Recent posts and comments

• What’s Ailing Personalized Medicine? Mark Levin Calls for Leadership at the Highest Level

  It started out business as usual at the Personalized Medicine Coalition’s East Coast reception at The Broad Institute last week. People were touting the big steps that have been taken to... Read more »

• Folkman Leaves Behind an Inspiring Legacy of Science, Learning, and Startups

  Back when I was starting out in some lowly jobs at the Longwood Medical area, I was constantly reminded of the greatness of certain of the people around me. But one... Read more »

• ArQule CEO Hill to Leave Post, Remains Mum on Next Step as Firm Hunts for Replacement

  It wasn’t apparent, but when I spoke to him just before Christmas, Stephen A. Hill might have been mentally packing his suitcase. In any event, Woburn, MA-based biotech ArQule (NASDAQ:ARQL... Read more »

• Alnylam’s John Maraganore Anticipates More RNAi Deals and Startups in “Unparalleled” Environment for Biotech

  Massachusetts became even more firmly established as the preeminent center of commercial RNAi activity last year when two more such companies were founded here—Worcester-based RXi (a spinout of CytRx) and Boston-based... Read more »

• InCytu’s Betting that On-the-Spot Body Repair Will Succeed Where Traditional Tissue Engineering Has Not

  With its aim of growing replacements for injured or ailing body parts, tissue engineering is a field that at first seemed spectacularly promising. (Anyone remember the mouse with a human ear... Read more »

• Idera Pharmaceuticals Inks Potential $400 Million-Plus Deal with Germany’s Merck

  Idera Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IDRA) has netted its third major deal in about as many years. This one, potentially worth upwards of $400 million to the Cambridge, MA-based biotech, is a... Read more »

• Harvard’s Brock Reeve Sizes up the Prospects for Stem Cells in 2008 and Beyond

  2007 has been an outstanding year for stem cells—those much-ballyhooed cells with the ability to develop into numerous tissues in the body and ultimately, researchers hope, repair the damage in ailments... Read more »

• Millennium Presents Positive Data for Velcade

  At a conference yesterday, Millennium Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: MLNM) presented positive clinical data that could boost the Cambridge, MA-based company’s chances of gaining a broadened approval for cancer-drug Velcade, Millennium’s only... Read more »

• Inverness Strikes Again

  Waltham, MA-based Inverness Medical Innovations (AMEX: IMA) has agreed to pay $170 million in stock for BBI Holdings, a UK company that specializes in lateral-flow tests, such as those used... Read more »

• Haseltine’s DNA Repair Company Steps Out

  As I wrote in Wednesday’s post on Aveo’s deal with Eli Lilly, the biomarker business is finally having a growth spurt, at least in oncology. Another intriguing company trying to... Read more »

• Riding the Biomarker Wave: Aveo Snags Eli Lilly Deal

  Until recently it seemed like the only thing big pharmaceutical companies wanted from the little guys was their drugs—as many of them as the pharmas could get their hands on. Things... Read more »

• Meeting Offers Vision of Future U.S. Personalized Healthcare System

  What if within the next decade or so the U.S. healthcare system was completely transformed? Hospitals like Boston’s Beth Israel were all replaced by retail clinics and medical centers specializing in... Read more »

• NitroMed is Feeling the Pressure but Still Betting on Marketing to Save BiDil

  One of the most controversial drugs ever made could disappear if a new marketing plan can’t save it.

  Widely known as the “race-based” medicine, BiDil (isosorbide dinitrate and hydralazine hydrochloride) was... Read more »

• Ariad Staffs Up In Anticipation of Growth

  Cambridge, MA-based Ariad Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ARIA) has made three key new appointments in anticipation of the launch of its first product and the growth of its pipeline. Matthew E. Ros... Read more »

• Inverness Nets $806.4M in Stock Sale

  Waltham, MA-based Inverness Medical Innovations (AMEX: IMA) netted a tidy $806.4 million by selling 13,634,302 shares at $61.49 in a public offering that closed yesterday. All told the deal—which... Read more »

• Vertex Faces Setback in Targeted Cancer Drug Program

  Cambridge, MA-based Vertex Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: VRTX) yesterday announced a potentially serious setback in its program to develop novel cancer drugs aimed at a family of enzymes called the Aurora kinases.... Read more »

• Pfizer Snaps Up Coley for Vaccine Boost

  It’s not the Massachusetts deal everyone was waiting for—as all eyes have been on Biogen Idec and, more recently, Genzyme. But Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) finally pounced again today, announcing... Read more »

• Molecular Insight Aims for Straight Shot to Market with $150M Bond Financing

  With a fast-tracked drug in one hand and too little money in the other, Cambridge, MA-based Molecular Insight Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: MIPI) recently settled on a bond financing to get one... Read more »

• Dicerna Officially Founded

  Boston-based RNAi therapeutics startup Dicerna is finally officially out of the gates with a finalized $13M Series A financing led by Oxford Bioscience Partners and Skyline Ventures. (I profiled Dicerna... Read more »

• Amid Buying Spree, Inverness to Sell More Stock—But Some Observers Skeptical

  It’s been buy, buy, buy, for the last couple of years. Then last Thursday, Waltham, MA-based Inverness Medical Innovations (AMEX: IMA) announced it plans to sell 7 million new shares—the... Read more »