AROUND THE VALLEYS

   CONEJO VALLEY

THOUSAND OAKS

Amgen Inc. has announced that its treatment for a mutation of a common type of lung cancer was granted conditional marketing authorization by the European Commission. With the commission’s approval and subject to local reimbursement applications, clinicians in all European Union member countries, in addition to Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein, will be able to provide the product, called Lumykras, to appropriate patients with non-small cell lung cancer. The treatment is now approved in 35 countries.  Amgen Executive Vice President of Research and Development David Reese said in a statement that the approval “has the potential to transform treatment outcomes for people in the European Union living with this notoriously difficult-to-treat cancer.” The chemical name of the product is Sotorasib.  It is marketed as Lumykras in the European Union and Great Britain while in the United States and other countries it has a slightly different spelling, Lumakras. It received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in May.

  SAN FERNANDO VALLEY 

CALABASAS

Labrador Systems, an early-stage tech company developing assistive robots, announced it had raised $3.1 million in seed funding. The business will use the funding to grow its engineering team, accelerate efforts with manufacturing partners and expand its consumer and commercial activities, Labrador said in a release. The seed round was co-led by Amazon.com Inc.’s Alexa Fund and iRobot Ventures in Bedford, Mass. with SOSV in Princeton, N.J. as a returning investor and grep-VC joining as a new investor. The San Fernando Valley company also announced the introduction of the Labrador Retriever, a personal robot for people with mobility challenges that allows them to live more independently by providing them with physical assistance with everyday activities around the home. Labrador expects to be in full production on the Retriever by the second half of next year, with test units available earlier. The Retriever is large enough to carry items such as a laundry basket yet agile enough to navigate tight spaces of a home. It also features a retrieval and delivery system to bring items within reach. Users can command the robot using their smart phone or through an Alexa-enabled device, according to Labrador’s release. Paul Bernard, director of the Alexa Fund, said that Labrador is advancing the state of what it means to aid people who are aging and have mobility issues. “They are addressing a significant problem in our society and have brought their decades of experience in consumer robotics to bear, delivering a product that will help empower people to live better lives,” Bernard said in a statement. 

SYLMAR

A storage company has proposed to develop a pair of buildings combining self-storage facilities and residential apartments in Sylmar. Redondo Beach-based Trojan Storage has applied to Los Angeles Department of City Planning seeking entitlements to construct a 200,000-square-foot mixed-use complex at 13260 W. Maclay St. Designed by Jordan Architects, the project – which would move to demolish an existing 22-unit apartment building – would include 163,455 square feet of self-storage space in two low-rise buildings plus 25 new apartments in a mix of one- and two-bedroom units. The Trojan Sylmar project would be comprised of two parts: a four-story standalone storage building and a three-story structure with housing and storage units. The buildings would also include a ground floor office, art studios and recreation room. A parking lot will accommodate 78 vehicles and additional open space will include a courtyard. Trojan Storage has 31 West Coast locations, including sites in Glendale, Burbank, Van Nuys and Sun Valley. 

WOODLAND HILLS

Kaiser Permanente’s 2022 Rose Parade float, “A Healthier Future,” won the Theme Award for most outstanding presentation of the Rose Parade Theme in the 133rd installment of the event. “Kaiser Permanente is honored to receive the Theme Award, and we hope our float inspires the next generation by honoring our health care workers who show us what is possible every day,” Greg Adams, Kaiser’s chair and chief executive officer, said in a statement. The 55-foot-long float had a deck garden covered in 15,000 hot pink Floyd roses and featured four children who represented health care innovators, researchers, nurses and doctors and the students of Kaiser Permanente’s Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine in Pasadena. Surrounding the deck edge was a combination of orange and hot pink roses, carnations, orchids, lilies, alstroemeria and ornamental kale. The 2022 Rose Parade marked Kaiser’s 16th year of participation. Kaiser has health facilities and hospitals in Woodland Hills, Panorama City, Antelope Valley and other parts of the San Fernando Valley region. 

  SANTA CLARITA VALLEY

SANTA CLARITA

Santa Clarita-based Evolution Devices recently closed its crowd funding campaign that raised $241,170 from 486 investors. 

Evolution Devices’ flagship product, EvoWalk, is an AI-powered muscle stimulator that uses machine learning and motion tracking to treat walking impairments related to conditions such as multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease and strokes. The EvoWalk and a complementary digital therapy platform that has already started its pilot program have been the focus of fundraising efforts. The crowd funding campaign began in late July and locked more than $152,000 in a rolling close by Nov. 16. Evolution Devices has been acquiring funding since 2019. Through a mixture of grants in the years since, it has raised well over $1 million. In an Oct. interview with the Business Journal, Evolution Devices Chief Executive Officer Pier Mantovani said that the company believed it could receive FDA clearance for its product around the second quarter of this year. He added that a product launch may lead to a Series A funding round late this year or early next.  

LA North Studios, a company offering soundstages for entertainment production, has signed a pre-lease at IAC Commerce Center in Valencia for 113,400 square feet.

In recent years, Santa Clarita Valley has become a major hub for entertainment production, with more than 40 soundstages and 10 movie ranches, according to the Santa Clarita Film Office.

The Newmark team of John DeGrinis, Patrick DuRoss and Jeff Abraham represented landlord IAC Properties as well as the tenant. Completion of the new warehouse is imminent at the industrial park’s 29051 Ave. Valley View address. “Construction should be completed by the end of this month,” Abraham said. “The rain delayed it a bit.” The new LA North Studios lease will see IAC Commerce Center at 100 percent occupancy. This lease will also mark a fourth location for LA North Studios in Santa Clarita. The other locations are at 25045 Avenue Tibbets, where LA North occupies 142,392 square feet of soundstages; 24834 Avenue Rockefeller, where it has 22,090 square feet; and The Center at Needham Ranch at 21401 Needham Ranch Parkway, where it occupies 113,640 square feet of film production space.

  TRI-CITIES

GLENDALE 

Software developer ServiceTitan Inc. will acquire FieldRoutes, a cloud-based and mobile software-as-a-service provider to the pest control and lawn care industry. Terms of the deal between ServiceTitan and FieldRoutes in McKinney, Texas were not disclosed. Ara Mahdessian, chief executive and co-founder of ServiceTitan, said he is excited to welcome FieldRoutes to ServiceTitan, a software provider used by home repair companies such as plumbers and electricians. “We’re thrilled to partner with FieldRoutes to provide pest control and lawn care companies with a cutting-edge platform that helps drive business and personal outcomes,” Mahdessian said in a statement. “By accelerating FieldRoutes’ successful track record of servicing pest control and lawn care, we will be one step closer to our mission of helping contractors achieve the level of success they deserve.” FieldRoutes was founded in 2013 and has a suite of tools that provides office management, advanced route optimization for technicians, payment processing, digital sales, marketing, and customer acquisition products for its customers. William Chaney, chief executive of FieldRoutes, said that by joining ServiceTitan, the company will be ablet to increase investments in product development and customer success. “As a result, (we will) provide our customers with the innovative software solutions they need to achieve their goals and outpace the competition,” Chaney said in a statement.