The birth and death of partnerships was the subject of much of this week’s news in New England’s life sciences sector.

—Rhythmia Medical raised $5 million in an equity offering that could end up being worth $7 million, according to a regulatory filing, bringing the Burlington, MA-based startup’s total funding to $17 million. Rhythmia is developing a catheter-based device that creates a 3D map of the heart in order to pinpoint the tissues responsible for irregular heartbeats.

—Cambridge, MA-based DecImmune Therapeutics raised $1 million in an equity-based financing round led by Astellas Venture Management and joined by return investors Amgen and HealthCare Ventures. DecImmune, a Harvard Medical School spinoff out to develop drugs that reduce inflammation and tissue damage, also won a $2.2 million Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Institutes of Health.

—Diagnostics maker PointCare Technologies of Marlborough, MA, raised $1.8 million of a planned $3.5 million equity round of funding, according to an SEC filing. PointCare’s products are designed to help patients with HIV/AIDS in developing countries.

—Ryan checked in with John Knopf, CEO and co-founder of Cambridge, MA-based Acceleron Pharma, a developer of drugs that treat disease by boosting or inhibiting the growth of particular tissues. With a newly inked deal with Ireland’s Shire in its pocket, along with other pharma partnerships, “Our hope is that we won’t have to go back to our venture backers,” Knopf said.

—Superstar cancer researcher Tyler Jacks, the director of MIT’s David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, signed up to … Next Page »

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If in-depth interviews with some of the heaviest hitters in the New England life sciences industry are your cup of tea, this was the week for you.

—Ryan had a fascinating chat with Jorge Conde, co-founder and CEO of Cambridge, MA-based Knome, about how the startup is evolving in the rapidly evolving field of personal genomics. Just two years ago, Knome, which was co-founded by Harvard geneticist George Church, charged $350,000 to sequence a customer’s genome and interpret the data. Now it’s charging $68,500—reflecting the rapid drop in the cost of sequencing—and trying to find a way to get back in the black.

—Bruce scored an interview with Ralph V. Whitworth, the co-founder of San Diego-based Relational Investors, which has recently amassed a 4 percent stake in Cambridge-based Genzyme (NASDAQ:GENZ). Whitworth, whose firm recently reached a “mutual cooperation agreement” with Genzyme, outlined the six things he thinks Genzyme needs to do to realize its intrinsic value—and offered his assessment of how well the Cambridge firm’s management is meeting each of those goals.

—Luke caught up with Alan Sachs of Merck, which in 2006 paid a whopping $1.1 billion to acquire Sirna Therapeutics, a competitor of Cambridge-based Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ALNY) in the field of RNA interference. Sachs, who leads Merck’s RNA therapeutics efforts, agreed with Alnylam CEO John Maraganore that RNAi will prove its therapeutic power in the coming decade, but emphasized that figuring out how to deliver RNAi-based drugs is a formidable challenge.

—American Well CEO Roy Schoenberg talked to Ryan about what his Boston-based company has learned in just over a year of operating a system that lets users consult with doctors over the Internet. A couple of interesting trends: the majority of patients who seek care through American Well’s system are women, and just over half of the online doctor visits are for allergies, aches, colds, and other routine ailments, though the system includes physicians from some 23 medical specialties.

—Michael Bonney, the CEO of Cubist Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:CBST) spoke frankly to Ryan about his Lexington, MA-based company’s lack of an encore after the success of its first drug, the antibiotic daptomycin (Cubicin). Allowing that the company “could have been a little more aggressive at pipeline building earlier than we started to,” Bonney discussed the company’s efforts to do so now, in part through acquisitions, and to defend daptomycin against generic competition.

—Ryan checked in with Cambridge-based Millennium a few weeks after it forged a major collaboration with Seattle Genetics (NASDAQ:SGEN). The deal, which gives Millennium rights to market the Seattle firm’s drug for Hodgkin’s and other lymphomas in all markets outside the U.S. and Canada, is one of several indications of how Millennium’s clout has grown since it became the cancer R&D arm of Japanese drug giant Takeda Pharmaceutical Company in May 2008, Ryan explains.

—Luke scored a long-sought-after interview with Matt Emmens, who took the reins of Cambridge-based Vertex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:VRTX) last May. Emmens talked about his surprising path to the Vertex helm, and his big goals for the company—chief among them launching its hepatitis C drug, telaprevir, on a blockbuster trajectory.

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It was a quiet week for deals in the Northwest—too quiet. Maybe companies are steering clear of breaking news so they don’t get drowned out by all the big quarterly earnings news and Apple’s much-anticipated product announcement tomorrow. Probably there’s a storm coming.

—Ryan took us inside a major partnership between Bothell, WA-based Seattle Genetics (NASDAQ: SGEN) and Millennium in Cambridge, MA. The deal, which we originally reported last month, calls for Millennium to sell Seattle Genetics’ experimental drug for Hodgkin’s and other lymphomas in all markets outside the U.S. and Canada. Millennium, which began a research collaboration with Seattle Genetics back in 2003, is acting as the Bothell firm’s global development and marketing partner, thanks to Millennium’s global parent company, Japan-based Takeda Pharmaceutical.

—Wade reported that Harvest Power, a Boston-area renewable fuels company that has operations in Seattle and Vancouver, BC, has formed a partnership with Waste Management (NYSE: WM), the Texas-based waste hauling giant. Waste Management has invested an undisclosed amount to help Harvest Power expand to more cities, starting with the East and West Coasts.

—Dow Jones VentureSource broke out VC data for Washington state in the fourth quarter of 2009, as Bruce reported. The venture dollars invested shot up almost three-fold in the quarter, when $239.4 million was invested in 25 companies, compared with the same quarter in 2008, when less than $85.6 million was invested in 18 companies. For all of 2009, however, Dow Jones showed a 9 percent decline, with $793.4 million invested in 107 companies, as compared to $875.6 million in 97 companies the prior year.

—Bellevue, WA-based Motricity, a software firm that helps wireless carriers and media companies deliver mobile data services to customers, filed a form S-1 with the SEC, saying it plans to sell up to $250 million in an initial public offering. The company was founded in 2001 and is backed by more than $400 million in venture funding; it moved headquarters from North Carolina to Washington following its $135 million acquisition of the mobile services unit of InfoSpace (NASDAQ: INSP) in 2007. Motricity generated revenues of $117.1 million in the 12 months ending on September 30, 2009, but is not profitable.

—Lastly, we had a fascinating guest post from entrepreneur Jasper Kuria, a former Microsoftie, on the reasons behind the “evil” term sheets that VCs negotiate with startups they want to fund, and the ensuing strategy discussions about company growth and exits.

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It was a busy week for Northwest deals, as companies tried to beat the holiday rush. Lots of action in software, mobile, and biotech.

—Seattle-based Swype, maker of text-input software for touch screens, raised $5.6 million in a Series B round led by Samsung Ventures, Nokia Growth Partners, and Benaroya Capital. Swype released its first product earlier this month and is planning to use its new funds to expand to mobile devices around the world.

—Seattle Genetics, the Bothell, WA-based biotech firm (NASDAQ: SGEN), inked a partnership with Millennium: The Takeda Oncology Company, based in Cambridge, MA, to co-develop and market an “empowered antibody” cancer drug for Hodgkin’s disease and related lymphomas, as Luke reported. Millennium will pay $60 million upfront and make milestone payments worth $230 million, in exchange for exclusive commercial rights to the drug in all countries except the U.S. and Canada. Meanwhile, last week, Roche’s U.S.-based Genentech unit canceled a three-year partnership with Seattle Genetics to co-develop an antibody for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and multiple myeloma.

—Seattle’s Widevine Technologies, which makes software for delivering online video to mobile phones, TVs, and other consumer devices, raised $15 million in equity funding from Liberty Global, Samsung Ventures, and an unnamed corporation. Widevine was founded in 1999 and has raised more than $65 million in equity and debt financing.

—Microsoft had a busy week. The Redmond, WA-based software firm (NASDAQ: MSFT) acquired Sentillion, a healthcare software company based in Andover, MA, for an undisclosed price. It plans to incorporate Sentillion’s technology into the Microsoft Amalga Unified Intelligence System for hospitals. Microsoft also acquired Toronto-based Opalis Software, a maker of data center and IT management software for process automation. Financial terms were not announced.

—Speaking of IT management, Microsoft also formed a three-year strategic partnership with NetApp (NASDAQ: NTAP), a Sunnyvale, CA-based data storage and virtualization firm. The deal calls for the two companies to collaborate on products in virtualization, storage and data management, and cloud computing. Financial details weren’t given.

—Dendreon, the Seattle biotech company blazing trails in prostate cancer treatment and “cancer vaccines,” raised $409 million by selling 15 million shares, plus 2.25 million more to its underwriters who exercised their options. Luke reported the story behind the stock offering here. Dendreon (NASDAQ: DNDN) has raised a total of $630 million this year to manufacture and market its cancer treatment, as it seeks FDA approval.

—Portland, OR-based Solar Nation raised $2 million in equity financing, as part of a $5 million commitment from Luxembourg-based Lynx Industries to help expand the startup’s North American operations. Solar Nation was founded in 2008 and develops solar energy technologies for government agencies, businesses, and nonprofits.

—Redmond, WA-based Sammsoft, a maker of security and privacy software for personal computers, was acquired by support.com (NASDAQ: SPRT), a Silicon Valley-based Internet firm, for $8.5 million in cash. The assets of Xeriton, Sammsoft’s parent company, were also acquired.

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I’m dashing this message off right before I get on a plane for Xconomy’s big event tomorrow afternoon: “Pharma’s Bet on Boston Innovation.” Only a few tickets are left for this gathering at the Hyatt Regency in Cambridge, MA.

I’m personally excited to fly in from Seattle for this event because it will bring together some of the world leaders in biotech and pharmaceutical R&D, all of whom happen to live in the greater Boston area (and who I usually talk to by phone and e-mail). The headliners are Christoph Westphal, the CEO of Sirtris and the senior vice president of GlaxoSmithKline’s Centre of Excellence for External Drug Discovery, and Deborah Dunsire, the CEO of Millennium: The Takeda Oncology Company. They will be able to share their experience of leading a growing biotech company, getting acquired by a big company, and then being given more resources to drive innovation in Boston instead of getting lost in a corporate shuffle.

We also have brought together several biotech leaders who have put together partnerships or attracted investment from Big Pharma companies, including speakers from Aileron Therapeutics, Hydra Biosciences, and Enlight Biosciences. Top venture capitalists from the Novartis Venture Funds, MedImmune Ventures, Advanced Technology Ventures, Flagship Ventures, and PureTech Ventures will be there to add perspective on how their companies are looking to create technologies that Big Pharma will want to buy. We will also hear from one of the region’s biotech success stories, Lebanon, NH-based GlycoFi, on what it’s like to be absorbed within a larger pharma company, in this case, Merck.

Here’s a podcast I did about the event.

I’m really looking forward to hearing what these folks have to say about the future of the pharmaceutical business, and the opportunities they see emerging in the Boston area. You can find more information about the agenda and how to register at the list minute here.

See you there tomorrow.

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Europe’s drug regulators were not kind to a couple of Massachusetts biotech firms this week, but other New England life sciences companies had happier news to report.

—European drug regulators turned down Lexington, MA-based Antigenics’ bid for approval to market vitespen (Oncophage), a “cancer vaccine” for patients with kidney cancer. Shares of Antigenics (NASDAQ: AGEN) tumbled on the news.

—Ryan made a visit to the yeasty-smelling labs of Lebanon, NH-based Mascoma, where researchers are aiming to engineer microbes that can more efficiently produce ethanol from cellulose-rich materials such as wood chips, switch grass, and corn stalks. Mascoma is currently ramping up pilot production at a facility in Rome, NY, and hopes to complete one of the first commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol plants—in Kinross, MI—by 2012.

—Nuclea Biotechnologies raised $3.4 million in new equity financing. The Pittsfield, MA-based startup is developing genomic tools for cancer research and diagnosis.

—Ryan made the rounds of the big healthcare IT symposium put on by Partners HealthCare’s Center for Connected Health. The field is currently riding a wave of interest tipped off in part its inclusion in the economic stimulus bill, he explained, and the event attracted a mix of physicians, entrepreneurs, hospital administrators, academics, and technology executives. Ryan gave a great run-down of highlights from the event.

—Natalizumab (Tysabri), the multiple sclerosis drug from Cambridge, MA-based Biogen Idec (NASDAQ: BIIB), has reportedly come under fresh scrutiny from European regulators now that a total of 23 patients on the treatment have been diagnosed with a rare, potentially fatal brain infection called PML. According to Reuters, the European Medicines Agency has initiated a review to discuss any additional measures necessary to ensure the safety of the drug, which is also approved for Crohn’s disease. Shares of Biogen, and its partner Elan (NYSE:ELN) fell on the news.

—Wellesley, MA-based BioAssets Development Corporation inked a $30 million deal granting Frazer, PA-based Cephalon (NASDAQ: CEPH) to acquire the company. BioAssets will be eligible for various additional payments if Cephalon exercises the option and certain regulatory and sales milestones are reached.

—Boston-based American Well, provider of a Web-based system for remote medical consultations, raised $10 million in new equity funding, according to a regulatory filing. Investors in the round were not named.

—Luke gave a sneak peak of next week’s Xconomy Forum, which will explore how Big Pharma is seeking to boost its pace of innovation—and chances of success—in a notoriously risky industry. We’re all really excited about the event, which will include keynoters Deborah Dunsire, the CEO of Millennium: The Takeda Oncology Company, and Christoph Westphal, the CEO of Sirtris, and the senior vice president of GlaxoSmithKline’s Centre of Excellence for External Drug Discovery.

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Cancer is the one of the most intense fields of R&D in the pharmaceutical business, and if you need convincing, take a look at the enormous heaps of data that started appearing online last night.

The annual cancer drug data frenzy known as the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) got its official kickoff of sorts as it released thousands of brief summaries, known as abstracts, that serve as a preview of coming attractions at the group’s annual conference May 29 to June 2. This year’s meeting, to be held in sunny Orlando, FL, because it’s one of the few places with a big enough convention center, is expected to draw the usual crowd of 30,000 physicians, drug company executives, Wall Street analysts, and journalists who are seeking insights into what’s new and hot for the treatment of tumors.

There’s a reason for all this interest: there’s a lot of money to be made. The global market for cancer drugs, worth $66 billion in 2008, will grow to $84 billion by 2012, according to a report by Cowen & Company. Some 861 new cancer medicines and vaccines are now being tested in clinical trials by biotech and pharmaceutical companies, a record number, according to the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturer’s Association.

Many of these products come from the Boston biotech cluster, and here’s a rundown from some of the drugs to watch from Bay State labs.

—ImmunoGen (NASDAQ: IMGN), the Waltham,MA-based company with technology to make a “souped-up” version of Herceptin for breast cancer, will have one of the highly anticipated presentations. This drug, called trastuzumab DM1, or TDM1, has been developed in collaboration with Genentech, now owned by Swiss drug giant Roche. It takes the hit antibody drug for breast cancer, marketed as Herceptin, and aims to make it more potent by attaching a potent toxin to it.

Preliminary results presented in December from 107 patients in a mid-stage clinical trial showed that about 40 percent had partial or complete tumor shrinkage after taking the drug. This happened … Next Page »

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It’s only been a few days since last I rounded up the deals news from New England’s tech and life sciences firms, but there are still a few transactions worth mentioning.

—Millennium, the Cambridge, MA-based subsidiary of Japan’s Takeda Pharmaceutical Company, paid $4 million up front to Seattle Genetics (NASDAQ: SGEN) for a worldwide license to the Bothell, WA-based firm’s antibody-based cancer drug technology. Millennium will also pay for development of the product candidate and royalties on any eventual sales.

—Watertown, MA-based A123Systems inked a deal to supply Chrysler with advanced lithium ion batteries for its new line of electric vehicles, the first of which is expected to hit the road next year. A123 will build a plant in Michigan to manufacture the batteries.

—Epix Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:EPIX) commenced an exchange offer for $100 million in debt in a bid to avoid bankruptcy. The Lexington, MA-based firm also sold certain market rights to its cardiovascular imaging agent, gadofosveset trisodium, to Lantheus Medical Imaging of North Billerica, MA, for $28 million.

—Bedford, NH-based Segway teamed with General Motors to develop a new electric-powered, two-wheeled, two-seater vehicle. The firms have already begun testing prototypes of the vehicle, called Project P.U.M.A. (for Personal Urban Mobility & Accessibility), which can go up to 35 miles per hour.

—Enterprise sales software maker Basho Technologies, of Cambridge, MA, raised $2 million in an initial close of its Series B round. Harbor Island Equity Partners of Wilmington, NC, led the deal, which was joined by Wilmington Investor Network, an angel group.

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Seattle biotech had a little something for everybody this past week. There was drama (Dendreon), politics (Life Sciences Discovery Fund getting whacked), a scientist’s life story (David Baker), and young competitors vying to make the world a better place (UW Environmental Innovation Challenge).

—Dendreon (NASDAQ: DNDN), the Seattle developer of an immune-stimulating therapy for prostate cancer, has been waiting for months to see whether its drug can help men live longer with minimal side effects. This month, it will find out, and this long-running saga could take yet another twist.

—Gov. Chris Gregoire staked much of her economic development strategy on the 10-year, $350 million Life Sciences Discovery Fund, and now the fund is in jeopardy of being shut down, as we reported in this exclusive. Lawmakers are still ironing out the differences between bills to see how deep to cut. The legislative session is scheduled to end April 26.

—I took out some time to profile one of the leading innovators at the University of Washington, biochemistry professor David Baker. His lab has been fascinated for years by how a linear sequence of genetic code gets transformed into a 3-D protein structure. The Baker lab has gotten good enough at this that it can now design new proteins from scratch on a computer, with potential to do things like create new cellulosic biofuels.

—Elsewhere on campus, we reported on the winners of the first-ever UW Environmental Innovation Challenge. The winning team, calling themselves HydroSense, envision a way to help consumers monitor their household water consumption in real-time, which ought to help people better conserve this precious resource.

—VLST and Novo Nordisk are cementing their new partnership to … Next Page »

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It was a fairly quiet week for Northwest deals, with activity in biotech, software, and mobile. Let’s see if the sunny weather brings more action.

—Seattle Genetics (NASDAQ: SGEN), a Bothell, WA-based developer of cancer drugs, provided a worldwide license to use its technology to Millennium: The Takeda Oncology Company in exchange for $4 million upfront, as Luke reported. The technology combines antibodies that seek out tumors with toxins to make them more potent. Millennium will pay to develop the drug candidate, as well as a mid-single-digit percentage royalty on sales if it turns the technology into a product.

—Luke reported on the ongoing partnership between biotech startup VLST and Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk in the South Lake Union neighborhood of Seattle. The original deal, announced in December, brought in $12 million to VLST in exchange for Novo gaining the rights to develop drugs against cell targets VLST has discovered for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases.

—Seattle-based Swype, which makes text-input software for mobile devices, raised $1.3 million in funding from angel investors and company management. Swype’s technology lets people enter text by tracing a path on a touch-screen keyboard using a stylus or their fingertip.

—Bellevue, WA-based Onehub, a maker of collaborative software for business users, closed about $600,000 in funding as part of an ongoing $1 million fundraising round. The investors and other terms were not disclosed. Onehub, founded in 2007, has developed a Web-based application that helps companies share information and manage projects.

—MDRNA (NASDAQ: MRNA), a Bothell, WA-based developer of drugs that use RNA interference technology, sold its assets related to a nasal spray drug for osteoporosis to Par Pharmaceutical, as Luke reported. MDRNA receives an undisclosed cash payment upfront, as well as a double-digit percentage royalty on sales of the product. Par will assume the manufacturing and operating costs related to the drug.

—Luke reported that Cambridge, MA-based Genzyme (NASDAQ: GENZ, the world’s largest maker of drugs for rare genetic diseases, is moving into cancer and multiple sclerosis by acquiring three drugs from German drugmaker Bayer AG—including one, Leukine, that gives Genzyme its first foothold in Seattle. Leukine, which is made in Seattle and Bothell, WA, boosts production of white blood cells for chemotherapy patients. Genzyme is not paying upfront fees, but expects to take over manufacturing of Leukine at a new factory in Snohomish County next year.

—Seattle cloud computing startup Skytap’s $7 million funding round from last month was worth a closer look. I spoke with CEO Scott Roza and director of product management Ian Knox about the financing, which came from the company’s existing Seattle-area investors Ignition Partners, Madrona Venture Group, and WRF Capital. Roza and Knox also touched on Skytap’s strategy as it prepares to take on big players in the cloud like Amazon, Google, and EMC.

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I recently had coffee with a venture capitalist at the Starbucks across the street from Biogen Idec’s (NASDAQ:BIIB) headquarters in Kendall Square, and he asked me what I thought were the biggest life sciences deals of 2008. The question is really tough to answer, both because the answers are somewhat subjective and I didn’t want to forget to mention a big M&A event. (Full disclosure: I was also distracted by the uncanny sweetness of my eggnog latte.)

So I turned the question over to him (a good technique for avoiding a question without avoiding a topic). Naturally, he mentioned deals that involved his venture firm as an investor or stockholder. Similarly, I mentioned the deals that Xconomy had covered. The result of our conversation was an incomplete recollection of the most important deals of the past year, but it inspired me to research the topic further.

It was indeed a big year for life sciences deals in the Boston area, despite the lack of IPOs. Instead of tallying the “biggest” deals of 2008 in terms of dollars, I’d rather talk about the “most memorable” deals. (To look at the biggest of the big, check out this fun post from the In Vivo Blog.) Why look at this differently? Because there are some deals that didn’t boast the largest sums but were still meaningful because of the giant leaps of faith investors made in an emerging field of science.

So let’s reminisce about the deals (listed here in no particular order):

Concert Pharma Jammed with VCs

—Concert Pharmaceuticals is working on a method to retool the chemical composition of existing drugs to make new pharmaceuticals. The Cambridge, MA-based startup, which swaps the hydrogen atoms of existing drugs with deuterium atoms to form new treatments, raised $37 million in a Series C round of private equity financing in the first half of 2008. Luke wrote about the company’s lead drug candidate, a form of antidepressant paroxetine (Paxil) that has undergone the firm’s deuterium-for-hydrogen makeover, to treat hot flashes.

ProteoStasis Launches With Big Cash Stash

—Here’s one exception to the issue of scarce financing for newly hatched biotech firms—also known as the valley of death. Cambridge-based ProteoStasis Therapeutics pretty much leapt from the gates last year with … Next Page »

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The American Society of Hematology (ASH) is one of those scientific meetings that usually flies below the radar of the wire services and big newspapers. Still, this year’s event in San Francisco has drawn more than 21,000 physicians, scientists, and intensely interested folks from biotech companies and Wall Street. They are all scouting new treatments for diseases of the blood, like leukemias, lymphomas, myelomas, and every clotting disorder you can shake a stick at.

If you don’t think this sounds like a big deal, check out the sales of anti-clotting drug clopidrogel (Plavix): $4.7 billion worldwide for Bristol-Myers Squibb and Sanofi-Aventis in 2007, even while they faced competition from cheaper generics. Then there’s old ASH standbys like Genentech and Biogen Idec’s rituximab (Rituxan) for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, which eclipsed $2 billion in U.S. sales last year and keeps growing.

So, I’ve been keeping an eye on the next big thing for the blood. Here are the newsiest stories we saw cross our biotechnology desk in our three-city network of Boston, San Diego, and Seattle:

Seattle Genetics

The Bothell, WA-based biotech company (NASDAQ: SGEN) caused a stir with its “empowered” antibody drug, which has the tumor-targeting ability of an antibody loaded with a potent toxin to give it extra tumor-killing kick. The drug, SGN-35, was able to completely wipe out aggressive forms of Hodgkin’s disease and related lymphomas with minimal side effects. In a study of 44 patients who were seriously ill and relapsed after a median of three prior rounds of chemotherapy, the Seattle Genetics drug caused tumors to completely disappear or mostly go away in more than one-third of patients (38 percent).

This data is promising enough that Seattle Genetics is preparing to go straight to pivotal studies for Hodgkin’s disease and anaplastic large cell lymphoma in early 2009, which could lead this drug to be FDA approved. Seattle Genetics CEO Clay Siegall said investigators at the ASH meeting are itching to participate in the pivotal studies. “There’s a lot of buzz here,” Siegall said during a break, when he called me yesterday. “The investigators are excited. We’ve never had this much excitement in the 10.5 year history of Seattle Genetics. The doctors really want to get involved in the trial.” He adds that there’s a backlog of patients who could enroll in the next studies, and he’s hopeful that they can be recruited to sign up quickly.

Millennium: The Takeda Oncology Company

Millennium Pharmaceuticals had a breakout performance at last year’s ASH. The Cambridge, MA-based biotech company, now the cancer division of Japan-based Takeda Pharmaceuticals, showed last year that bortezomib (Velcade) could cause complete remissions for 35 percent of patients with multiple myeloma on a combination treatment with its drug, compared with 5 percent who did that well on the combination alone. This year, it showed follow-up data from the trial, called Vista, that showed that early glimpse of promise is translating into an ability to help patients live longer.

Ligand Pharmaceuticals

This San Diego-based biotech company (NASDAQ: LGND) saw some positive data reported by its partner, GlaxoSmithKline. The drug giant reported … Next Page »

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Millennium Pharmaceuticals may not be the breakout performer at this year’s American Society of Hematology (ASH) meeting like it was a year ago, but another 12 months of follow-up data is strengthening the case that its cancer drug is no fluke.

Cambridge, MA-based Millennium, now a unit of Japan’s Takeda Pharmaceuticals, presented follow-up data today at the ASH conference in San Francisco, the largest annual meeting of specialists in blood cancers and other blood diseases. The results show bortezomib (Velcade) is able to extend lives for patients getting their initial round of therapy for multiple myeloma, a deadly cancer of the bone marrow. One study of 680 patients found that after more than two years of follow-up (25.9 months), patients had a 36 percent lower risk of death if they took a regimen with bortezomib than if they didn’t get the drug.

This data buttresses findings that Millennium released at last year’s ASH, when I saw a standing-room only crowd of physicians in Atlanta give the company a roaring standing ovation for the results it delivered for patients newly diagnosed with multiple myeloma. The drug, in combination with two immune suppressors, showed it was able to cause 35 percent of people newly diagnosed with multiple myeloma to go into complete remission. That was compared to just 5 percent who did that well on the immune suppressors alone. The trial of 680 patients, called Vista, cleared the way for Millennium to get expanded FDA clearance to market the drug to patients getting their first round of treatment, in addition to relapsers. It also no doubt helped propel it to blockbuster status this year with more than $1 billion in sales.

“Last year was an incredible landmark year for us in the first-line setting, and this year we are showing the important long-term effects,” says Nancy Simonian, Millennium’s chief medical officer.

Multiple myeloma may not be a household name, but the disease is fairly common as cancers go. About 20,000 cases are diagnosed each year in the U.S., and more than 10,000 people die from it, according to the American Cancer Society. That’s roughly on par with stomach cancer, and skin cancer.

One catch with all cancer drugs is that complete remissions can be a reliable predictor of a drug that helps extend lives, or they can be fleeting, as tumors bounce right back and kill people. So the follow-up data is important. This question will take years to answer, because patients with this prognosis currently can expect to live five to six years, so it will take more time … Next Page »

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Four months have passed since Cambridge, MA-based Millennium Pharmaceuticals was taken over by Japan-based Takeda Pharmaceutical for $8.8 billion. Now that some of the dust has settled, we checked with CEO Deborah Dunsire to see just how much has changed at one of Cambridge’s leading biotech companies.

Quite a bit, although it’s not the usual chainsaw stuff you see with U.S. takeovers. It turns out Takeda didn’t buy Millennium solely for its fast-growing cancer drug, Velcade. The parent company has shown it also wanted Millennium’s workforce of 1,000 employees, and their capability in developing cancer drugs, says Dunsire. Besides the 10 drugs Millennium had in its pipeline when the acquisition closed in May, the Cambridge group has been given responsibility to develop and oversee clinical trials for 10 more cancer medicines from Takeda’s worldwide discovery teams. So instead of firing people to fatten the bottom line, Millennium will have to hire another 150 to 200 people in Cambridge to handle all the work over the next 18 months, she says.

“I was just talking to another biotech CEO the other day who was so excited that Takeda chose to focus on our capabilities, and wanted to acquire the capabilities,” Dunsire says. “That’s a kudo to the team at Millennium, who are really seen as shining stars.”

Those stars will not only have plenty to do, but lots of authority to make decisions on how to proceed in clinical trials, Dunsire says. Takeda wants them to keep operating with autonomy, so Millennium’s talented workers will want to stick around. If they stay, then comes an even harder task: maintaining the egalitarian culture, teamwork, and quick decisiveness that helped Millennium excel with Velcade. Then there’s dealing with a 13-hour time zone difference, a large company budget process, language barriers, national cultural barriers, and company cultural differences. Culture change is always hard to measure inside a company, but the early signs are that Millennium employees are giving the new employer a chance. Turnover rates have been cut in half since the takeover, to less than 10 percent, Dunsire says.

“I view this as one of the most significant leadership challenges in business,” Dunsire says. “It’s not for sissies.”

Nobody would accuse Dunsire of shrinking from the task. She certainly wouldn’t have trouble finding another job if she wanted. Before she joined Millennium in 2005, Dunsire had a track record of helping develop a dozen new drugs while at Basel, Switzerland-based Novartis, and overseeing a unit that grew from $50 million to $2.1 billion there in the span of a decade.

Dunsire says she’s staying around for the challenge of repeating what she and the team have done with Velcade. The drug is gaining strength in the market for patients with multiple myeloma, a deadly bone marrow cancer, against Summit NJ-based Celgene’s Revlimid. Velcade was approved by the FDA in June for use in newly -diagnosed patients, and based on its ability to eliminate tumors in a clinical trial, doctors are eager to use it. I know, because I witnessed a standing ovation from doctors at the American Society of Hematology meeting in December, when pivotal clinical data was presented on the drug, showing it could wipe out myeloma completely for 30 percent of patients, compared with 4 percent for those on standard immune suppressors. … Next Page »

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For months now we’ve been hearing rumors about big pharma planning a shopping spree among Cambridge’s biotechs, but I’ve got to admit we didn’t see this particular deal coming. Millennium Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: MLNM) has been snatched up for just shy of $9 billion by Takeda Pharmaceutical Company, Japan’s largest drugmaker.

The deal, approved unanimously by each company’s board and announced early this morning, calls for Takeda to acquire Millennium for $8.8 billion through a $25-per-share cash tender offer. That price represents a 53 percent premium over yesterday’s closing price of $16.35. Under the terms of the agreement, Millennium will remain in Cambridge as a standalone business unit of Takeda, and current CEO Deborah Dunsire will remain at the helm.

Founded in 1993 by a team of genomics pioneers including MIT’s Eric Lander and Raju Kucherlapati, then of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and now the scientific director of the Harvard Partners Center for Genetics and Genomics, Millennium was once one of the strongest proponents of genomics-based drug innovation at biotech firms. On the strength of that vision, as well as founding CEO Mark Levin’s uncanny ability to cut lucrative partnership deals with pharma, the company’s stock climbed to a peak of about $90 in 2000.

But in-house, genomics-based innovation never quite panned out the way Millennium’s founders envisioned. The biotech got hold of its first approved drug, Campath (now owned by Genzyme), and its one currently marketed product, the cancer drug Velcade, in the 1999 acquisition of Leukosite. And not that a 50 percent-plus price premium is anything to scoff at, but I can’t help viewing Millennium’s exit in light of the predictions that then-CEO Levin shared with me back in 2001: “Over the next five to 10 years, our goal is to become a company that’s leading the world in personalized medicines, a company that is leading the world in productivity, a company with a value of over $100 billion, a company that has five to 10 products on the market that are making a big difference in people’s lives, a company with the strongest pipeline in the entire industry.”

Shares of Millennium opened this morning at $24.46, close to the acquisition price. The deal, which is subject to shareholder approval, is expected to close this quarter.

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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 marketed product. Velcade’s rival, Celgene’s Revlimid, also did well, but analysts seemed more impressed with Velcade. Shares of Millennium rose yesterday to a high of $16.62, but were trading back down around $15.50 this afternoon.

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Shares of Millennium Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: MLNM) got an early morning boost on news that the Cambridge-based biotech has gotten good results in a Phase 3 trial of its cancer drug, Velcade, and plans to seek a new FDA approval for the drug.

First approved to much fanfare in 2003 for treating multiple myeloma patients for whom other treatments have failed, Velcade is currently Millennium’s only marketed product. (The drug has since gained FDA approval for treating certain lymphoma patients as well.) The trial announced today was aimed at proving the drug’s efficacy as a first-line treatment for newly diagnosed multiple myeloma patients; patients receiving the drug in the study were doing so well that researchers stopped the trial early so that those in the control group could begin taking Velcade too.

In an announcement before the start of trading this morning, Millennium said the new approval it’s seeking for the drug—which showed U.S. sales of $220.5 million in 2006—would “would double the number of patients eligible to receive the benefit of Velcade.” Shares of the firm’s stock opened at $10.58, up over 8 percent from yesterday’s close of $9.77. Analysts seem to be less sanguine about the news, however, pointing out in media reports that to capture the market for first-line treatment of multiple myeloma Velcade will have to prove itself superior to already-approved combination regimens—and some observers deem that unlikely.

That seemed to have tempered the stock’s strong start, but in mid-afternoon trading Millennium was still up nearly 5 percent at $10.23.

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After months of sparking rumors and fending off the press (me, anyway), Boston’s newest venture capital firm lifted its veil today with the announcement that it is launching its first fund. One glitch: the partners—who include Mark Levin and other veterans of Millennium Pharmaceuticals, among others—evidently didn’t let their media team know before it issued the press release that they’d be tied up all day at an offsite.

So here’s what I know from the release: The fund has $378 million of committed capital. Third Rock is going to invest in early stage life sciences firms, focusing on those with “‘product engines,’ or technologies that are capable of creating products in multiple diseases.” Between them, the partners have brokered some $6 billion in business alliances and $4 billion in financings. And from the firm’s website, we know that most of the partners share—or are at least willing to fake—Levin’s penchant for nontraditional business attire.)

So is there a viable niche right now for early stage, hands-on life sciences investing? Xconomist Bob Langer, an MIT professor and legendary life-sciences inventor and entrepreneur, says “I think so. Mark Levin does this very successfully. In fact he started six or seven companies, including Millennium, that way.” Tom Salemi over at the In Vivo Blog (who evidently reached the Third Rock folks before they were sucked into offsite purgatory) tentatively reaches a similar conclusion in his nice post on the new fund.

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