Takeda shutters Bay Area R&D shop in California shakeup

Posted under antibodies, antibody-drug conjugates, Blog, Cancer, Companies, Diagnostics, Funding, immunology, Medical Devices, Medical Supply, Pharmaceuticals, R&D, San Diego, South San Francisco, Startups, Takeda, Universities, Videos by John Carroll

Five months after Takeda announced it was formally integrating its R&D efforts in South San Francisco and San Diego into a single entity, the Japanese pharma company dropped the news that it will now shutter its Bay Area ops and move its most essential staffers and technology down south into an expanded "center of excellence."

Putting its scientists in one spot will help "enhance communication and collaboration," noted Takeda, as they pursue new antibodies and small molecules for cancer, immunology and metabolic disease. The company went on to tout its technology, boasting of X-ray crystallography work and its antibody-drug conjugates.

"This decision supports our continuous efforts to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of Takeda's global research activities," said Paul Chapman, senior vice president of Takeda's Pharmaceutical Research Division, in a statement. "Takeda California, with its broad and flexible drug discovery capabilities, is an important asset and contributor to Takeda's productivity."

Ron Leuty at the San Francisco Business Times noted that Takeda's San Francisco chief, Mary Haak-Frendscho, recently took a new job at Compugen. There's no word on the ultimate fate of Takeda's non-essential employees, or how many will be let go in the consolidation. The Business Times noted that at one point there were 65 workers at the site, at a time when Takeda was projecting employment to hit 100. 

- here's the press release
- get the report from the San Francisco Business Times

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UPDATED: Merck offers $90M to bankroll new drug discovery institute

Posted under academic partnership, Blog, Calibr, California Institute for Biomedical Research, Companies, Diagnostics, Funding, Medical Devices, Medical Supply, Merck, Pharmaceuticals, San Diego, Startups, Universities, Videos by John Carroll

Underscoring Big Pharma's growing love for collaborating with the scientific community, Merck ($MRK) is committing up to $90 million to fund the development of a new nonprofit institute in San Diego devoted to working with academic investigators on drug discovery projects. The goal of the California Institute for Biomedical Research--dubbed Calibr--will be bringing projects up to a stage where commercial partners can pick up development, with Merck holding on to options on any proteins and small molecules it likes for its own pipeline.

The new institute will be headed by Scripps' Peter Schultz, with a scientific board headed by Harvard's Christopher T. Walsh and a board of directors chaired by 5AM Ventures' John D. Diekman. Merck's $90 million will be provided over the next 7 years. Shultz says he'll hire a staff of 150 to handle the research work.

"Calibr represents a new paradigm for early-stage translational research," said Schultz. "By leveraging the drug discovery expertise and resources of Calibr, academic researchers will have the opportunity to maximize the potential therapeutic value of their research."

"Effective translation of basic biomedical research is essential to advancing the next generation of novel therapies," said Merck research chief Peter S. Kim, Ph.D., who will be a member of Calibr's scientific advisory board. "Calibr will provide an important venue where basic research and drug discovery scientists may leverage each others' strengths in the fight against disease."

In its release Merck noted that Calibr will be located near a major drug discovery hub, bordering The Scripps Research Institute, Salk Institute, UC San Diego and the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute. And its researchers will be promised the "latest high through-put screening and imaging, medicinal and protein chemistry and preclinical sciences capabilities."

- here's the press release

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U.S. funding drop threatens San Diego life sciences industry

U.S. funding drop threatens San Diego life sciences industry

Posted under BIOCOM, Blog, Companies, Diagnostics, Funding, life sciences, Medical Devices, Medical Supply, National Institutes of Health, NIH, Pharmaceuticals, San Diego, Startups, Universities, venture funding, venture money, Videos by Mark Hollmer

The life sciences job juggernaut in metro San Diego expanded through the ongoing economic downturn and will produce another 6,000 jobs through 2014, according to a new report. But a big drop in government science funding and a continued decline in venture funding could threaten future growth.

Ominously, grants from the National Institutes of Health to greater-San Diego companies and research operations dropped by half in just the last two years, according to The San Diego Union-Tribune article highlighting the report, from $1.6 billion in 2009 to about $835 million in fiscal 2011. The big reason: Stimulus spending peaked in 2009.

Initially, the extra federal spending helped offset a continued drop in venture spending and private investment, according to the report compiled by Hendershot Economics and commissioned by regional trade group Biocom, as cited by the article. And the venture funding decline for regional biotech and medical device companies points to an uncertain future. Those companies in San Diego County alone nailed down $343 million in venture dollars during the first three quarters of 2011, according to the story, but that's the lowest so far since the recession landed more than four years ago. (The region attracted $530 million in venture money during the same period in 2008.)

All of this begs the question: Will San Diego be able to keep growing life sciences jobs as investment funding dries up? Jobs typically ramp up a few years after initial investment, so the more telling data will be over the coming months and years, to see if the funding decline will undo job growth fueled by higher levels of private, and government funding just a few years ago.

So how does the Biocom-commissioned report quantify the jobs growth? It sees San Diego, Orange, Riverside and Imperial counties forming a hub of about 3,500 biotech or life sciences companies that employ almost 100,000 people, or nearly 150,000 if you count peripheral job growth. The report concludes that the region's biopharmaceutical, research and lab services, biofuels, medical devices and life sciences trade sectors will all add jobs, or generate related positions in accounting, insurance and other peripheral industries, in the next 24 months. (But biotech will lose about 150 workers.)

- here's the story

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Biotech building boom restricted to top "micro" hot spots

Posted under Biogen Idec, Blog, Boston, Companies, Diagnostics, Funding, Medical Devices, Medical Supply, Pfizer, Pharmaceuticals, San Diego, San Francisco, Startups, Universities, Videos by John Carroll

The restructuring of Big Pharma's pipeline activities around the world is fueling an R&D building boom in the U.S. According to McGraw-Hill, construction starts overall were down three percent in the first 10 months of the year. But the building pace for the manufacturer-owned lab sector doubled during the same stretch, reports the Wall Street Journal.

The Journal uses Pfizer ($PFE) as its lead example, citing its 180,000-square-foot facility now being built in Boston. Like others, Pfizer is relocating R&D workers to a select few hubs like Boston and San Francisco which boast top academic investigators as well as rival drug developers. Boston now has a total of 1.7 million square feet of biotech space under construction, with Biogen Idec ($BIIB) playing one of the lead roles. And the Bay Area has seen new growth as well.

"The micro environment really matters," Rod MacKenzie, chief of Pfizer PharmaTherapeutics R&D, tells the Journal. "It really is helpful if you are right next door to scientists and other institutions."

Jones Lang LaSalle crunched the numbers and came up with the top three U.S. growth areas for biotech: Boston, New York/New Jersey and the Bay Area.

For biotech blogger and Atlas Venture partner Bruce Booth, the market for Cambridge/Boston lab space may be a little too hot for smaller developers to handle. Facing the highest lab rental rates in the country, biotechs might want to consider locating in the 'burbs, where they can save some serious money. "Within the Boston metro market today, where everything is within a 30 minute drive," writes Booth, "one would need to have a strong set of strategic reasons (like being next to very active founders at MIT/Harvard) to eat the differential costs of say 20K feet of space in Cambridge vs Waltham/Lexington."     

San Diego, always among the most frequently cited biotech hubs in the country, is notable for its absence from the list of top hubs. The hometown newspaper noted that the southern California hot spot has seen venture funding cool significantly in the past year, with San Diego sliding to 10^th place in terms of venture funding.

- read the article in The Wall Street Journal
- get the report from The San Diego Union-Tribune
- here's the post from Bruce Booth

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