Mike Armstrong, Inquirer Columnist
Shire P.L.C. will buy SARcode Bioscience Inc., which is developing a treatment for dry eyes, in a deal worth at least $160 million.
The pharmaceutical company, which has its U.S. headquarters in Wayne, said the acquisition will give it control of a compound called Lifitegrast, which is currently in late-stage clinical trials.
About 25 million people in the United States are thought to suffer from dry eye disease, of which 9 million are candidates for prescription drug treatment, Shire said.
Mike Armstrong, Inquirer Columnist
Say goodbye to one of the 17 companies that made the Inc. 500 fastest-growing companies list in 2012.
Transcend United Technologies L.L.C., a Wayne information technology firm, was acquired last week by AGC Networks Inc., a U.S. unit of an Indian conglomerate.
The Inc. 500 list ranks privately held companies by their revenue growth over a three-year period. Transcend United was ranked No. 254 on last year’s list, with revenue growth of 1,406 percent.
The company is a systems integrator focused on unified communications and data centers that traces its origins to a Broomall software business founded in the early ’80s known as Fastech Inc. Transcend United was formed from a November 2009 roll-up of four IT companies, including Fastech.
Mike Armstrong, Inquirer Columnist
Venture capital funds do not last forever, and Cross Atlantic Capital Partners has said it will wind down a fund started in 1999.
The Radnor firm, which has more than $500 million under management, said Friday it will liquidate its remaining portfolio holdings. Cross Atlantic said the decision comes after several "successful exits, including three IPOs."
Firms generally are not eager to tout the beginning of the end for a fund. But in this case, the Cross Atlantic Technology Fund L.P. owns 668,572 shares of Rubicon Technology Inc., a publicly traded maker of products used in LEDs and other optical equipment.
Mike Armstrong, Inquirer Columnist
Honickman Group, of Pennsauken, will acquire Pepsi-Cola bottling operations on Long Island, N.Y. from another independent bottler, Pepsi Bottling Ventures L.L.C. (PBV)
Terms of the transaction, expected to be completed during the second quarter, were not disclosed.
Honickman’s Pepsi-Cola Bottling Co. of New York currently operates in New York City’s five boroughs and Westchester County.
Mike Armstrong, Inquirer Columnist
First Round Capital, one of the nation's most active venture capital investors, has been picked by the City of Philadelphia to manage its $6 million seed fund.
The West Philadelphia-based First Round Capital intends to invest the capital in Philadelphia start-ups over the next two to three years. The average size of investment will be about $500,000, according to First Round founder Josh Kopelman.
At that amount, the Startup PHL Seed Fund would invest in 12 companies from the information technology sector.
The Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp. and First Round will each supply $3 million to capitalize the fund, which city officials hope will encourage more startups to stay in Philadelphia, rather than leave for New York or California which have greater concentrations of investment.
Mike Armstrong, Inquirer Columnist
Shares of AmerisourceBergen Corp. were up 7 percent Tuesday morning after the pharmaceutical wholesaler signed long-term deals to supply Walgreen Co. and Alliance Boots GmbH.
The agreement calls for the two pharmacy chains to acquire a minority stake of up to 7 percent in the Chesterbrook-based AmerisourceBergen.
AmerisourceBergen's gain is apparently rival Cardinal Health Inc.'s loss. The Dublin, Ohio-based wholesaler said its contract with Walgreens will not be renewed when it expires in August. Shares of Cardinal Health fell about 7 percent.
Mike Armstrong, Inquirer Columnist
More than a year after receiving regulatory approval for its first drug, Discovery Laboratories Inc. still has not launched Surfaxin, a treatment to prevent a respiratory illness that affects premature infants.
The Warrington biotechnology firm now says it expects to begin selling Surfaxin to hospitals during the second quarter after delaying the launch last October. The company said the delay was related to one of the analytical chemistry methods used to assess how the synthetic drug conforms to its product specifications.
The only hurdle now is obtaining confirmation from the Food & Drug Administration for the updated product specifications, according to the company.
During a conference call with securities analysts, Discovery Labs reiterated its sales expectations for Surfaxin of $8 million to $10 million for the first 12 months and about $40 million for the fourth year.
Mike Armstrong, Inquirer Columnist
Any time the military decides to close an installation, two things are sure: It will take a long time before the lights go out, and even longer for the site to find a new use.
In Philadelphia, the former Navy Yard is being transformed into a business hub. In February, city officials celebrated that 10,000 jobs and 130 companies are now located there. It took more than a decade to get to that point after the Navy signed over 1,000 acres in 2001.
Kansas encountered its own military conflict when a massive ammunition plant in Parsons was placed on the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) list. As with the Philadelphia Navy Yard, employment at the Kansas Army Ammunition Plant peaked during World War II, topping out at 7,358.
Ordinarily, I wouldn’t pay much attention to a 13,700-acre base hundreds of miles from Philadelphia. But I do when a privately held Philadelphia company with $2.7 billion in annual revenue has been operating a munitions plant there for more than 40 years.
Mike Armstrong, Inquirer Columnist
I am no fan of economic-impact studies because, while written by third-party economists, they are usually paid for by organizations who want to tout the good they are doing in a community.
Still, I must admit to being intrigued by the latest impact study on the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center, a nonprofit research group that has become home to many for-profit life-sciences start-ups.
Doylestown won’t make many lists of biotech hotbeds. But it’s where the center was started in 2006 in a shuttered manufacturing complex. Today, the parking lot bustles at rush hour with industry and academic scientists, students and entrepreneurs, according to Timothy Block, the microbiologist who has overseen the center’s growth.
The three buildings on Old Easton Road contain 40 small life-sciences companies, as well as the “cause-driven” Hepatitis B Foundation, begun by Block and his wife, Joan, and another couple in 1991 to find a cure for the liver infection, and the Institute for Hepatitis & Virus Research, started in 2003 as the foundation’s research arm.
Mike Armstrong, Inquirer Columnist
Wow, the Dow Jones industrial average blew past its previous high, set on Oct. 9, 2007, on Tuesday, closing up 125.95 points at 14,253.77.
What’s next?
Who knows?
I say, “Get on with your lives, citizens.”
Mike Armstrong blogs about Philadelphia corporations and business-related topics. Contact him at 215-854-2980.
Reach Mike at marmstrong@phillynews.com.
