Daily Business Report-Feb. 24, 2021
ImmunoScape chief business officer Geoff Nosrati (Credit: ImmunoScape)
ImmunoScape establishes
U.S. headquarters in San Diego
Biotech executive Geoff Nosrati named chief business officer
ImmunoScape, a Singapore-based biotech company with an immunomics-based technology platform that provides novel insights into the human immune system, announced the company has established its U.S. headquarters in San Diego and brought on experienced biotech executive Geoff Nosrati to lead the expansion as chief business officer.
Nosrati’s experience executing corporate expansion strategies will prove invaluable as ImmunoScape seeks to build upon its growing list of partnerships with U.S.-based academic and industry leaders, according to the announcement. These partnerships will also leverage a world-class scientific team that ImmunoScape is building to run the new San Diego laboratory that will expand the company’s overall capacity.
Before joining ImmunoScape, Nosrati advised biotechnology clients at McKinsey & Co., with a focus on corporate strategy, finance, due diligence and M&A. He most recently held senior executive positions at Aduro Biotech, a company focused on development of therapies for both oncology and renal disease, where he led strategy and corporate development.
Nosrati holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of California, Los Angeles and graduated with a B.S. in Chemistry from Duke University.
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San Diego City Council approves
short-term rental ordinance authored by
Council President Jennifer Campbell
The San Diego City Council on Tuesday approved Council President Jennifer Campbell’s short-term rental (STR) ordinance with an 8-1 vote. This ordinance will reduce the number of whole home short-term vacation rentals in San Diego, provide more homes for San Diegans and create real enforcement that will increase their quality of life, according to Campbell.
The new ordinance includes:
- Capping whole home STRs at 1 percent of the city’s housing stock per the San Diego Planning Commission (based on SANDAG’s annual Demographic and Socioeconomic Housing estimates), which would equate to 5,400 today.
- No limit on home-sharing STRs.
- Allowing part-time STR operators to obtain a license at lower annual fees to accommodate high visitor events such as Comic-Con, Pride or December Nights.
- Allowing STR owners a maximum of one license, per person.
- Creating a detailed Good Neighbor Policy along with strict enforcement guidelines, a fine structure for violations, and a license revocation standard.
The ordinance will return to City Council in October for updates on the lottery and prioritization related to licensing.
San Diego Angel Conference selects seven
finalists to pitch angel investors March 20
San Diego Angel Conference, a three-year-old University of San Diego (USD) School of Business program that activates accredited angel investors and engages promising early-stage companies, has selected seven finalists to pitch angel investors on March 20 at 10 a.m. at its live virtual event. The SDAC fund will select at least one startup to receive anywhere from $200,000 to $1 million in funding. In the past, additional startups have also received funding.
The seven finalists are: Advocat Technologies, ChargeNet Stations, Digital Proteomics, Fluid Power AI, Hempress Hygienics, UpLyft, and Verity Packaging.
SDAC’s combination of entrepreneurial education, up to $1 million in investments to winning companies, and a low angel fund investment threshold of about $6,000, has made it one of the largest angel investor programsin the country.
Grow Generation Corp. acquires San Diego’s
leading hydroponics supplier
Grow Generation Corp., a large chain of specialty hydroponic and organic garden centers, announced its acquisition of San Diego Hydroponics & Organics, a four-store chain of organic, hydroponic and aquaponics garden centers in San Diego.
San Diego Hydroponics & Organics is San Diego County’s premier hydroponic equipment supplier, with annual revenues approaching $10 million. This acquisition brings the total number of GrowGen hydroponic garden centers to 50 stores. In California, the country’s largest legal cannabis market, GrowGen now has 17 stores, with eight of those stores located in Southern California.
Founded in 2001 by Todd Kent, San Diego Hydroponics & Organics first opened its doors with an 800-square-foot store in Pacific Beach. Since then, the company has expanded to four locations with more than 20,000 square feet of retail space and 20 employees, who will join GrowGeneration’s team of over 500 grow professionals as part of the transaction.
Cue Health receives OK to sell its COVID-19
Test in the European Union
Cue Health Inc. (Cue), a San Diego health care technology company, announced its molecular point-of-care COVID-19 Test has received the CE mark, clearing it for sale and distribution in the European Union (EU).
The Cue COVID-19 Test is a highly sensitive and specific nucleic acid amplification test that runs on the Cue Health Monitoring System, displaying test results directly on a connected mobile smart device in about 20 minutes via the Cue Health App. The Cue COVID-19 Test consists of the Cue Test Cartridge, which is a single-use, self-contained, high-sensitivity molecular assay, and the Cue Sample Wand, a lower nasal swab for minimally invasive sample collection.
The reusable, battery-operated Cue Cartridge Reader runs the Cue Test Cartridge and communicates results directly to the Cue Health App. Altogether, the Cue COVID-19 Test and the Cue Health Monitoring System is a portable and connected diagnostic platform, compact enough to fit in the palm of your hand, that provides fast and accurate lab-quality molecular testing at point-of-care.
With Apple’s Help, COPAN Diagnostics ships
millions of COVID sample collection
kits from new Carlsbad factory
Before COVID-19, Norman Sharples ran a company that was a market leader in a very niche business — supplying nasal swabs collection kits for detecting respiratory viruses such as the flu. As demand for nasal swab tests increased due to the pandemic, Sharples, chief executive of COPAN Diagnostics in Murrieta, knew he needed more manufacturing capacity in the U.S. but questioned whether he could get a factory up and running soon enough to make a significant impact.
Apple reached out and offered $10 million from its Advanced Manufacturing Fund, as well as engineering and sourcing expertise. This resulted in a new 38,000-square-foot manufacturing center in Carlsbad that has vastly increased COPAN’s U.S. production. Last April, COPAN made 84,000 nasal swab kits per month in Southern California. In January, its monthly run rate reached 4.1 million.
Truvian Sciences closes more than $105 million
in oversubscribed Series C financing round
Truvian Sciences announced the close of more than $105 million in an oversubscribed Series C financing round led by TYH Ventures, Glen Tullman of 7wireVentures, and Wittington Ventures.
The funds will advance development of Truvian’s automated benchtop blood testing system, paving the way to submit the device for U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance, and enabling the company to scale its team in preparation for broad commercialization. Inclusive of the Series C, Truvian has raised more than $150 million in funding to date.
“The global pandemic has further demonstrated that consumers want more control over their personal healthcare journeys. Today’s announcement signifies tremendous confidence in Truvian’s goal of decentralizing healthcare by bringing point-of-care diagnostic testing to a highly complex, distributed market,” said Jeff Hawkins, President and Chief Executive Officer of Truvian.
Last-Itch Effort: fighting the bacteria that
exacerbate eczema with bacteria
In a new study out of University of California San Diego School of Medicine, researchers have identified a universal strain of bacteria derived from healthy human skin that can treat the most common type of eczema, also known as atopic dermatitis.
In the paper published Feb. 22, 2021, in Nature Medicine, the research team investigated the safety and mechanisms of this certain bacteria in a first-in-human, Phase I, double-blinded clinical trial looking to treat people living with eczema. Of the 54 participants, two-thirds reported improvements in their symptoms, including fewer complaints of itchiness and inflammation.
Community Housing Works launches $1 million
Housing and Hunger Relief Fund
To support its residents financially impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, nonprofit affordable housing developer Community HousingWorks is launching a Housing and Hunger Relief Fund to supplement local, state and federal assistance programs as the pandemic approaches the one-year mark.
The Housing and Hunger Relief Fund will raise $1 million to help hundreds of residents with their most urgent needs, including rental assistance, food and household essentials. Funds raised will help Community HousingWorks’ residents who have applied to the program pay past due or upcoming rent, buy groceries, and receive access to financial coaches to help navigate financial hardship.
To jumpstart the campaign, a lead gift has been donated by Carlsbad-based Sun Country Builders. The construction company has partnered with Community HousingWorks’ on the development and rehabilitation of a number of its apartment communities in San Diego County. In addition, Carlsbad-based nonprofit organization, Allgire Foundation, has partnered with Community HousingWorks to provide food to more than 400 households over three months of the campaign.
Caroline Johnson:
Adventure in an F/A-18 Navy flghter jet
Caroline Johnson will share her experiences as a woman in the military, and how she is helping to empower the next generation. Caroline was one of two female aviators in her 230-person unit, and one of the only 1.7 percent women flying fighter jets in the Navy.
She deployed in 2014 aboard the USS George HW Bush and saw combat action in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria and was the first woman to employ weapons on ISIS in Iraq from her F/A-18.
Join Caroline Johnson on her adventures flying F/A-18 fighter jets in the US Navy.
You’ll experience: the precision of landing on an aircraft carrier, the courage of going behind enemy lines in combat, and the strength to succeed as a woman in a male-dominated profession.
Johnson is one of the featured speakers at the 2021 San Diego Women’s Week March 15-19 sponsored by the North San Diego Business Chamber
Shield AI Raises $90 million
in Series C funding
Shield AI, a defense-technology company using self-driving software to enable unmanned systems to operate without GPS and communications, announced it has raised $90 million in a Series C round through equity and debt financing. The lead investor was Point72 Ventures.
Shield AI will use the funding to help scale and further integrate its self-driving software, Hivemind, into additional platforms across the Defense industry. Hivemind currently runs on Shield AI’s Nova-class SUAS to enable indoor-outdoor reconnaissance without GPS or communication links and has been used on combat operations since 2018.
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Applications now being accepted
for tuition-free San Diego Promise Program
Students enrolling for the fall semester at the San Diego Community College District (SDCCD) are being invited to apply for the tuition-free San Diego Promise, a program that has served more than 6,300 students over the past five years and is among the most successful programs of its kind in the state. Benefits include up to two years of free tuition and health fees, individualized counseling and guidance, book grants for eligible students, and access to peer mentors. Students are encouraged to apply by June 11 to receive priority registration and admission to the program.
Studies show Promise students fare better academically than their non-Promise peers, and graduates have gone on to transfer to four-year institutions such as UC Berkeley, UCLA, and UC San Diego.
