Recent posts and comments

• New England Firms Poised for Biogeneric Future, Tobin Bids Boston Scientific Adieu, Biogen Idec Reports Tenth PML Case, & More Boston-Area Life Sciences News

  Ryan and Luke did a couple of great in-depth stories this week—on the burgeoning business of biogenerics and on a young company out to take on the big boys of cancer... Read more »

• EMC Extends Data Domain Offer, ClickFuel Tanks Up with $2.5M, Auriga Measures $2.75M, & (a Little) More Boston-Area Deals News

  Just a few deals to report from last week—perhaps New England’s tech and life sciences firms were all too busy attending XSITE?

  —Auriga Measurement Systems, a wireless instrumentation and design... Read more »

• Xconomy HQ is Bursting at the Seams; Xconomy’s Pages Won’t Be Quite as Full as Usual

  I’m extremely pleased to report that Xconomy’s headquarters in Cambridge are jam packed this week, since everybody flew in from our Seattle and San Diego offices for the inaugural XSITE—Xconomy Summit... Read more »

• Merck and Roche Back Adimab, Viral Contamination Closes Genzyme Plant, Interlace Ties on $20.5M, & More Boston-Area Life Sciences News

  Three big pharmaceutical firms partnered with two New England life sciences companies this past week, and one ended a partnership.

  —Ryan learned that some 60 of the 240 people who were... Read more »

• Aileron Piles on $40M, GenArts Lights Up Lucasfilm’s Screens, Taris Takes on $15M, & More Boston-Area Deals News

  Deal flow was on the slow side this past week, but there was at least one whopper of a transaction, namely…

  —Aileron Therapeutics, the Cambridge, MA-based developer of a new class... Read more »

• Icahn Bags Two Biogen Board Seats, Pharma Giants Add $40M to Aileron Coffers, Pulmatrix Proceeds With Tests of Flu-Blocking Aerosol, & More Boston-Area Life Sciences News

  Ryan and Luke profiled some extremely interesting companies this week. More on those, and the rest of the week’s New England life sciences news, below.

  —Billionaire investor Carl Icahn succeeded—at least... Read more »

• E Ink Scooped up by Taiwanese Display Maker, EMC Battles NetApp For Data Domain, Polatis Picks Up $8M, & More Boston-Area Deals News

  The B word (billion) cropped up in not one but two deals in this week’s New England tech and life sciences news.

  —Cambridge, MA-based E Ink agreed to be acquired for... Read more »

• GSK Cuts Deal with Concert to the Tune of a Potential $1B, Celldex Inks $94.5M CuraGen Acquisition, Aveo Touts Kidney Cancer Drug Data, & More Boston-Area Life Sciences News

  Many of New England’s drug developers were down in Florida this week for the big annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Here’s what they had to report, as... Read more »

• 38 Studios Snaps Up Big Huge Games, EMC Buy Configuresoft, Proteon Therapeutics Picks up $12M, & More Boston-Area Deals News

  Evidently the word of the week for many New England’s tech firms was acquisition.

  —Digital Lumens of Salem, MA, raised $6.3 million in a round of equity financing. The startup,... Read more »

• Genentech Veteran Takes Agios’ Helm, E8 and MIT Take on Navigenics, Genzyme’s Mipomersen Takes Next Step, Alnylam Takes Advantage of Tekmira Technology, & More Boston-Area Life Sciences News

  New England’s life sciences firms reported a lot of encouraging clinical-trials news this week.

  —A cholesterol-lowering drug developed by Cambridge, MA-based Genzyme (NASDAQ: GENZ) and Carlsbad, CA-based Isis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:... Read more »

• Commemorative Day, Innovative Month

  Barring any earth-shattering late-breaking news, my Xconomy colleagues and I will knock off a little early today and be back online next Tuesday after the Memorial Day holiday.

  We’re looking forward... Read more »

• Elixir Sips $12M, Might Eventually Guzzle $500M; Evergreen Solar Offers $60M in Stock; BigBelly Bags $3.2M; & More Boston-Area Deals News

  This week saw a variety of small-to-medium deals—and one potentially huge one.

  —Avila Therapeutics of Waltham, MA raised $5 million from existing investors in a debt and options financing that... Read more »

• Biogen Idec Rebuts Icahn Attack, GlaxoSmithKline Quietly Spins Off Tempero Pharmaceuticals, Knome Launches Cheaper Sequencing Service, & More Boston-Area Life Sciences News

  New CEOs, new financings, new approvals, and new data—it was an interesting week for New England’s life sciences companies.

  —Cambridge, MA-based Molecular Insight Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:MIPI) named a new president... Read more »

• Genzyme Targets Growth, Taligen Takes $26M, Icahn Lays Into Biogen Idec Management, & More Boston-Area Life Sciences News

  A good number of New England life sciences firms took home new venture money this past week—in a couple of cases, in fairly large bags.

  —Luke gave an overview of how... Read more »

• Battery Ventures Backs ExactTarget, $22M for Tokai Pharmaceuticals, Ironwood Banks $40M in European Deal, & Much Much More Boston-Area Deals News

  Sheesh there were a lot of deals last week! Let’s get to it.

  —Ironwood Pharmaceuticals of Cambridge, MA, earned $40 million in upfront payments as part of a deal giving... Read more »

• Ironwood Inks $40M Deal with Laboratorios Almirall, CombinatoRx and Novartis Seek Combo Cancer Drugs, NABsys Nabs $4M, & More Boston-Area Life Sciences Deals

  This past week produced a cornucopia of life sciences news, including new partnerships, personnel and real estate changes, venture deals, and some intriguing science.

  —A team led by UMass Medical School... Read more »

• Acme Packet Packs Up Covergence, Thermo Buys Biolab, Q1 Was Kind to Mobile, & More Boston-Area Deals News

  I’ve got several acquisitions to report this week, and some other interesting New England tech and life sciences deals as well.

  —Mobile Monday Boston released figures indicating that the first... Read more »

• Merck Makes GlycoFi Center of its Biogenerics Strategy, Biogen Says Tysabri Might Promote Remyelination, Stemgent Teams with Fate, & More Boston-Area Life Sciences News

  Stem cells and RNAi were the subject of a couple of interesting alliances announced this week. More on those, and the rest of the week’s New England life sciences news, below.... Read more »

• Atlas Backs ProtAffin

  Waltham, MA-based Atlas Venture and Conshohocken, PA-based SR One, the venture arm of GlaxoSmithKline, co-led a €14.1 million ($18.4 million) Series B round of financing for ProtAffin, according to an announcement... Read more »

• Let’s Talk About Tomorrow, People—at Next Week’s Xconomy Biotech Forum

  My mental soundtrack the last few weeks has been heavily weighted toward Ziggy Marley’s cheestastic “Tomorrow People,” and I’ll tell you one of the reasons why: I’m getting really excited about... Read more »