AROUND THE VALLEYS

Antelope Valley LANCASTER Simulations Plus has won a $400,000 grant as part of a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The company which specializes in drug modeling software, will use the grant to further develop software which simulates drug delivery approaches through the eyes. FDA scientists as well as staff from pharmaceutical and generic drug companies will use Simulations’ software – the Ocular Compartmental Absorption and Transit model within its GastroPlus platform – as part of the agreement. Such companies were not mentioned in the statement. “Our relationship with the FDA on enhancements to the OCAT model dates back to 2014, and the funding, scientific interactions and resulting publications have established it as the preeminent “in silico” (meaning via computer simulation) approach in the area of absorption of drugs applied to the eye,” John DiBella, president of the Lancaster division of Simulations Plus, said in a statement. San Fernando Valley CALABASAS Marcus & Millichap Inc. will lay off 175 salaried employees, or 20 percent of its 877-person workforce, as the coronavirus outbreak ripples through the commercial real estate industry. Chief Executive Hessam Nadji, who has already taken a salary reduction during the pandemic, said the layoffs were necessary to protect the firm’s balance sheet, according to a CoStar Group report. The layoffs will come from the salaried staff sector of national firm and not from the brokers, who live on commissions and bonuses. “Having been through many downturns in our 50-year history, we are confident MMI will gain share by providing exceptional client services through this cycle and achieve its long-term growth plans,” Nadji said in an emailed statement. NORTH HILLS Kelly Morgan Commercial Group at KW Commercial has transacted the sale of 8805 Orion Ave., a 22-unit multi-family property in North Hills, for $4.7 million. Broker Kelly Morgan served as an exclusive advisor to the seller while Clyde Isaacson procured the Los Angeles-based buyer. The price calculates to $213,636 a unit. “With such a large backlog of need in the Los Angeles area, we feel that the Los Angeles marketplace will continue to be one of if not the best investor-driven markets in the country for multifamily properties going forward,” Morgan said in a statement. SHERMAN OAKS The Valley Economic Alliance has received a grant of $65,000 from Wells Fargo. The nonprofit announced the money would be used to create and distribute technical business resources for low-to-moderate income business owners impacted by COVID-19. The alliance will produce bilingual news bulletins and host webinars and virtual conferences, such as career fairs, for business owners in neighborhoods including Pacoima, Sun Valley and Panorama City. Chief Executive Sonya Blake said in a statement the grant enables the alliance to reach underserved areas where language and technological barriers can limit who does and does not receive much-needed emergency assistance from the federal and state governments or elsewhere. WOODLAND HILLS Endonovo Therapeutics Inc. has arranged an equity purchase agreement with Cavalry Fund I, under which Endonovo will sell up to $10 million in shares during the next 24 months. The medical device maker will use the funds to increase inventory of its SofPulse electrical pulse device, advance sales and marketing efforts and pay down debt. The agreement stipulates that 50 percent of proceeds go to pay down existing convertible notes. No price was set for the shares, as “Endonovo Therapeutics will control the timing and amount of any sales to Cavalry based on market price at the time of each sale,” the company said in a statement. Biotech nonprofit The Terasaki Institute plans to transform the former Weider Health and Fitness Center into a biomedical research and development facility. The two-story, 50,000-square-foot building at 21100 Erwin St. will be designed to accommodate teams of scientists focused on developing bioengineered systems, medical devices and other products with biomedical applications, Terasaki said in a statement. The facility will be able to house up to 200 employees, along with equipment to enable tissue engineering and regeneration; biofabrication using 3D printing; nano- and micro-engineering; stem cell engineering; and the creation of human organs on chips, the organization said. Renovations are set to begin in the fall and continue for 18 to 24 months. The San Fernando Valley site marks the institute’s third facility, with others located in West Los Angeles and Westwood. Santa Clarita Valley SANTA CLARITA BioSolar Inc. has filed a patent application for a process to protect its high-power batteries for use in power tools and hybrid electric vehicles. The company has applied its silicon additive technology to materials that can reduce the cost of lithium-ion battery engineering and manufacturing, it said in a release. Chief Executive David Lee said that filing the patent application brings the company one step closer to the commercialization of its silicon additive technology. “As we move forward, it is critical that we control future licensing efforts that may one day represent a significant source of revenue,” Lee said in a statement. “We are pleased to file this patent and continue focusing on the evaluation of the technology.” Tri-Cities BURBANK For the sixth consecutive year, Woodbury University in Burbank has been recognized as a “College of Distinction.” Colleges of Distinction is a national organization that evaluates the effectiveness of undergraduate institutions and compiles an annual guide for students in the college search process. Woodbury President David Steele Figueredo said the selection is an honor and a recognition of the school’s core values. “As a Hispanic serving institution, we have also maintained our history of diversity, and catering to first-generation students of lower socio-economic status,” Figueredo said in a statement. Woodbury is the Valley’s only College of Distinction this year. GLENDALE ServiceTitan, the software developer for contractors, has acquired Pointman, a similar company in Buffalo, N.Y. that allow contractors to access data in the field using a mobile device. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. ServiceTitan Chief Executive Ara Mahdessian said that Pointman founders Steve Kiernan II and Steve Raines were motivated by the same thing that inspired him and co-founder Vahe Kuzoyan – improving the lives of contractors. “When we realized that their legacy software partner was terminating their relationship, we knew that that would force contractors to migrate their mobile capabilities to an unproven app with little notice,” Mahdessian said in a statement. “We saw an opportunity to give these businesses more time and a more reliable mobile option to run their field operations.” Pointman’s 400 customers and 6,000 active users will transition over to ServiceTitan software in the coming months.. Ventura County THOUSAND OAKS California Lutheran University has selected Lori Varlotta as the school’s eighth president, effective Sept. 30. She is the first woman president in Cal Lutheran’s 61-year history. Varlotta joins from Hiram College in Ohio, where she has been president since 2014. She succeeds Chris Kimball, who announced in October he would step down after 12 years as Cal Lu’s president. “For three-and-a-half decades, working at mission-driven colleges and universities has been a calling, not a career. And the mission at Cal Lutheran to educate leaders for a global society speaks volumes to me,” Varlotta said in a statement. Varlotta previously held leadership positions at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, the University of San Francisco, and California State University – Sacramento.