life sciences : Buzz

Last week brought a flurry of news coverage around a proposed $1 billion fund to support a biotech park near Rochester. In the end, though, we were left not knowing much more than we did at the start of the week.

San Francisco biotech investor Steven Burrill told the Star Tribune that he was close to completing the billion-dollar deal, which would help fund the Elk Run BioBusiness Park in Pine Island, Minn.

The next day, Burrill softened/hedged/clarified his words in a press release, saying that no deal is guaranteed.

MedCityNews recaps the statements and concludes that maybe Burrill should have stuck with "We're making progress. Hopefully, we'll have a deal soon."

MedCityNews reports that Twin Star Medical, a startup that's developing micro-porous catheters, is moving in November to the Excelen orthopedic and bone research center in downtown Minneapolis.

Twin Star Medical currently leases space at the University Enterprise Laboratories. Its CEO said in a statement that the company is growing and needed a new location that could accommodate that growth. It will lease 4,000 square feet in the Excelen building, which is next to the Hennepin County Medical Center.

Minnesota's largest medical-device company is looking to get even larger.

Medtronic CEO Bill Hawkins tells Bloomberg that the company is on the hunt for acquisition targets as a way to restore its sales growth.

Hawkins tells Bloomberg the company is focusing on "tuck-in" acquisitions that plug holes in its existing businesses. But it won't rule out acquisitions as large as $1 billion if "we see something that is a good strategic fit."

"If we see something that's a good strategic fit, we have the ability to act on it," Hawkins told Bloomberg. "We're not in a reactive mode, like we have to go out and do more acquisitions now."

The "jewel of the crown" of Minnesota biotechnology wants a prominent place in China's growing biotech economy, too.

The Star Tribune reports that Techne, a Minneapolis biotech and hematology company, is seeing results from its recent expansion into China, despite challenges from knock-offs and counterfeits:

"Less than a year after its Shanghai division began operations in fiscal 2008, it made its first profit and sales grew nearly 22 percent, delivering the largest double-digit sales growth in Techne's biotech division in its last fiscal year," writes Star Tribune reporter Wendy Lee.

Techne, a growing company with 726 employees, creates proteins that are used in medicine and research, including in the development of drugs for cancer and AIDS.

Minneapolis innovation guru Uri Neren has a post on the Harvard Business Review blog about the Mayo Clinic's track record of successful innovations and the conditions that helped it occur:

"[I]n the case of The Mayo Clinic, the right conditions were in place at the very beginning. While the word 'innovation' has not always been attached to its work, the habit of developing better ways of treating patients and running its operations has been a signature trait since its founding in 1889 by brothers William and Charles Mayo."

Neren goes on to write that three key factors that have enabled innovation at the healthcare center have been diversity, connectedness--and, perhaps surprisingly, limited resources.

Read the entire Harvard Business Review post here.

The Star Tribune profiles Pete McNerney, a Minnesota venture capitalist who is co-founder of a $375 million venture fund that invests in biotech, drug, and med-tech companies nationwide.

The portfolio of McNerney's firm, Thomas, McNerney & Partners, includes Torax Medical of Shoreview and Plymouth-based Atritech. Minnesota companies typically comprise about 20 to 25 percent of the fund's investments.

Read the Star Tribune article here.

The Hill reports on testimony by Sen. Al Franken, in which he urged Congress to create incentives for medical device companies to pursue solutions to rare diseases.

"I'm concerned that we still don't have equivalent incentives for devices as we have for drugs," Franken said during a Senate health committee hearing.

Medical device companies say they need government incentives to pursue treatments for rare diseases for which the market is too small to turn a profit.

Read the entire report from The Hill here.

One of the nation's most active venture capital firms is also very active in Minnesota.

The Business Journal's Katharine Grayson notes on her In Private blog that New Enterprise Associates, which ranks second on a new ranking of the most active venture capital firms, is a major backer of med-tech companies in the Twin Cities.

NEA doesn't have an office in Minnesota, but one of its partners is a former president of Guidant's cardiac rhythm management group.

Read the entire Business Journal post here.

An interesting analysis from MedCityNews and Mass Device:

Despite the frequent complaints about the U.S. Food and Drug Administration taking longer to approve medical devices, the agency actually cleared 13 percent more cardiology devices last year than in 2008.

"If there are industries that have good reason to sweat, it's orthopedics and surgical instruments. 510(k )approvals for orthopedic devices fell nearly 14 percent last year and 10 percent for surgical devices. It took the FDA 21 more days to clear an orthopedic device (120 days vs. 99 days) and six more days to green light a surgical device (118 days vs. 112 days)," MedCityNews writes.

MedCityNews says the FDA has tightened scrutiny of orthopedic devices following a scandal around ReGen Biologics' knee cartilage implants.

Read the entire MedCityNews report here.

Medgadget editor Dan Buckland recently paid a visit to Medtronic headquarters, where he met with the company's VP of Medicine and Technology, Dr. Stephen Oesterle, for a talk about where the company and industry is heading.

The company spends about $1.7 billion a year on research and development. As a result, it's planning to release 60 new products next year. It also invests in several smaller companies that are working on products that are interesting or complimentary to its portfolio.

"In interviewing Dr. Oesterle about the future of medical devices, two main themes emerged. He believes that minimally invasive is the future for most surgeries and that everything in the body is electrically active, and hence able to be modulated. He also sees Medtronic as a company that specializes in delivery and implantation. Delivery refers to delivery of both drugs and electricity."

Read the entire post here.

A medical device trade journal has named a White Bear Lake company on its "50 Companies to Watch" list.

Medical Device and Diagnostic Industry says Envoy Medical is worth keeping an eye on since its prosthetic hearing implant device, Esteem, was approved for sale by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in March:

The "FDA recently approved Envoy to market a 'first of its kind' prosthetic hearing restoration device. The approval follows a unanimous vote by a 15-member independent advisory panel in favor of approving the Esteem for moderate to severe sensorineural hearing loss. FDA expedited the review process, noting that it believes the Esteem 'represents a breakthrough technology.'"

Read the entire list here.

Kiplinger's has named Rochester, Minn., one of the 10 Best Cities for the Next Decade.

The personal finance magazine says it focused its list on cities that specialize in "out-of-the-box thinking" and show the three key elements for innovation: smart people, great ideas, and collaboration.

Rochester "is growing like a beanstalk--a high-tech, health-care, hospitality beanstalk," the magazine writes.

It cites the Mayo Clinic and its synergy with other civic institutions such as the Minnesota Partnership for Biotechnology and Medical Genomics and the Minnesota BioBusiness Center.

Read the entire article here.

Computerworld writes about how health care is beginning to incorporate Web 2.0 services into patient care, and the story leads with an example from a Minnesota provider.

University of Minnesota Medical Center/Fairview has 36 physicians who are trying out software that lets them video- conference and instant-message with patients online. The software is from a Boston company called American Well.

The services are available to those who carry BlueCross and BlueShield of Minnesota insurance through their employers, and can be accessed between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends for a $10 or $20 co-pay.

"We're getting very positive feedback from patients," Dr. Eric Christianson, assistant medical director of the emergency room, tells Computerworld.

Read the entire article here.