as much as $93 million more if certain development, regulatory and commercial milestones are achieved, the company said. [Kathleen Gallagher, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Aug 17, 10]

Life Technologies (San Diego, CA) said it will acquire Ion Torrent, (Guilford, CT; no SBIR, founded 2007) that has developed a new way of sequencing genes, in a deal worth as much as $725 million.  [Keith Darcé, San Diego Union Tribune, Aug 17, 10]

A Pentagon official said he is withholding a contract from Lockheed Martin over concerns about problems with a missile interceptor [Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD] that is a centerpiece of the Obama administration's missile-defense strategy.  [Wall Street Journal, Aug 18] Not just the Obama administration; anti-missile defense is a long standing program going back to the 1950s and supported by every President since missiles were invented. 

Fair and balanced.  News Corp., owner of the Fox network, Fox News and newspapers including the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, gave $1 million in late June to the Republican Governors Association, making it one of the largest corporate donors to the GOP group this election season. ... News Corp. spokesman Jack Horner said the contribution was intended to promote the company's core beliefs  [Wall Street Journal, Aug 18]  We should remember that most newspapers were invented as political organs, and that claims like "fair and balanced" are mere puffery.

Battery startup 24M Technologies (Wellesley, MA) has received $10 million in Series A financing and will share in $6 million of federal funding to develop its technology, the company announced today.  The company’s technology is spun out of research at MIT and lithium ion battery company A123 Systems.  [Kyle Alspach, Mass High Tech, Aug 16, 10]

XL Hybrids (Somerville, MA; no SBIR; first founded as Entergem Ventures) has secured $300,000 in new investments, just a month after reporting capping a recent funding round at $1.5 million, according to a regulatory filing.  ... has said little about what it’s working on, but its website does state that XL Hybrids has a proprietary technology that will allow for the conversion of gas-powered or diesel-powered vehicles to become hybrids.   [Kyle Alspach, Mass High Tech, Aug 16, 10]

Epitomics (Burlingame, CA; $1.2M SBIR) is spinning out an antibody development company aimed at cancer and immuno-disorder treatments for humans and animals....  the new company, Apexigen, was split off to Epitomics shareholders.  ...  Epitomics for years has sold to drug developers humanized rabbit monoclonal antibodies, which it calls RabMAbs, as a backup system to antibodies derived from mice.  [Ron Leuty, San Francisco Business Times, Aug 13, 10]

Nanosys (Palo Alto, CA, $4.7M SBIR) has raised $25 million in new capital and will license its technology and co-develop products with Samsung   [San Francisco Business Times, Aug 10, 10]

Solazyme (Menlo Park, CA; one SBIR)  has raised $52 million in Series D financing  [San Francisco Business Times, Aug 9, 10]

Alexza Pharmaceuticals has agreed to sell common stock and warrants worth $18 million to a group of institutional investors  [San Francisco Business Times, Aug 5, 10]

Genentech will pay $12 million cash upfront to Seattle Genetics  — and up to $900 million overall — under an expanded 8-year-old deal that makes antibodies more powerful and targeted against cancer. [Ron Leuty, San Francisco Business Times, Aug 3, 10]

GlaxoSmithKline paid Anacor Pharmaceuticals (Palo Alto, CA; no SBIR) $15 million to exercise an option to exclusively license to develop and commercialize an experimental antibiotic to fight gram-negative infections. [Ron Leuty, San Francisco Business Times, Aug 2, 10]

Biocept (San Diego, CA; one SBIR, founded 1997) developer of cancer diagnostics, has raised $2.3 million of a planned $7.1 million round of  equity financing  [Ryan McBride, signonsandiego, Aug 16, 10]

Hercules Technology Growth Capital Inc. has closed loan commitments of $52 million to three new portfolio companies -- Althea Technologies (San Diego, CA; $400K SBIR), Calera (no SBIR) (CEO Brent Constantz picked by CNBC as one of fifteen leading innovators), and an unnamed company. [San Francisco Business Times, Aug 5, 10]

Anne Wojcicki is a Stanford-educated geneticist is the founder of 23andMe (no SBIR) which develops tests to identify gene markers for susceptibility to particular diseases. After spending 10 years managing investments in biotech companies, Wojcicki founded 23andMe in 2006. She is also married to another global innovator, Google’s Sergey Brin. [cnbc.com, Aug 5, 10] One of CNBC's fifteen leading innovators for the next decade. Mr Brin can surely spare all the needed seed capital for such a company.

The other thirteen CNBC leading innovators are: Robin Li co-founder and CEO of Baidu; Christina Lampe-Onnerud founder and CEO of Boston Power; Allan Golston heads the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Educational Development programs;  Achim Kopmeier co-founder of Epuramat;  Elisabet de los Pinos founder and president of Aura Biosciences; Kevin Czinger CEO of Coda Automotive; Miles Rubin founder and co-chairman of Coda Automotive; Rajiv Mehrotra  CEO of VNL;  Mark Palmer President of StreamBase; Stephen Quake is a Stanford biosciences professor;  former NASA scientist K.R. Sridhar  co-founder and CEO of Bloom Energy; Kevin Surace CEO of Serious Materials; Mark Zuckerberg is the founder of Facebook.  [cnbc.com, Aug 4, 10]  For whatever reasons, no SBIR went to these fifteen top innovators. Where did all the money go and what economic gain is there to show for it?  We might conclude that there is plenty of private money for the best innovators and that SBIR's pleas of market failure should be seriously questioned.

Homeland-security products maker ICx Technologies (no SBIR) rose 14% after saying it has agreed to be acquired by large-cap Flir Systems for about $274 million. [Wall Street Journal, Aug 17, 10]

"As Americans, we're all going to have to cut back and take less," said Lois Profitt, a 58-year-old small-business owner and political independent from Chesterfield, Va. ... "It's a brutal predicament for politicians because the rhetoric of deficit cutting is enormously popular, but the details are incredibly unpopular," said Matt Bennett, a vice president at the Democratic group Third Way, which has polled extensively on the issue.  [Jonathan Weisman, Wall Street Journal, Aug 17] Meanwhile, elsewhere in Virginia - what's ours is ours, what's yours is negotiable - as Democrats and Republicans oppose closing a military command and cutting civilian contracts around the Washington Beltway. [Washington Post, Aug 17]

A rare breed in San Diego just a few years ago, virtual companies now account for more than half of the biotech startups created in the region since 2005, according to some industry experts. ...  a handful of employees who manage contracts with outside service providers that do the heavy-lifting of drug development — operating labs, formulating and manufacturing the experimental treatment, and running clinical trials.  [Keith Darcé, San Diego Union Tribune, Aug 15] No SBIR for them unless and until Congress changes eligibility rules.

The Greenwoods (SBIR consultants) warn that Grants.gov was a noble experiment to standardize the grant proposal submission process. It is complicated, it is cumbersome, and despite several years of revisions and massaging, it continues to have odd and unexpected idiosyncrasies and peculiarities that few normal people understand.

Unica  up 118% [Aug 13, 10]  IBM plans to pay $21 per share for all outstanding shares of Unica (Waltham, MA; $600K NSF SBIR in the 1990s).  Unica makes enterprise marketing software, and IBM said buying Unica will expand its ability to help its customers develop more targeted marketing campaigns, using Unica’s “sophisticated analytics and marketing process improvement” technologies. Unica brings to the deal more than 1,500 customers  [Mass High Tech, Aug 13, 10]  Which values Unica at $480M. SBIR advocates could reasonably speculate that if the $600K in the mid 1990s was, say, 10% of the company value at the time, and the government took 10% equity, SBIR has a rich ROI to help justify its existence. But the downside of doing so is raising the embarrassing question of the total ROI for all of SBIR over nearly thirty years.  Some of the advocates, who believe more in handouts than capitalism, will even complain that the small company was swallowed up in another attack by big money capitalists on small business. 

Trubion Pharmaceuticals ($100K SBIR in 2004) up 50% [Aug 13, 10] after Emergent BioSolutions agreed to acquire the Seattle company for at least $96.8 million in a deal that diversifies Emergent's oncology and autoimmunity pipeline. [Wall Street Journal, Aug 14]

Electromed (New Prague, MN; no SBIR) raised $5.5 million in only the third initial public offering for a Minnesota company since the start of 2008. ...  the manufacturer for the SmartVest System, a Food and Drug Administration-approved device to treat excess lung secretions. ... has reported strong business growth in recent years. [Wendy Lee, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Aug 13, 10]

Smooth-Stone (Austin, TX; no SBIR), a start-up with an unusual plan to target the market for chips used in server systems said it had raised $48 million from a combination of larger chip companies and investors. The company plans to exploit chip designs from ARM Holdings PLC, which are best known for their use in cellphones. Such chips don't typically match the computing power of those used in most servers ... But ARM designs offer low power consumption, and controlling power has become a major issue for companies that operate computer rooms packed with servers. [Don Clark, Wall Street Journal, Aug 16]

a growing breed of start-up investors dubbed "super angels" is rapidly raising new money—and ratcheting up competition with established venture capitalists  .... What elevates super angels into an unofficial upper class generally is the magnetic effect their participation in a deal has on other investors—a main reason entrepreneurs like to do business with them.   [Pui-Wing Tam and Spencer Ante, Wall Street Journal, Aug 16]  The SBIR advocates should see such entrepreneuring as a threat to the market failure idea that underlies the pretending that government agencies can and will do what the capital markets won't do - invest in nurturing new technologies with a future.  The angels will undoubtedly fill the demand for small early investments that VCs haven't got time to deal with. SBIR could do that also if the big mission agencies weren't committed to self-service.

A123 Systems that was awarded $249 million in federal stimulus funds a year ago, will not supply batteries for Chrysler’s electric Fiat 500.  In an earnings call earlier this week, A123 chief executive David Vieau said his company had withdrawn from a Chrysler production program after a rival vendor said it could provide batteries at below market cost.  [Boston Globe, Aug 12, 10] Can't compete with below-cost vendor. When does predatory pricing law take effect?

Home cooking breaks deal.  Great public fanfare on preliminary agreement with China last fall to build the world's largest solar-power plant in the Mongolian desert.  But now,  Chinese competitors in the solar business have complained openly about the U.S. company, First Solar, getting such a lucrative contract. A planned June 1 date to break ground has been missed. Government officials from the Chinese region of Inner Mongolia, where the plant would be built, say they plan to open the project to competitive bidding. [Keith Richburg, Washington Post, Aug 13, 10]

Need, want, deserve a government subsidy?  In the rich world the record shows, again and again, that industrial policy doesn’t work. ... Governments rarely evaluate the costs and benefits properly. ....  Not all such money is wasted, of course. The internet and the microwave oven came out of government-led research  .... Few quarrel with the need for governments to help business with straightforward “horizontal” measures, such as research and development or fostering high-tech skills. But there is no accepted framework for “vertical” policy, favouring specific sectors and companies. But, never mind efficiency, the public funds have an odd habit of flowing towards politically connected projects.  [because] None of this excites politicians as much as donning hard hats and handing out cash in front of the cameras.  [The Economist, Aug 7] 

A123 Systems down 18% [Aug 11, 10] said its net loss widened, to $34.2 million, in the second quarter as the company invested ahead of major projects in the automotive and electric grid sectors [Mass High Tech, Aug 11, 10]

SciClone Pharmaceuticals plunged to a year-low on Tuesday after the biotech company said it is facing inquiries by the SEC and the Department of Justice about possible violations of anti-bribery laws overseas. [AP, Aug 19, 10]

AXT down 12% [Aug 11, 10]

 Cree down 13% [Aug 11, 10]

Energy Conversion Devices down 10% [Aug 11, 10]

SatCon down 10% [Aug 11, 10]

Affymetrix down 10% [Aug 11, 10]

Enzo Biochem down 10% [Aug 11, 10]

Dicerna Pharmaceuticals (Watertown, MA; no SBIR) RNA interference platform development company, has closed a $25 million Series B funding round ...  support the company’s oncology-focused program and its drug delivery systems [that are]  built around the enzyme Dicer, which is used for gene silencing in generating drug candidates with greater potency and longer action duration than earlier RNAi approaches ... in January it announced it had entered into a research collaboration and licensing deal with Japanese biopharmaceutical firm Kyowa Hakko Kirin Co. Ltd. for up to $124 million.   [Michelle Lang, Mass High Tech, Aug 11, 10]

Economic-stimulus funds for scientific research are becoming a political target for Republican skeptics who say they have identified some grants as evidence of wasteful spending. ... [Two prominent Senators] have criticized a range of stimulus spending as failing to address what they say is the immediate priority of creating jobs in the U.S. [Louise Radnofsky, Wall Street Journal, Aug 12]  "Waste, fraud, and abuse" is any spending that benefits someone else.

Cree continues to post results that are beyond the reach of most companies. ...  Net income totaled $52.8 million, five times the $9.7 million of a year ago. Not good enough! Cree shares fell as much as 10 percent in after-hours trading.   [David Ranii, Raleigh News & Observer, Aug 11, 10]

EnerG2 (Seattle, WA; one SBIR) advanced-materials startup, broke ground Tuesday on a plant in Albany, Ore., where it will manufacture components to make electric car batteries last longer and work more efficiently.   The company got a $21.3 million stimulus grant from the Department of Energy to help build the facility. .... EnerG2 can make activated carbon with fewer impurities, making its ultracapacitors more efficient, at a lower cost than companies using natural sources of carbon.  [Jason Bacaj, Seattle Times, Aug 10, 10]

Exogenesis (Billerica, MA; no SBIR) a gas cluster ion beam (GCIB) technology firm in , has raised $4.5 million in an equity offering filed with the [SEC] ... founded in 2005, uses the GCIB technology to process implantable medical devices, according to the Exogenesis website.  [Michelle Lang, Mass High Tech, Aug 10, 10]

Universal Display  up 10% [Aug 10, 10]

SciClone Pharma  down 29% [Aug 9, 10]

Biotech startup Mercator Therapeutics (Wellesley, MA; no SBIR)  has raised $2 million in its first round of equity funding, according to federal documents. ... founded in 2009, is very stealthy.  has no website  [Rodney Brown, Mass High Tech, Aug 10, 10]

Anew Optics (Newton, MA; no SBIR) has pulled in $952,000 of a planned $2 million equity offering, according to [SEC] filing ...  does not yet have a website, appears to be involved in the development of an intraocular lens, made thin and lightweight to allow for more light transfer and greater comfort, according to a patent application  [Michelle Lang, Mass High Tech, Aug 10, 10]

Ener1, the New York owner of Indianapolis battery maker EnerDel, said quarterly losses mounted as it ramped up production in Indiana and Korea.  [Indianapolis Star, Aug 6, 10]

Companies seeking grants from Texas's Emerging Technology Fund can begin applying Oct. 5.  Twenty-six Austin-area companies have received a total of $41 million. [Austin American Statesman, Aug 11]  We're still waiting to hear an auditable economic gain beyond the companies getting the money and the politicians approving the "investment".  Just like SBIR.

Stimulus of war.  Steady paychecks and a growing flow of Pentagon dollars pushed average pay in North Carolina's two largest military communities [Fayetteville and Jacksonville] beyond bigger metro areas like Charlotte and Raleigh. .... Federal figures showed seven of the country's top 10 metro areas for greatest growth in personal incomes were powered by military paychecks.   [Raleigh News & Observer, Aug 11]

SatCon Tech  up 11% [Aug 9, 10]

Salix Pharmaceuticals added 3.5% after the [FDA] accepted for priority review the company's efficacy supplement to its new drug application for Xifaxan 550 mg tablets, with an action date of Dec. 7. Salix said the review classification signals the FDA considers the drug may have the potential to provide a significant advance in the treatment of non-constipation irritable bowel syndrome.  [Wall Street Journal, Aug 10, 10] Salix also reported promising news about a potential new market for its top-selling drug Xifaxan, whose surging sales pushed the company's second-quarter revenue up 80 percent. [David Ranii, Raleigh News & Observer, Aug 10, 10]

Beacon Power  saw its cash position slip by 53 percent in the second quarter but has closed on a $43 million loan for its energy storage plant in Stephentown, N.Y., the company said in two announcements ... said the plant will begin operating at 20 percent capacity by the end of the year and will be fully operational by the end of the first quarter of 2011.  The plant will be the first of its kind in the world and will help stabilize and enhance the performance of the New York power grid, according to Beacon.  [Kyle Alspach, Mass High Tech, Aug 9, 10]

Medical device company  Sicel Technologies (Morrisville, NC; one SBIR) has laid off an undisclosed number of employees after unsuccessfully trying to raise at least $20 million in new funding for more than a year.  ... technology originated at N.C. State University, has raised $30 million in venture capital since being founded in 1999.  [David Ranii, Raleigh News & Observer, Aug 10, 10]

Lured by state incentives, a small medical technology firm spun off from an Indiana company said Monday it will locate in Madison, WI. Zurex Pharma is developing products to help patients avoid infections from catheters and in surgical sites, said [CEO] Carmine J. Durham. Durham will run the company from offices in University Research Park, with help from four other investor-owners. All of them were involved with Zurex's parent company, Ash Access Technology (Lafayette, IN; $2.7M SBIR)   ....  Stephen Ash, a kidney doctor with Clarian Arnett Health in Lafayette, Ind., and a founder of Ash Access Technology."To get (these products) to market takes the kind of experience and enthusiasm that Carmine has," said Ash, who has invented more than 50 medical devices.    ... Zurex is applying for Wisconsin's investor tax credits and for other incentives, such as low-interest loans the state Commerce Department offers for young technology companies, [Kathleen Gallagher, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Aug 9, 10]

Isis Pharmaceuticals reported a $25.2 million loss for the second quarter, more than what analysts had expected, but the company predicted better results for the rest of the year as a new drug development partnership begins to pay off.  [Keith Darcé, San Diego Union Tribune, Aug 9, 10]

Myomo (Cambridge, MA; one SBIR) is making an expensive stroke therapy available directly to patients, an effort to encourage use of the novel device.  The Myomo arm, based on technology developed at [MIT], is in many ways a natural extension of research that has shown repetitive-exercise therapy can help stroke patients regain movement. The lightweight prosthesis straps onto the arm and reads signals from the muscles to give a patient an assist when he or she moves the limb.  [Boston Globe, Aug 9, 10]

Pasteuria Bioscience, (Alachua; FL; one SBIR) a venture-backed biopesticide company focusing on the development and commercialization of a platform of natural products for the control of nematodes in agriculture, received the Ag Innovation Showcase “2010 High Yield Business Award.”  [LARTA Vox, Jul 13, 10]

Aero Farms System (Ithaca, NY; no SBIR) a leader in aeroponic technology, received the prestigious Red Herring North America 100 Award, which recognizes North American startups for their technologies and innovation in their respective industries. [LARTA Vox, Jul 13, 10]

Passing of a pharma-era.  There is fresh evidence of the dwindling pipeline of new drugs from the pharmaceuticals industry in research today showing just 7% of sales come from medicines launched in the past five years.The report by CMR International shows that the bulk of sales at the world's leading pharmaceuticals is derived from an ageing portfolio of drugs, while the number of medicines failing during late-stage testing is sharply on the rise  [Julia Kollowe, The Guardian, Jun 28]

A white paper from the Wisconsin Technology Council (WTC) lays out a plan to increase access to capital for Wisconsin entrepreneurs, create new workforce development strategies, improve the state's infrastructure and business climate, and implement technology development and transfer strategies. Another report calls for greater coordination and streamlining of Wisconsin's existing programs through the creation of two new entities with a statewide reach. Both papers include extensive recommendations for the state's efforts to make capital available to startup businesses.  [SSTI, Aug 5]  Hand out spending and call it capital, and re-organize.  Two years later, change everything again. If the elements for private capital investment aren't present, the state government will wind up with just a budget hole.

Twenty-six members, spanning university presidents, investors, serial entrepreneurs, and nonprofit leaders, were appointed to the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship announced yesterday by Commerce Secretary. The group will support President Obama's innovation strategy by helping develop policies that foster entrepreneurship and identifying new ways to take ideas from the lab to the marketplace to drive economic growth and create jobs. ... Read the press announcement  [SSTI Weekly Digest,  Jul 14]  Maybe this group will say that direct government funding of companies doesn't have much track record to recommend it beyond scratching a political itch to be seen doing something.

Meanwhile, A new state agency to promote innovation and job creation in New Jersey was established by Gov. Chris Christie earlier this year. Envisioned as a hub for all economic development activity, the New Jersey Partnership for Action consists of three interconnected organizations to promote the state's incentives and resources, develop pro-growth policies, and assist businesses in navigating government programs [SSTI Weekly Digest,  Jul 14]  Let's guess that the latest Republican poster boy will find that cutting business taxes is the best growth remedy.

The U.S. Justice Department has issued a press release announcing that former University of Wisconsin geneticist Elizabeth B. Goodwin has pled guilty in federal court to fraudulently submitting a grant progress report containing falsified data that misrepresented the progress of genetic research at the lab she directed. She will be sentenced in September and faces a maximum penalty of one year in prison and a $100,000 fine. [AAAS Policy Alert. Jul 14]

NuPathe (Conshohocken, PA; no SBIR) went public. It focuses on developing treatments for diseases of the central nervous system, including psychiatric and neurological disorders. ...  completed a pivotal Phase III clinical trial for Zelrix in July 2009 and expects to submit a New Drug Application to the United States Food and Drug Administration in the fourth quarter of 2010. If approved, NuPathe would have to build a specialty sales force in the U.S. to launch Zelrix in the first half of 2012. Like many early-stage pharmaceutical companies, NuPathe has a history of operating losses, which has led its auditor to raised substantial doubt about its ability to continue operating as a business.    [Lynn Cowan, Wall Street Journal, Aug 6, 10]

BrainCells (San Diego, CA; no SBIR) said it will acquire an experimental drug that failed as a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease but has shown promise for treating depression and other disorders that affect mental cognition. London-based Proximagen Group will receive up to $51 million if BrainCells reaches certain milestones in the development of sabcomeline. ... employs about 30 people, uses technology developed by its founders to test experimental compounds and molecules for their ability to trigger the growth of neural stem cells that improve psychiatric and neurological disorders.  [Keith Darce, signonsandiego, Aug 6, 10]

 Syndax Pharmaceuticals (Waltham, MA; no SBIR)  cancer therapeutics developer has raised $6 million of a planned $7 million securities offering, according to a regulatory filing  [Mass High Tech, Aug 6, 10]

 Satcon Technology saw its revenue for the second quarter of 2010 soar by more than 250 percent over the same period in 2009, setting a sales record. The company still saw its net losses grow as well, however.  [Mass High Tech, Aug 6, 10]

 Even though the number of startups has grown in the major Texas markets, the main barrier, according to our panel, was the inability to get these companies over the startup hump, and onto the next level, which usually requires follow-on funding and access to venture capital. [Jason Myers, http://texasceomagazine.com/?p=451, Jul 30]  What's true in Texas is true everywhere, even in federal R&D programs. Single limited funding usually leaves a new tech a little head with economic expectations unimproved. Getting past the valley of death requires starting with the right kind of tech and entrepreneur and a way to get the help that the company needs to exploit tech success, even if that means new management to supervise the technical brilliance that got the company and idea started. And since the government is completely incapable of  managing a private company, it should require third party capital participation at an early stage. Throwing a new tech over the wall and declaring success doesn't work.

iRobot won a $20.3 million order for 125 PackBot Man Transportable Robotic System (MTRS) robots from the Naval Sea Systems Command  [Mass High Tech, Aug 5, 10]

Gemin X Pharmaceuticals  (Malvern, PA; no SBIR) a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing cancer therapeutic products, raised $8 million in a private stock sale ...  developing cancer therapeutics based on reinitiating programmed forms of cell death that inhibit metabolism in cancerous cells.   .....   [John George, Philadelphia Business Journal, Aug 5, 10]

Ikonisys (New Haven, CT; one SBIR) diagnostics device firm, has raised $3.8 million of a planned $12 million ... Founded in 1999, Ikonisys has developed its CellOptics platform as the basis for automated cell-based diagnostic products. ...  two years ago the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted approval for the company’s oncoFISH (Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization) HER2 test, intended for the detection of the more aggressive HER2 form of breast cancer.    [Michelle Lang, Mass High Tech, Aug 5, 10]

Alloy Surfaces (Aston, PA; two SBIRs twenty years ago) has been awarded a three-year contract worth $38.3 million to produce MJU-49/B decoy devices for the Navy, ... now  a subsidiary of the Chemring Group PLC, which is based in Whiteley, England. [Philadelphia Business Journal, Jul 23, 10]

Momenta Pharma  down 16% [Aug 5, 10]

small business owners in Greater Boston are among the happiest in North America. So says TD Bank, which devised a happiness index, then set out to measure the happiness quotient of small business owners in a dozen metro areas in the United States and Canada. [Boston Globe, Aug 5]

More fantasy.  The DOE announced $188 million to small businesses in 34 states to develop technologies with a strong potential for commercialization and job creation.  More fantasy that government funded tech work will lead to job creation.  The winners list is riddled with the usual suspects that have been living on SBIR for at least two decades, and economic return won't come from SBIR just because the awarding agency says it will.  For political purposes, the federal agencies claim doing good work on commercialization and spinoff without much in the way of economically intelligent analysis. Show us some hard evidence, like third party co-investment or a great economic track record from those winners with previous SBIR experience. Otherwise, it's just DOE satisfying its own objectives for knowledge.  

After an 18-month delay, the [FDA] has given clearance to Geron and the University of California, Irvine, to begin a Phase I study of a human embryonic stem cell therapy for patients with spinal cord injuries. [AAAS, Aug 4, 10]

Auspex Pharmaceuticals (Vista, CA; no SBIR) has raised $12 million from investors, according to a recent filing. ...  developing deuterium-based analogs of clinically validated drugs in multiple therapeutic areas. ...  previously raised almost $13.9 million  [Bruce Bigelow, signonsandiego.com, Aug 5, 10]

Boston-Power has added $6.4 million to its previously announced Series E round of $60 million, according to a regulatory filing.  [Mass High Tech, Aug 4, 10]

Trius Therapeutics (San Diego, CA; no SBIR) which is developing technology for making a new class of antibiotic compounds, ended the day as it began this morning—at its initial public offering price of $5 a share. ... lead drug candidate targets a sometimes-fatal bacterial infection formally known as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA. [Bruce Bigelow, signonsandiego.com, Aug 3, 10]

Perkin Elmerhas bought molecular imaging technology company VisEn Medical (Bedford, MA; $3.5M SBIR) ... VisEn Medical develops its Fluorescence Agent Portfolio and its Fluorescence Molecular Tomographic Imaging Systems, which can be help identify biomarkers and therapeutic efficacy in cells. The technology is used by academic research departments, pharmaceutical research organizations, medical imaging facilities, contract research organizations, biologists and radiologists. ...  founded in 2000 by Ralph Weissleder and Kirtland Poss. ... had raised a total of $12.5 million in venture funding, as of the latest report in 2008.  [Mass High Tech, Aug 3, 10]

Cardiovascular drug development company Cardioxyl Pharmaceuticals [Chapel Hill, NC; no SBIR] has raised $15 million in equity financing, the company said. ... the same day the company announced positive phase I results from its lead drug candidate, CXL-1020, which is being developed for the treatment of patients with acute decompensated heart failure, or ADHF. ...  founded in 2005 .... Including the latest round, the company has raised $38.5 million in three rounds of funding [Frank Vinluan, Triangle Business Journal, Aug 2, 10]

Laser vision technology startup Avedro (Waltham, MA; no SBIR) has taken in $4.6 million in an offering ... according to [SEC] filing ...  developed a microwave-based surgery procedure intended to treat myopia without using surgical laser vision correction. [Michelle Lang, Mass High Tech, Aug 3, 10]

Genzyme said today that it is encouraged by test results for a potential cholesterol treatment it is collaborating on with Isis Pharmaceuticals. [Boston Globe, Aug 4, 10]

Repligen has received three grants, totalling in excess of $6 million, to apply to its HDAC inhibitor research for neurodegenerative diseases like Friedreich’s Ataxia and Huntington’s Disease. [Mass High Tech, Aug 3, 10]

Kopin  down 13% [Aug 3, 10]

Southern California’s Tech Coast Angels (TCA) says today it is forming a new fund that will allow non-members to collectively participate in startup investments, a move that should add some firepower to TCA deals and could smooth out the funding process for entrepreneurs. [Bruce Bigelow, signonsandiego.com, Aug 3, 10]

After studying more than a decade of deflation in Japan, economists have slowly realized they have no idea how it works. - Wall Street Journal, Jul 26.  [The Capital Spectator blog]  And other than handing out money to a lot of small businesses, SBIR has no idea how it works either. Input is always a lot easier to measure than output.

Immune Design (Seattle, WA; no SBIR) said it’s raised $32 million in Series B financing ... developing vaccines and immunotherapies for infectious disease and cancer. ... said it’s raised $50 million since its founding two years ago [Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle), Jul 26, 10]

Arena Pharma  down 10% [Aug 2, 10]

ZBB Energy said it has delivered four ZESS 50 batteries and a power and energy control center system to Powertech Labs as part of its Bella Coola Hydrogen Assisted Renewable Power project in Bella Coola, British Columbia.  [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Aug 2, 10]

GT Solar International (Merrimack, NH) maker of solar energy production technology, said that it is acquiring Salem-based sapphire producer Crystal Systems (Salem, MA; $7.4M SBIR) [for] $24 million in cash, 5.4 million shares of GT Solar common stock (GT Solar closed at $6.25 on Thursday) and a $21 million cash earn-out. [Mass High tech, Jul 30, 10]

AXT up 19% [Jul 30, 10]

Geron up 17% [Jul 30, 10

Thoratech down 14% [Jul 30, 10]

SiGe Semiconductor (Andover, MA; no SBIR) said in a regulatory filing yesterday that it looks to raise up to $144 million by [IPO]. On its website, Andover-based SiGe describes itself as a provider of radio frequency semiconductor front end solutions that are enabling wireless multimedia across a wide range of computing, home entertainment, networking, and mobile applications. ... has operations in Ottawa and Hong Kong besides Andover and a company-wide head count of 132 employees as of April 2. [Boston Globe, Jul 30, 10]

Massachusetts highest court has upheld a tax break for a Bedford start-up in a long-running dispute whose outcome could help reduce costs for companies seeking to design and launch new products in Massachusetts.The Supreme Judicial Court found that the state’s Department of Revenue wrongfully denied Onex Communications Corp. a manufacturing tax break for materials it purchased for its first product, a kind of super chip used to transmit large amounts of data. The state had argued that Onex had not yet finished making any of its chips and therefore did not qualify as a manufacturer under an 80-year-old law that grants tax exemptions to encourage those companies to expand here.  [Casey Ross, Boston Globe, Jul 31]

On the basis of the belief that better education in Soviet Russia contributed to Sputnik, federal money poured into the American higher education system, making it a key component in the battles of the cold war. These policies—the creation of new government agencies, further increases in state-sponsored R&D, and expansion and restructuring of higher education—had enormous influence on America's political, social, and cultural trajectory during the cold war.  [Asif Siddiqi, Toward a Global History of Space Exploration, Technology and Culture, Apr 10]  Now that the programs and agencies have beneficiaries and administrators, they are seen as a sine qua non for tech progress.

American Superconductor said that first-quarter net income was $9.2 millioncompared with net income of $1.8 million for the same quarter a year ago. [Boston Globe, Jul 29, 10]  Ultimately, subsidy programs like SBIR have to be judged on profits and taxes that result from government investment in untried technology.  Yakking about jobs as a criterion gets enmeshed in counting jobs paid for by the subsidy. Most of the hype about SBIR, as practiced for nearly three decades, as a job engine is bunk. 

AMAG Pharma  down 13% [Jul 29, 10]

Arena Pharma  up 10% [Jul 29, 10]

Metabolix  down 13% [Jul 29, 10]

Icagen developing treatments for pain and epilepsy has received a $3 million payment from larger partner Pfizer. ... Icagen's shares, which began trading publicly in 2005, have fallen sharply as investors worry about the company's financial health and whether it will be able to develop a successful drug [Alan Wolf, Raleigh News & Observer, Jul 29, 10]

Surgient (Austin, TX; no SBIR) was sold to Quest Software Inc., a maker of software for corporations. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. [Austin American Statesman, Jul 30, 10]

[OMB] released their annual joint memo to agency heads last week titled "Science and Technology Priorities for the FY 2012 Budget."  The memo reiterates the President's long-term goal for investment in R&D to reach 3% of GDP, and encourages agencies to pursue transformational and multidisciplinary approaches aligned with six "challenges and areas to be strengthened." [AAAS, Jul 29]  More money for pet projects; more fantasy revenue to pay for it.

Goodyear discovered a principle, undoubtedly useful, but there is little evidence that he brought the process to the point of manufacturing viability. Although the inventor enrolled more than eighty patents, they mainly covered ways of using vulcanized rubber- flocked fabrics, molding hollow-core objects, and producing imitation leathers, rather than improvements to the methods of changing natural rubber into its vulcanized form.  [Cai Guise-Richardson, Technology and Culture, Apr 10]

Why did Britain have an industrial revolution first?  in Britain ideas interacted vigorously with business interests in "a positive feedback loop that created the greatest sea change in economic history since the advent of culture." ....  Reduced to a thumbnail sketch, liberty and natural philosophy—a catch-all term for the study of "useful" knowledge— begat prosperity, which begat more liberty and useful knowledge, which in turn spread through Europe and the Americas. [Trevor Butterworth reviewng Mokyr's The Enlightened Economy, WSJ, Jul 30]  Is American polity smart enough to learn any lessons from industrial history?  Or will political slogans rule in a quest for power to reward contributors?

Tech and its practitioners not quite ready.  very different results that four major [genetic test] companies returned, based on samples from the same customers. New tech always sounds sweet, until it has to satisfy customers.

GlySens (San Diego, CA; $6.8M SBIR) is seeking [FDA] permission to launch a pilot study testing its implanted wireless sensor in about a dozen people with diabetes. ... a device that constantly monitors blood-sugar levels without painful finger pricks or frequent maintenance  [Keith Darce, SD Union Tribune, Jul 28, 10]

DayStar  up 20% [Jul 28, 10]

Affymetrix  up 13% [Jul 28, 10]

Allos Thera  down 15% [Jul 28, 10]

Intermune  down 10% [Jul 28, 10]

Pamper the little darlings. both sides are noisily clamoring to prove their support for a critical constituency: America's small-business owners....  "Helping small businesses, cutting taxes, making credit available. This is as American as apple pie," Obama said. "Small businesses are the backbone of our economy. They are central to our identity as a nation. They are going to lead this recovery."  Republicans are blocking action on the bill in the Senate ...   "They've hit small business with a sledgehammer and now they're going to go around and say they're picking up some of the pieces," said Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), dismissing the small-business initiative before the Senate as "tinkering at the edges."   [Lori Montgomery and Michael Shear, Washington Post, Jul 29]  The winning formula is clear: clear the deficit but don't raise anyone's taxes nor cut anyone's handouts. Until the voters grow up to real math, there's no reason to expect the politicians to act like adults.

SBIR Insider Rick Shindell  implores small businesses to call their local, regional or state office [of members of Congress] to invite them to visit your business.  Let them know how important the SBIR program is to you, your business, and potential new jobs.  Programs such as SBIR that help keep or add employment for good wage paying jobs, are usually popular with the politicos.  But the only companies who would have a direct interest in SBIR are the SBIR junkies who lives on the program.  Many of the worthwhile beneficiaries haven't been born yet and the new innovations worth funding haven't yet been invented.  The political arguments being offered are the standard stuff of vested interests keeping government money flowing to present beneficiaries. 

Ocean Power Tech  down 10% [Jul 27, 10]

Momenta Pharma  down 12% [Jul 27, 10]

Cytori Therapeutics has been cleared to market its fatty tissue extraction device in Europe for breast reconstruction and the repair of wounds resulting from Crohn’s disease [San Diego Union Tribune, Jul 27, 10]

Exact Sciences has licensed technology from a Belgian company that it can use to strengthen the non-invasive DNA-based test for colon cancer it is developing. ...  from OncoMethylome Sciences S.A. an exclusive license for up to two DNA methylation biomarkers to use in stool-based detection of colon cancer.  [Kathleen Gallagher, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Jul 27, 10]

Chinese solar manufacturer Yingli Solar announced it has signed a technology, research and production agreement with Innovalight (Sunnyvale, CA; $900K SBIR in Texas). It's Innovalight's second major deal with a Chinese solar manufacturer. Earlier this month, JA Solar signed an agreement to buy inks from Innovalight for three years. ....  In 2008, Innovalight was one of six companies to be awarded a competitive, $3 million grant from the Department of Energy that aims to make solar energy cost-competitive with conventional forms of electricity by 2015.  [Dana Hull, San Jose Mercury News, Jul 26, 10]

Onyx Pharmaceuticals (Emeryville, CA; $900K SBIR) jumped 21% after reporting that its experimental drug, called carfilzomib, was effective in treating advanced multiple myeloma, a fatal blood cancer, in patients that had no remaining treatment options. ... now expects to file for Food and Drug Administration approval for its lead development candidate by year-end.  [Wall Street Journal, Jul 27, 10]

Xtreme Power (Kyle, TX, no SBIR) which makes energy storage and power management systems for utilities, wind farms and manufacturing companies — has just raised $29.5 million in venture capital....   for technology development, the expansion of production of existing products and as working capital for large-scale power management projects ...  received a $2 million grant from the Texas Emerging Technology Fund in 2007  [Barry Harrell, Austin American Statesman, Jul 27, 10]

DayStar down 14% [Jul 26, 10]

Momenta Pharma up 20% [Jul 26, 10]

Novomer ($1.1M SBIR) received $18.4 million from the U.S. Department of Energy for a project that seeks to convert waste carbon dioxide into plastics for use in bottles, laminates and other applications, the company announced.  [Mass High Tech, Jul 23, 10]

Chiasma (Newton Center, MA; no SBIR) raised $2 million in debt financing, as part of a planned $4 million debt round, according to federal documents. ....  developing technology that could enable oral delivery of protein- and peptide-based drugs that are available only by injection or intravenous methods  ....  In November of 2006, Chiasma closed on a $44 million Series C round   [Rodney Brown, Mass High Tech, Jul 23, 10]

Infinera up 31% [Jul 23, 10]

Cepheid up 12% [Jul 23, 10]

Enzo Biochem up 11% [Jul 23, 10]

Genzyme up 15% [Jul 23, 10] on news of a possible acquisition by Sanofi-Aventis

Last November, GE acquired Naverus, (Kent, WA; no SBIR) which has pioneered the use of satellite technology and on-board aircraft avionics to design precise pathways in the sky to guide airliners to their destination.... Fulton, a former Alaska Airlines pilot, co-founded Naverus after working with the technology in the 1990s at Alaska. The company designs precise paths for specific planes into specific airports. [Dominic Gates, Seattle Times, Jul 24, 10]

The DoD issued its 2010.3 SBIR pre-release ...closes September 15.

A merger and a $24 million Series A funding has landed life sciences startup Euthymics Bioscience (Cambridge, MA; no SBIR). ... to complete the purchase of New Jersey firm DOV Pharmaceutical Inc. which it announced at the beginning of July.  [Rodney Brown, Mass High Tech, Jul 22, 10]

Go to top  

In the Archives