BioSpace Hotbed Report: Hot Takes From Biotech Beach
For anyone who has ever visited San Diego, there is an automatic appeal of the city’s laid-back vibe and incredibly pleasant temperatures.
Across the area, there are incredible amenities that provide plenty of draw for people. There are beautiful beaches for those who want to stretch out on the sand or play in the surf, as well as plenty of hiking trails for those who want to be a bit more adventurous and explore the area. The near-perfect weather provides folks with plenty of opportunities to hit other fun attractions, such as the San Diego Zoo, a San Diego Padres game, or perhaps visit SeaWorld.
Not only are there fun attractions to visit in the area, but the area also has a number of strong colleges and universities that provide plenty of educational opportunities and career opportunities. All of those add up to some of the better reasons that many companies have set up shop in the San Diego area. There are a plethora of life science companies across the region working on life-changing therapies. BioSpace has highlighted some of the work being conducted by a few of these companies.
ACADIA Pharmaceuticals – San Diego-based ACADIA Pharmaceuticals expects 2019 to be a pivotal year for the company focused on the development of therapies for unmet medical needs in central nervous system (CNS) disorders. This year, the company anticipates the release of top-line data from its Phase III Nuplazid (pimavanserin) study in adjunctive treatment of schizophrenia. That data is expected mid-year. Nuplazid is a selective serotonin inverse agonist (SSIA) preferentially targeting 5-HT2a receptors, which are thought to play an important role in depression, psychosis and other neuropsychiatric disorders. In 2016, Nuplazid was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of hallucinations and delusions associated with Parkinson’s disease psychosis. When it was approved Acadia estimated that approximately 40 percent of the four to six million people worldwide diagnosed with Parkinson’s suffer from Parkinson’s disease psychosis. This year, ACADIA plans to initiate two Phase III trials for Nuplazid as an adjunctive treatment for major depressive disorder in the first half of 2019. In the fall, ACADIA’s Phase II MDD trial hit the mark as an adjunctive treatment for MDD.
Arena Pharmaceuticals – In January, Arena Pharmaceuticals announced positive data from the open-label extension (OLE) of the Phase 2 OASIS trial of its investigational drug candidate etrasimod, a next-generation, oral, selective sphingosine 1 phosphate (S1P) receptor modulator in development for the treatment of moderate to severely active ulcerative colitis. Overall, etrasimod demonstrated durable, long-term clinical remission, the company said. Based on the results, Arena said it intends to launch Phase III trials of etrasimod. That January news was preceded by the company announcing in November after it signed a licensing agreement with United Therapeutics Corporation for a late-stage drug candidate called ralinepag, a next-generation, oral, selective and potent prostacyclin receptor agonist in development for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). Ralinepag is currently in Phase III development. The deal with United could be worth more than $1.2 billion for Arena when all is said and done.
Illumina, Inc. – At the end of 2018, San Diego-based Illumina, a DNA sequencing giant, announced the launch of its new high-density genotyping array, the Infinium Global Diversity Array. The array was designed to support the All of Us program, a national biomedical research effort with an aim to build a nationwide community of at least one million participants from all walks of life, including groups that have been historically underrepresented in research. The company said it will provide the new Infinium Global Diversity Array to the project to process up to one million samples at no charge in order to make a contribution to the program. The donation of the array followed Illumina’s November acquisition of gene sequencing company Pacific Biosciences for $1.2 billion. Francis deSouza, president and chief executive officer of Illumina, said Pacific Bio’s long-read sequencing technology has an “unmatched accuracy” that mirrors Illumina’s short-read sequencing.
Earthing Institute – A San Diego-based alternative medicine program recently released first-ever data about a “lifestyle concept” known as Earthing that claims to have the potential to reduce high blood pressure. Earthing is part of an alternative medicine program that suggests “contact with the Earth's natural, subtle electric charge can lower pain and stress.” The small study included 10 patients who had various levels of hypertension. The study claims that the patients who spent several months “grounding themselves” through various processes, saw “significant improvement of blood pressure.”
Tandem Diabetes Care -- Insulin delivery and diabetes technology company Tandem Diabetes Care will use its remote software update tool, the Tandem Device Updater, to resolve a Control-IQ technology software anomaly identified during the ongoing DCLP3 phase of the International Diabetes Closed Loop (IDCL) clinical trial. Tandem anticipates that the software update will be available to study sites before the end of March. The anomaly relates to how the t:slim X2 insulin pump with Control-IQ technology handles continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) data under specific conditions, which could then impact the system’s prediction of future blood glucose values and automated insulin delivery.
