Daily Record Financial News &
Monday, December 28, 2015
Vol. 103, No. 031 • Two Sections
35¢ www.jaxdailyrecord.com
TapImmune moves forward with new drugs
TapImmune Inc. is a pharmaceutical research company that may never make a big splash in Jacksonville, as far as local employment and operations go. However, the company is hoping to make an impact by proving the effectiveness of its cancer treatments under development. TapImmune describes itself as an “immune-oncology” company that is developing immunotherapies to treat cancer. According to the American Cancer Society, immunotherapy is a treatment that stimulates a person’s immune system to fight cancer and other disease. “I think this is going to be the future,” TapImmune CEO Glynn Wilson said in a recent interview. “I think this is such an attractive field right now,” he said. Wilson operates from a small office in the Downtown Bank of America Tower. He moved his office from Seattle to Jacksonville in the summer after TapImmune received a government grant to move forward with a clinical trial of a breast cancer treatment at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville. Besides breast cancer, TapImmune also is developing treatments for other forms of cancer. This month, the company announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave one of the company’s vaccines under development to treat ovarian cancer an “orphan drug designation.”
Hall of justice
Photo by Bobby King
Steven Whittington
Hoping to spend second half of career on bench By Marilyn Young Editor Steven Whittington got arguably the most important call of his career a week before Christmas. And he missed it. Whittington was in the Clay County courthouse where cellphone reception is pretty much nonexistent. When he got out at 9 a.m., he saw a call from Naples had come in 30 minutes earlier. He and the other 11 candidates for two judicial seats in the 4th Circuit had been told not to ignore a call from Naples because it could be Gov. Rick Scott. It was Scott who left a message that morning. But there was no hint as to whether he had chosen Whittington to be a judge.
Public
legal notices begin on page
He called the governor back — even before calling his wife, Kim, to tell her about the missed call. But Whittington, 48, had to leave a message in the game of phone tag with Scott. In the hour before the governor returned the call, Whittington bounced between confidence and uncertainty, asking himself, “The governor wouldn’t make the call if it was bad news, right?” Finally, that second call from Naples came in. Scott told Whittington he had selected him to replace Judge Lawrence Page Haddock Jr., who spent 41 years on the bench. (Scott also named Assistant State Attorney John Guy to replace Judge Mallory Cooper.) It was a chance for Whittington to go into public service, which he had planned to do in New judge continued on Page A-10
B-1
Wilson
The FDA assigns orphan status to drugs designed to treat a rare disease or condition. TapImmune said there is currently no FDA-approved vaccine to treat ovarian cancer, which the company described as a “highly aggressive” disease. TapImmune said the orphan status will allow the company to receive benefits such as tax credits on research and a sevenyear market exclusivity for its drug once it receives marketing approval. Basch continued on Page A-11
Skinner building on his family’s legacy By Carole Hawkins Staff Writer Chet Skinner learned to respect his name even before he knew what it meant to Jacksonville. During his middle school years — when he was old enough to face peer pressure and sometimes make stupid decisions — his mother would tell him, “Remember when you go out, you carry your family’s name with you.” It meant be confident in who you are and in how we’ve raised you. And know your actions affect others beyond you. He was a member of a team. It wouldn’t be his only team. Skinner becomes president of the Northeast Florida Builders Association in 2016. It’s a place where the industry tackles issues like changing codes, zoning policies or market conditions as a group.
As a member of that team, Skinner holds a strong hand. He heads the residential land acquisition and development arm of Skinner Bros. Skinner Realty Co., a company owned by his father, Chip Skinner. His roots in Jacksonville real estate go even deeper. Born A.C. Skinner IV, his greatgreat-grandfather in the late 1800s bought 40,000 acres on what is today Jacksonville’s Southside. Portions of that property remain in family hands today along the highly-valued Butler Boulevard corridor near St. Johns Town Center. Skinner continued on Page A-2
Page
Published
for
26,821
A-3
consecutive weekdays