Drug maker Schering-Plough Corp. has ended a bid to commercialize hepatitis B drug pradefovir, which Aliso Viejo-based Valeant Pharmaceuticals International sold the rights to in December.
Schering-Plough said earlier this month it’s dropping the liver disease drug after trials found a heightened risk of cancer in laboratory animals.
La Jolla’s Metabasis Therapeutics Inc. licensed pradefovir in 2000 to Valeant, when it was known as ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc. and was based in Costa Mesa.
Valeant sold the rights to pradefovir to Schering-Plough for $19.2 million. Metabasis got $1.8 million.
Schering-Plough’s nixing of the drug isn’t critical for Valeant. The company stood to get $65 million more if pradefovir had been successful. But that would have been a relatively small part of Valeant’s projected $935 million in revenue this year.
The move was harder on smaller Metabasis, which lost half of its market value on the news earlier this month. It’s worth about $100 million.
Separately, Valeant said that it has selected several pre-investigational drug candidates for its next-generation potassium opener program, which is developing drugs for epilepsy.
The drug hopefuls are similar in molecular structure to retigabine, which is in third-phase clinical trials, but have demonstrated greater potency and efficiency in pre-clinical models, Valeant said in a release.
Valeant got retigabine in 2005 with its $280 million deal for Xcel Pharmaceuticals Inc., which was based in San Diego.
Ablation Funding
Ablation Frontiers Inc., a medical device maker located just over the Orange-San Diego county line in Carlsbad, has raised $21.8 million in a third round of funding.
Novartis Venture Funds, a unit of Switzerland’s Novartis AG, led the investment. Versant Ventures, which has offices in Newport Beach and Menlo Park, was among returning investors that participated in the funding.
Ablation Frontiers is developing devices to treat atrial fibrillation, the most common type of an irregular heartbeat. Its Catheter Ablation System recently received European regulatory clearance and is being commercialized there.
In a statement, Ablation Frontiers said it will use the money toward a clinical trial in the U.S., as well as expanding its worldwide operations. Ablation Frontiers was founded in 2004. Its chief executive, Keegan Harper, is a healthcare entrepreneur who also founded Rox Medical Inc. and Cameron Health Inc., a pair of San Clemente-based device makers that also are backed by Versant.
$7M for Coda
Coda Genomics Inc. of Laguna Hills said earlier this month that it raised $7 million in a third round of financing.
OVP Venture Partners of Seattle and Portland, Ore., led the round. Monitor Ventures, which has offices in Santa Monica and Palo Alto, Tech Coast Angels and Life Science Angels also participated.
The Life Science Angels, a group of biotech executives and angel investors, led a second round of funding in 2006 for Coda that was more than $1.6 million.
Coda is developing technology that’s used in protein production. Drug and biopharmaceutical companies use Coda’s technology in synthetic biology work.
The company was started in 2004 to commercialize technology from the laboratories of two University of California, Irvine, professors.
Healthcare Exec Heading Monarch
Quang X. Pham, one of Orange County’s well-known healthcare entrepreneurs, recently was named president and chief operating officer of San Juan Capistrano-based Monarch Staffing Inc. and will take over as chief executive on Sept. 1, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
Pham will replace Joel Williams, who will remain as Monarch’s vice chairman, the filing said.
Monarch specializes in placing pharmacists and pharmacy technicians with government and commercial customers. Monarch’s stock trades on the low-profile Bulletin Board exchange with a recent market value of about $55 million.
Before coming to Monarch, Pham was vice president and division general manager for QTC Medical Services, which provides government-outsourced occupational health and disability examination services.
Pham came to the U.S. as a child from South Vietnam in 1975 and later served as a Marine Corps officer during the Gulf War. The University of California, Los Angeles, alumnus’ past work includes founding Lathian Systems Inc., a Newport Beach healthcare company that called on doctors via the Internet to provide drug information. He raised $14 million in venture capital for Lathian.
Monarch also appointed Matthew Szot as chief financial officer, replacing David Walters, who will continue to serve as chairman.
