Reports + Research
Quick Pitch 2019 Is Open for Applications
Companies that have raised less than $2 million are eligible for the John G. Watson Quick Pitch Competition. Last year, the winners of the competition were awarded $75,000. The competition is looking for high-growth innovation startups in sectors such as software, hardware, biotech, and life sciences. The application deadline is August 23.
The First Xconomy San Diego Award Winners Are…
Last Wednesday, the first Xconomy San Diego Award winners were announced at a sold-out awards gala. Winners were Gene Yeo (UCSD, Locana), ViaCyte, Jessica Corson (Mirati), Reflexion Health, Silvia Mah (Connect), Organovo, Evofem Biosciences, Jeanne Loring (Scripps, Aspen Neuroscience), LunaDNA, Kevin Gorman (Neurocrine). The lifetime achievement award was presented to Ivor Royston, who has been involved in the San Diego biotech industry since its inception in 1978 with the founding of Hybritech. He also co-founded Idec Pharmaceuticals and is now CEO and president of Viracta Therapeutics. Last year, Bradley Fikes at The San Diego Union-Tribune took a look at the influence Hybritech continues to have on San Diego biotech, 40 years later.
La Jolla Institute of Immunology Part of $35 Million Grant to Fight Viral Epidemics
The NIH awarded up to $35 million to an international consortium, including Erica Ollman Saphire, who leads the La Jolla Institute of Immunology. The consortium seeks to identify treatments for viral epidemics, including vaccines for Ebola and Lassa fever. Ollman Saphire has worked with San Diego’s Mapp Biopharmaceutical, who has developed an antibody therapy to treat Ebola and is testing it in the Congo region, where the virus is active again.
Read + Listen
POW: Podcast of the Week
If you think coming up with a treatment for Ebola is difficult, think about the challenges in getting that treatment to people in a war-torn region. This episode of the Hidden Brain, called Don’t Panic, delves into an “unconventional effort by epidemiologists to stop a new Ebola outbreak.”
It’s Happening Here
June 23-27:
DIA 2019 Global Annual Meeting will take place June 23rd to 27th at the San Diego Convention Center. The meeting focuses on innovation for the development of safe and effective medical products and therapies.
June 26:
Osage University Partners will hold a webinar titled, “Venture Capital 101,” on June 26 from 12pm to 1:30pm. For those that want to attend the session in-person, it will be held at UC San Diego Biomedical Research Facility 2.
Client disclosure: ViaCyte
Tags: awards, Biotech, Biotech Briefing, Medical Research, Startups
