.gen Technologies Inc.

A brilliant move from local biotech Orexigen – combine an existing obesity drug candidate with an antidepressant for a potential blockbuster coctail. Patients in this IIb (mid-late) stage trial lost a whopping 9.9% of body weight during the 24 week period, averaging 22 pounds. And I’ll bet they had fun doing it too!

http://www.fiercebiotech.com/story/orexigen-wows-analysts-iib-obesity-data/2009-09-30?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal

…or how to turn $32M into $170M in two years of the worst economic downturn since the depression. Seriously, it’s great to see a venture capital success story from the stodgy old world of software.

 http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/09/13/intuit-to-acquire-former-techcrunch50-winner-mint-for-170-million/

14 down, 86 to go – this week Bay Area gene sequencing provider Complete Genomics completed 14 of the 100 human genomes they committed to finish in the second half of this year. If they succeed, both the $5000 price point and the service provider business model could prove disruptive to sequencing tools businesses at San Diego firms Illumina and Life Technologies.

 http://www.xconomy.com/seattle/2009/09/09/ovp-company-does-14-genomes/