Biotech in Florida — home to future medical cities? (Morning Read)

Current medical news and unique business news for anyone who cares about healthcare.

Life science in the Sunshine State. None of its cities made our list of top 10 medical cities, but BIOtechNOW insists Florida is going strong in biotech innovation. Initiatives during former Gov. Jeb Bush’s tenure pushed the state into Ernst & Young’s top 10 ranking in 2006, and recent news from Palm Beach hints that the life sciences are still a priority in the Sunshine State. A November ranking from Jones Lang LaSalle mentioned the state as one with strong life science representation but also “fragmented framework, most notably lackluster funding from NIH and VC sources.” Maybe next year, Florida?

Flu failure means AVI will “refocus.” After falling short on its bid for a $500 million federal contract to develop an RNA-based treatment against pandemic flu, Washington-based AVI Biopharma announced it will cut more than a quarter of its employees in Washington and Oregon. The company was also unable to overturn a European patent claim in which Prosensa claimed to own part of the intellectual property in AVI’s lead program for muscular dystrophy.

A J&J sale. Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Codman & Shurtleff’s surgical instruments unit will soon be in the hands of Orthopedic company Symmetry Medical when the $165 million deal sale is completed. It will be combined with Symmetry’s line of surgical instruments and renamed Symmetry Surgical.

How’s this for boosting your startup funding? A Swedish e-commerce startup increased its funding 1,600 percent in just over a year, raising $155 million in its latest round. And it did it, TechCrunch says, by waiting to take on a huge round — or a “shovel-in round,” following the footsteps of other several other tech startups.

FDA troubles send Onyx shares tumbling. Shares of Onyx Pharmaceuticals tumbled more than 8 percent Monday when the San Fransisco-based company revealed potential FDA review issues for its blood cancer drug, Carfilzomib.