Biotech Briefs

State life sciences fund gets

$3 million boost from donors

Several prestigious private donors recently committed more than $3 million to jump-start Washington state’s life sciences initiative, the Washington Life Sciences Discovery Fund.

Donor support has been provided by Amgen, the Bill &Melinda Gates Foundation, Microsoft, the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation and Regence BlueShield.

Lee Huntsman, LSDF executive director, said the donations accelerate the impact of the commitment made in 2005 by Gov. Chris Gregoire and the Legislature to devote $350 million in tobacco settlement money over the next decade to the LSDF.

“We are launching a unique strategy to support life sciences research in Washington. The result will be competitive success, recruitment of top researchers and substantial leverage of the LSDF funds,” Huntsman said.

The donors’ support vaults the LSDF into the grant-making business well before the tobacco monies become available in April 2008. The early grant program will focus on innovative applications of technology to improve health-care quality and cost effectiveness.

The fund was created in 2005 by Senate Bill 5581 at the request of Gregoire. LSDF has scheduled information sessions across the state to advise potential grantees about funding priorities, eligibility and proposal guidelines. More information about the information sessions is available online at www.lsdfa.org.

Aculight secures rights

to nerve-stimulation laser

Aculight Corp. has secured rights to laser technology that one day may help quiet constant muscle tremors or dramatically speed up treatment for a range of diseases.

The Bothell company’s licensing agreement with Tennessee’s Vanderbilt University gives Aculight intellectual property related to the optical stimulation of neural tissue.

That technology is at the heart of an infrared neural stimulator the company began selling last year. That’s the first product Aculight has developed specifically for the medical research market.

“We’ve been jointly developing this technology together with Vanderbilt and negotiating the licensing at the same time,” said Andrew Brown, Aculight’s director of business development.

At Vanderbilt, researchers have experimented with Aculight’s nerve-stimulation laser to stimulate individual sciatic nerves in rats. The same thing should be possible in humans. Researchers in Chicago also are testing the medical laser on inner ear nerves to treat hearing loss.

In late 2006, the growing laser company moved from north King County to a 47,000-square-foot headquarters in Bothell’s Canyon Park.

Eden Bioscience shareholders

to vote on proposed sale

Eden Bioscience Corp. has set a shareholders meeting on Feb. 26 to vote on the proposed sale of its core technology and other assets to a Pennsylvania company.

Plant Health Care Inc. of Pittsburgh has offered $2.5 million for Eden’s patented protein-based technology, its manufacturing equipment and its crop-enhancement products marketed to agricultural customers.

It also would assume many of Eden’s liabilities, including the lease of its Bothell headquarters.

Eden, on the other hand, would retain only the right to sell its products aimed at home and garden users. During the first nine months of 2006, sales of Eden’s home and garden plant enhancers totaled $377,000, about 10 percent of the company’s total revenue.

In its proxy notice to shareholders, Eden makes clear it doesn’t plan big steps to grow its remaining revenue generator.

“We have no current intention of making substantial investments to grow our home and garden business,” the proxy notice said, adding that Eden’s remaining resources may not be sufficient to keep that business going.

Since announcing the proposed buyout in December, most of Eden’s small staff has been laid off and the chief executive, Rhett Atkins, left.

Seattle Genetics enters into

licensing deal with Genentech

Seattle Genetics, a developer of anti-cancer drugs, recently announced a licensing deal with Genentech that could be worth more than $800 million.

“It’s a very good agreement from a financial standpoint and from a drug development standpoint,” said Clay Siegall, Seattle Genetics’ president and chief executive officer.

Under the agreement, Genentech has exclusive rights for the development of SGN-40, which is being tested as a treatment for blood cancers.

In return, it is paying Bothell-based Seattle Genetics $60 million up-front and potentially more than $800 million in milestone payments as the drug moves through the development and regulatory testing process. If SGN-40 eventually is approved, Seattle Genetics also would receive escalating double-digit royalties on sales of the drug.

Genentech, based in San Francisco, in the meantime will fund future research, development, manufacturing and commercialization costs for SGN-40.

In phase 1 tests, SGN-40 didn’t produce unusually high side effects in patients and seemed to fight cancer cells in those with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. A phase 2 study was launched in late 2006.