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• Agios Pharmaceuticals Forges Ahead With Lab to Starve Cancer Cells

  Agios Pharmaceuticals is moving full steam ahead. The company has moved into a new 21,000-square-foot space in Cambridge, MA, that it says is the world’s largest lab devoted to studying how... Read more »

• Antigenics Cancer Vaccine, In Small Study, Helps Brain Tumor Patients Live Longer

  (Update: Antigenics stock surged 13 percent today after this news appeared.)

  Antigenics is offering a glimmer of hope for patients with terminal brain tumors. The Lexington, MA-based biotech company said its... Read more »

• ZymoGenetics CEO Bruce Carter Retires, Promotes Doug Williams, Says Sad Goodbyes to Biotech “Family”

  It’s a sad day for Seattle biotech. One of the charismatic pioneers of the local life sciences cluster, Bruce Carter, is retiring from his job as CEO of ZymoGenetics.

  “I’m... Read more »

• Ironwood, Flush With Cash, Anticipates Big Year with Constipation Drug

  Ask Ironwood Pharmaceuticals CEO Peter Hecht what he’s trying to accomplish in the next six to 12 months, and he doesn’t tiptoe around. “We’re trying to build the next great pharmaceutical... Read more »

• Accelerator Startup, GPC-Rx, Uses Computers to Make Drugs Without Side Effects

  Accelerator’s newest startup could, if it wanted to, make a version of marijuana that wouldn’t give people the munchies. Seattle-based GPC-Rx isn’t going to do that, but it is using sophisticated... Read more »

• Infinity Snags $75 Million Through Alliance with Purdue Pharma and Mundipharma

  Infinity Pharmaceuticals, a Cambridge, MA-based developer of cancer drugs, got a significant boost today. It signed a partnership worth $75 million upfront from Stamford, CT-based Purdue Pharma, the maker of the... Read more »

• CombinatoRx Cuts 30 More Jobs, Wiping out Two-Thirds of Staff in Last Month

  CombinatoRx, the Cambridge, MA-based biotech company, said this afternoon it is cutting 30 more jobs, which means it has now eliminated two-thirds of its staff since its lead drug candidate for... Read more »

• Geospiza to Acquire VizX Labs’ Genesifter Technology For Genomic Data

  Geospiza, a Seattle-based maker of software to help researchers keep track of massive amounts of genomic data, said today it has acquired the Genesifter technology created by Seattle-based VizX Labs. Terms... Read more »

• Immune Design Obtains Vaccine Booster From IDRI

  Immune Design, the Seattle-based vaccine development company, has obtained a worldwide exclusive license to develop a vaccine-boosting compound invented at the Infectious Disease Research Institute (IDRI). The technology, a glycopyranosyl lipid... Read more »

• Seattle’s Pharma Godfather, Vaccine Impresario Re-Emerges, Accelerator Gets New Investor & More Seattle-Area Life Sciences News

  We scored exclusive interviews with a couple of biotech industry leaders this week, and heard their views on some of the most intriguing technologies they see emerging in Seattle and around... Read more »

• Targanta Antibiotic Shot Down By FDA Panel

  (Update: The fourth paragraph includes a statement from Targanta about the panel’s vote.)

  Targanta Therapeutics was dealt a blow late this afternoon. A panel of expert advisers to the FDA voted... Read more »

• Local Seattle News Site, Crosscut, May Switch to Nonprofit Model To Pay the Bills

  One of Seattle’s best-known technology investors, Tom Alberg of Madrona Venture Group, had a conversation a couple years ago with David Brewster, the founding editor of Seattle Weekly, about how the... Read more »

• Young Innovators Network Aims to Boost Leading-Edge Ideas at “‘The Hutch”‘

  Get ‘em while they’re young. It’s true of the folks who market breakfast cereals, and also in the world of philanthropy.

  The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center has a reputation as... Read more »

• Biotech Analyst Runs For City Council

  David Miller, the co-founder and CEO of Biotech Stock Research, an independent stock research firm in Seattle, has filed paperwork to run for the Seattle City Council. Miller plans to... Read more »

• WBBA Hires Chris Rivera As President, Replacing Retiring Jack Faris

  Chris Rivera, a longtime biotech industry executive with experience in sales and marketing, has been hired as the new president of the Washington Biotechnology & Biomedical Association, the state’s trade group... Read more »

• Zacharon Raises $5.7 Million from VCs, Government, Hires CEO

  Zacharon Pharmaceuticals has gotten a shot of cash to develop a new class of drugs. The San Diego company said it has raised $3.5 million in a Series A venture round... Read more »

• Geospiza Sells Genetics Software To Harvard Medical, Children’s Hospital Boston

  Geospiza, a Seattle-based maker of software to help researchers analyze reams of genomic data, said today it has sold its FinchLab product to the Molecular Genetics Core Facility shared by Children’s... Read more »

• Vaccine Impresario, Todd Patrick, At it Again With Immunization Against Strep Throat

  Todd Patrick is one of those rare people in the pharmaceutical business who can say he built a successful career as a vaccines entrepreneur. He was the president of ID Biomedical... Read more »

• Biotech Survival Index: Cash Woes Creeping Up on San Diego Life Sciences Companies

  These are grim times for many industries, and the life sciences are no exception. Most of these enterprises depend on the ability to raise fresh investment capital on a regular basis,... Read more »

• FDA Plans To Clear Genzyme’s Myozyme Made at Large Scale

  Genzyme said today the FDA plans to allow it to market alglucosidase alfa (Myozyme) made in a large-scale 2000 liter bioreactor. The Cambridge, MA-based biotech company (NASDAQ: GENZ) said it... Read more »