SoCalBio-Championed and Co-Authored Grant Proposal for Developing National Biomanfacturing Training Standards Won $15 Million from US Department of Labor

The grant brings about $2 Million to Los Angeles, which will be administered by LA valley College to train the bioscience workforce of the future

The three-year project establishes the Community College Consortium for Biosciences Credentials and will develop core bioscience competencies in laboratory skills, bio-manufacturing and medical devices, and introduces stackable and latticed credentials to help trade-impacted workers get new jobs. Certificates will include core biosciences skills, core laboratory skills, core medical device skills, biomedical plastics, and environmental monitoring.

Exact Staff, Inc. (Woodland Hills)

Exact Staff is a healthcare and medical device staffing service provider. The company will be represented in SoCalBio by its CEO Ms. Karen Goodwin kgoodwin@exactstaff.com  ... Learn more

Implantable Medical Devices No Longer a Rising Star? 

The implantable device segment has consistently been a top performer for medtech companies, but that star may be falling, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers report ... Read more 

What Can the Medical Device World Learn from Medical Aesthetics? 

A conversation with Allergan's David Pyott

Allergan CEO and medical aesthetics pioneer David Pyott talks with MassDevice.com on what the business of beauty can teach the medical device industry about consumer centric medicine .. Read interview

KYTHERA Biopharma Closes Its Successful

Public Offering

The Calabasas-based biotech company today announced the closing of its initial public offering of 5,060,000 shares of its common stock at an initial public offering price of $16.00 per share, which includes the exercise in full by the underwriters of their option to purchase up to 660,000 additional shares of common stock. KYTHERA Biopharmaceuticals' common stock is listed on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the trading symbol "KYTH." All of the shares in the offering were offered by KYTHERA Biopharmaceuticals ... Read more 

Insightra Medical (Irvine, CA) received FDA clearance for its Freedom Inguinal Hernia System

The system consists of the ProFlor implant and a delivery device that sort of works like a syringe. The flower-like implant is compressed into the delivery device, which is in turn inserted into the inguinal hernia defect and deployed.  The implant immediately uncoils (blooms?), providing stability but without the use of tacks or sutures that are often associated with post-operative chronic hernia pain ... Read more

Edwards Lifesciences Acquires BMEYE

The Irvine-based Edwards Lifesciences Corp. has acquired BMEYE, a Dutch developer of non-invasive technology for advanced hemodynamic monitoring. No financial terms were disclosed. BMEYE had raised VC funding from firms like 360 Capital Partners, Earlybird Venture Capital, Life Sciences Partners and Net Partners ....  Read more

Amgen Appoints Cynthia Patton Senior Vice President And Chief Compliance Officer

Amgen announced the appointment of Cynthia M. Patton to senior vice president and chief compliance officer, effective Oct. 22. In this role, Patton will report to Robert A. Bradway, president and chief executive officer, and will be responsible for Amgen's worldwide compliance and business ethics organization. She succeeds Anna Richo, who has resigned from the company effective Oct. 31 to join another global biopharmaceutical company as general counsel ... Read more