Xconomy: Theraclone Nabs Big Pfizer Deal, Dendreon Pockets $540M, Seattle Genetics Close-Up, & More Seattle-Area Life Sciences News
Summary
—Seattle-based Dendreon (NASDAQ: DNDN) continued to seize its momentum by snapping up a debt financing worth $540 million, which it plans to use as part of its strategy to take its immune-booster for prostate cancer into Europe.—The other public biotech company in town that’s on a hot streak, Seattle Genetics (NASDAQ: SGEN), took its turn in front of the national TV cameras of CNBC last week.—Ekos, the Bothell, WA-based developer of ultrasound technology for treating blockages in blood vessels, said this week it has won clearance to start marketing its Ekosonic product in the European Union for patients with clots in the lungs.—Arzeda, the University of Washington spinoff that uses computers to make custom-built enzymes, has achieved a technical milestone as part of its collaboration with DuPont’s Pioneer Hi-Bred business unit.Essentially, biotech startups can’t afford to have access to a lot of the high-priced peer-reviewed journals they might have been able to read in yesteryear, so Lyman wonders what kind of impact that might have on their ability to innovate.