Daily Business Report — July 9, 2014

One of Google’s self-driving cars

Driverless Car Tipping Point is Coming Soon

Here’s a recent prediction from Cisco’s technology trend watchers: In five to seven years, it’ll cost us more to drive our cars than to let them drive us.

At a moment when Google dominates the conversation in key auto tech sectors — capturing attention in May as it demonstrated its cars’ latest driverless acumen, in terms of mapping, sensing and responding — two reasonable questions emerge: How would driverless cars cost us less to use, and how close are we to commercially available models on our roads?

“Considering that not only Google, but also automakers, such as Nissan, Audi and Toyota, are intensifying their efforts to develop advanced autonomous-driving technology, it’s safe to say that driverless cars could go mainstream in about 10 to 15 years,” said Jordan Perch, an analyst and writer for DMV.com. “Google is confident that it will be able to launch a self-driving car by 2025, and Nissan is even more optimistic, saying that it will bring an autonomous car to the market by 2020.”

— Mashable

Waste Water — Pay $500 Fine

Wasting water outdoors in the midst of California’s drought will cost residents up to $500 a day for violations, according to restrictions being proposed by the State Water Resources Board. That includes such activities as overwatering front lawns, hosing down sidewalks or washing cars without a nozzle on the hose.

The Water Resources Board is scheduled to consider draft emergency regulations made public on Tuesday.

Home Sales Climb in June

Home sales bounced back in June and the median sale price continued its steady climb, indicating the summer selling season is off to a good start, according to new housing statistics from the Greater San Diego Association of Realtors.  Sales of previously owned single-family homes rose 14 percent from last month and sales of previously owned condominiums/townhomes jumped 16 percent.

The median price of single-family resale home moved past $525,000, an increase of 5 percent from May. Although the median price of condos/townhomes was unchanged in June, the combined median sale price of all resale properties in San Diego County is more than 9 percent higher than a year ago.

The number of active listings in San Diego County on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) has risen to nearly 8,000, a level that hasn’t been seen since February 2012. The average amount of time between home listings and close of escrow fell to less than 40 days in June.

“The fundamental strength of the San Diego real estate market where long-term demand will exceed supply is clearly shown in these numbers,” said Leslie Kilpatrick, association president. “Strong sales, improved inventory, steadily rising prices combined with low interest rates, all point to continued opportunity in San Diego real estate.”

In June, the ZIP codes in San Diego County with the most single-family home sales were: 92009 (Carlsbad) with 62; 92130 (Carmel Valley) with 52; 92024 (Encinitas) with 51; 92127 (Rancho Bernardo) with 48; and 92026 and 92027 (Escondido), each with 48.

The most expensive listing sold last month in the county: A 6-bedroom, 7-bath, 10,200-square-foot home in Del Mar that sold for $14.5 million.

Scripps Physicians Medical Group Formed

Three large Scripps Health-affiliated medical groups — San Diego Physicians Medical Group, Connect-the-Docs Multi-Specialty Network and XIMED Medical Group — have joined together to create a new physician organization partnering exclusively with Scripps Health.

The new group, Scripps Physicians Medical Group, includes more than 500 primary care and specialty physicians with offices throughout San Diego County. Scripps Physicians will partner with Scripps Health in managed care and preferred provider organization insurance contracts.  Scripps Health has licensed its name and brand identity to the new group to signify the exclusive partnership relationship between the two organizations.

Scripps Physicians recently signed its first payer contract with Health Net for Medicare Advantage managed care in collaboration with Scripps Health.

USD Offers Corporate Counsel MBA

Corporate counsel and in-house attorneys can advance their careers through a new customized MBA program offered by the University of San Diego School of Business Administration. The 17-month accelerated program is specifically tailored for the needs of corporate counsel and complements their legal background with a thorough grounding in management and business.

Taught by faculty from USD’s School of Business Administration, the program includes a core curriculum in accounting, finance and marketing, along with specialized courses in areas such as strategic thinking and management, globalization and mergers and acquisitions.

Classes meet one weekend per month on Friday, Saturday and Sunday for 17 months. Applicants for the MBA for Corporate Counsel program must have earned a JD, be mid-to-senior-level corporate counsel with at least five years of experience, have been admitted to a state bar. Applications are now being accepted for the program that begins in September. For more information, visit www.sandiego.edu/corporatecounselmba or call (619) 260-4828.

New Approach to Remove Blood Clots

System removes clots without open heart surgery 

When a large blood clot was discovered attached to the end of a catheter inside the right atrial chamber of a patient’s heart, doctors faced a daunting challenge. If the clot came loose, the consequences would likely be catastrophic for the patient, who suffered from pulmonary hypertension — a dangerous narrowing of blood vessels connecting the heart and lungs.

But experts at the UC San Diego Sulpizio Cardiovascular Center are now able to save patients like this one from potentially fatal outcomes by using a new technology capable of removing blood clots, infected masses or foreign bodies from major cardiac blood vessels without performing open-heart surgery.

The center is the first in San Diego County to use the AngioVac system developed by AngioDynamics. “In some cases, medications can be used to dissolve blood clots, but this treatment option does not work for all patients, especially those who are in a life-threatening situation,” said Mitul Patel, cardiologist at UC San Diego Health System. “This new device allows our team to safely extract material, preventing the patient from having to undergo invasive, high-risk surgery.”

Women’s Foundation Releases 2015 Grant Guidelines

The San Diego Women’s Foundation has released its 2015 grant guidelines. The funding priority for the 2015-16 grants cycle is for innovative programs that identify and develop leaders from within underserved communities in the San Diego region. The foundation is particularly interested in programs that encourage long-term individual and/or community change, increasing empowerment and civic engagement.

The guidelines are accessible online at www. sdwomensfoundation.org. They inform interested nonprofit organizations about the grants process, including submission of a Letter of Inquiry due Aug. 27.

The foundation will host a Grant Seekers’ Forum on July 29 from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. at The San Diego Foundation, 2508 Historic Decatur Road, San Diego 92106.  Now in its 15th year of operation, foundation members collectively pool their philanthropic dollars to make grants generating significant and sustainable impact in the San Diego region.

Trigild Names Hospitality Asset Manager

Trigild, a San Diego-based real estate firm, has appointed Jeff Santoni as its hospitality asset manager. Santoni is charged with driving operational performances and achieving sales results at all Trigild hotel properties.

Santoni most recently worked as a consultant, providing expertise in the areas of strategic planning, financial analysis and modeling price and revenue optimization, sales operations, CRM and invoicing technology. Prior to this, he was with Marriott Vacations Worldwide for five years, where he worked as a senior asset manager for the Western and Hawaii regions, managing the day-to-day operations and project execution for 16 resorts.

Stand Down for Homeless Veterans Begins July 18

On Friday, July 18, at 6 a.m., the Park Boulevard gate to the upper athletic fields at San Diego High School opens for the 27th National Stand Down for Homeless Veterans. The three-day community intervention event targets the estimated 3,000 homeless veterans living in San Diego County.

Participants receive shelter, food, clothing, showers, medical and dental care. They also access homeless court, recovery services, employment referrals, counseling, and chaplain services.

Stand Down was started by Veterans Village of San Diego in 1988. There are now more than 200 Stand Downs held each year throughout the U.S.

Omnitracs Appoints Chief Technology Officer

Veteran technology executive Dan Speicher has been appointed chief technology officer at Omnitracs LLC. Speicher has more than 25 years of experience in managing information systems.

Speicher comes to Omnitracs from Hughes Telematics. Following Verizon’s purchase of Hughes, he led the organization’s corporate integration initiatives. Previously, he spent 20 years with InfoGroup, where, as chief technology officer, he oversaw mergers and acquisitions.

Dionics Announces New Chief Science Officer

Diomics has appointed Thomas Kindt as its chief scientific officer. Kindt has more than 30 years of experience, previously working as director of intramural research of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health. Currently, Kindt is an active biomedical consultant, immunology textbook author, and adjunct professor at the University of New Mexico’s Department of Biology.

Diomics is focused on life sciences, specifically diagnostics, forensics, integrated DNA analysis and genetic solutions.

Huge School of Anchovies off La Jolla Amazes Scientists

A school of California anchovies so big it rivals anything seen off the San Diego coast in three decades was spotted off La Jolla by researchers with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.  “Multimillions” of the finger-sized fishes prized on pizzas and in animal feed — also called Northern anchovy — created a dark-blue band in shallow waters just off the coast when first spotted Monday.

Scripps scientists say they haven’t seen such an aggregation in more than 30 years, but were unclear why the large school moved into shallow waters off the coast.

Phil Hastings, a marine biology professor and curator of the marine vertebrate collection at the UC San Diego-connected Scripps, said the school swam north and was mostly dissipated.

“The schools part as swimmers or sea lions” pass through, he told City News Service. “Leopard sharks were feeding on them this morning.”

He had no explanation for the huge swarm 15 meters to 100 meters wide and extending from Scripps Pier to a distant point north. But he noted that the water temperature at Scripps Pier hit 74 degrees today, “pretty much the warmest water the species has been reported in.”

Hastings said he doubted the mystery of their appearance will be solved.

“I don’t think we’ll be able to ferret it out,” he said. But for history’s sake, Scripps has collected specimens for preservation.

— City News Service

MabVax Therapeutics and Telik Merge

MabVax Therapeutics Inc., a privately held cancer immunotherapy company, and Telik Inc., a publicly-traded clinical stage oncology drug development company, have finalized their merger initially announced on May 12.  Effective yesterday, MabVax merged with a wholly-owned subsidiary of Telik in an all-stock transaction and became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Telik.

J. David Hansen, formerly the president and CEO of MabVax, became the president, CEO, and chairman of the board of Telik. Michael M. Wick, who formerly served as president and CEO of Telik, remains on the board.