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Backchannelmedia Opens Revenue Channel, GSK to Shell Out Up to $450M for Idenix Drug, GI Dynamics Packs On $15M, & More Boston-Area Deals News

Rebecca Zacks 2/13/09

Once again, New England’s tech and life sciences firms have managed to eek out a few notable deals despite the daunting climate.

—Idenix Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: IDIX), a maker of infectious-disease treatments in Cambridge, MA, forged an alliance with GlaxoSmithKline potentially worth about $450 million. The deal, which will bring Idenix $34 million up front, as much as $416 million in potential milestone payments, plus royalties on product sales, gives GSK exclusive rights to the Massachusetts firm’s anti-HIV drug IDX899.

—Backchannelmedia, a Boston-based provider of a “clickable TV” system for embedding links in broadcast TV signals—inked a deal with its first paying customer, Atlanta’s Gray Television (NYSE: GTN). The broadcaster plans to roll out the Backchannelmedia system to its 36 local broadcast stations.

—Return investors reportedly put another $15 million into Lexington, MA-based GI Dynamics, which is developing an intestine-lining sleeve that mimics the effect of gastric bypass surgery for the treatment of obesity and Type 2 diabetes. With the new financing, from Advanced Technology Ventures, Cutlass Capital, Domain Associates, Johnson & Johnson Development, Polaris Venture Partners and Seedling Enterprises, the startup’s Series C round comes to a total of $45 million.

—Black Duck Software of Waltham, MA, raised $6.5 million in a second tranche of its Series D funding round. The deal included a $2 million equity investment from Intel Capital, Fidelity Ventures, Flagship Ventures, Focus Ventures, General Catalyst, SAP Ventures, and Red Hat, and $4.5 million in venture debt from Gold Hill Capital. Black Duck makes systems that help software makers track and properly license the open-source and third-party code going into their products.

—Cambridge, MA-based biotech Dyax (NASDAQ:DYAX) struck a licensing deal with France’s Fovea Pharmaceuticals focused on developing a version of Dyax’s lead drug, ecallantide, for eye diseases. An FDA panel has already recommended that the drug be approved as a treatment for the rare blood disease hereditary angioedema.

—FetchDog of Portland, ME—a canine-centric shopping and blogging website co-founded by actor Glenn Close and her husband David Shaw—closed a $4 million funding round. Participants in the deal included Portsmouth and Hanover, NH-based Borealis Capital Partners and Keene, NH-based Harbor Light Capital Partners.

—Bain Capital of Boston raised $475 million for a new venture fund, according to the Boston Globe.

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