First Carl Icahn stirred the Biogen Idec pot again, to nobody’s surprise, then Takeda swept one of the area’s mainstay companies off its feet—to everybody’s surprise. It’s been an exciting week for Boston-area biotech.
—Icahn rang the bell on yet another round in his battle to force a sale of Biogen Idec (NASDAQ: [[ticker:BIIB]]) by filing a lawsuit demanding that the Cambridge, MA, firm hand over all the documents related to last year’s unsuccessful sales attempt.
—Japan’s biggest drug firm, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company, made a surprise $8.8 billion acquisition of a another prominent Cambridge biotech, Millennium Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:MLNM]]). Millennium will operate as a standalone business unit of Takeda.
—-Beverly, MA, drug developer Inotek announced the consolidation of its operations, the resignation of CEO Andrew Salzman, and the termination of a collaboration with Genentech.
—Bob got the inside scoop on the formation of Fate Therapeutics—the much ballyhooed bicoastal stem-cell startup—and let’s just say it was quite a coup for the suits.
—ArQule of Woburn, MA, announced that Bayer veteran Paolo Pucci will be the firm’s new CEO, taking the place of Stephen Hill, who left this month to become CEO of Brussels, Belgium-based Solvay Pharmaceuticals.
—Aileron Therapeutics raised $10 million in a round led by Apple Tree Partners and the Novartis Venture Fund, the Cambridge-based biopharmaceutical company announced.
