The past week has offered a real variety pack of life sciences news from the Boston area. There were some clinical trials, an IPO filing, a venture financing—and a television appearance.
—Shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:VRTX]]) had a nice run, boosted by encouraging (if preliminary) clinical-trials results. Last Thursday, the company announced that in an ongoing Phase 2a study its cystic fibrosis drug, VX-770, improved patients’ lung function. This Monday, Vertex said in a conference abstract that a small ongoing study of its much-watched hepatitis C drug, Telaprevir, showed that patients who had failed standard treatments responded to the drug. All in all, Vertex closed yesterday at $25.41, up almost 40 percent from Thursday’s open of $18.24.
—MIT spinoff BioTrove filed for an IPO worth up to $75 million, despite a market that numerous others have deemed too forbidding.
—Newton, MA’s Tryton Medical, a developer of coronary-artery stents, raised $14 million in a Series C round from PTV Sciences, RiverVest Venture Partners, and Spray Venture Partners.
—Neil profiled New Haven, CT’s Ikonisys and its efforts to automate existing medical tests and enable the development of new ones—such as a noninvasive alternative to amniocentesis.
—Waltham, MA-based Repligen (NASDAQ: [[ticker:RGEN]]) launched a Phase 3 clinical trial of its imaging agent for MRI scans of the pancreas.
—Researchers from Sirtris Pharmaceuticals got their 15 minutes, courtesy of Barbara Walters.
—Oh, and we unveiled our plans for the Xconomy Forum: Boston Life Sciences 2028. Want a chance to help shape the future of the industry with the likes of Phillip Sharp, Noubar Afeyan, and Raju Kucherlapati? This could be it.
