that his firm is shifting its focus away from the red-wine-derived compound, resveratrol, that helped propel the company to biotech stardom. Now a wholly owned subsidiary of GlaxoSmithKline, Sirtris will put more of its emphasis on a new set of compounds—more than 1,000 times as potent as resveratrol—that it’s developing as treatments for diabetes, neurological disorders, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
—Lexington, MA-based Epix Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:[[ticker:EPIX]]) announced plans to cut annual expenses by about $3 million via a 23 percent workforce reduction and a “narrowing” of its R&D focus.
—Sermo of Cambridge, MA, teamed up with Bloomberg to give subscribers to the Bloomberg Professional information service read-only access to Sermo’s password-protected community of nearly 100,000 doctors. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
—Lexington, MA-based NitroMed (NASDAQ: [[ticker:NTMD]]) announced a plan to sell all the assets related to BiDil, its controversial treatment for African Americans with heart failure, to Parsippany, NJ-based JHP Pharmaceuticals. If shareholders approve the deal, NitroMed will get $24.5 million in cash for the assets, plus up to $1.8 million for existing inventory of the drug.
—Luke sat down with Kleanthis Xanthopoulos, the big-thinking CEO of Carlsbad, CA-based Regulus Therapeutics. Xanthopoulos shared his vision for the company—a joint venture of Cambridge, MA-based Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ALNY]]) and Carlsbad, CA-based Isis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ISIS]])—and its technology, which is based of the very young, very hot field of mircoRNA.
—Drug giant Merck revealed that it’s trying to lure about a third of the 300 employees from its soon-to-be-shuttered Rosetta Inpharmatics outpost in Seattle to a consolidated research center in Boston.
—Boston Scientific (NYSE:[[ticker:BSX]]) of Natick, MA, won FDA approval for a carotid artery stent designed to keep blood flowing from the heart to the brain in patients whose carotid arteries have narrowed. The approval came days after the FDA partially lifted a moratorium on approvals for Boston Scientific that has been in place for nearly three years, due to quality-control issues.
—Luke profiled the efforts of Rockland, MA-based Biosphere Medical (NASDAQ: [[ticker:BSMD]]) to sell doctors on a less invasive way to treat benign uterine growths called fibroids. The technique, called uterine fibroid embolization, spares women the pain and risks of traditional surgery, and Biosphere’s kit for the procedure has been approved since 2002, but clinicians have been slow on the uptake.
—Newton, MA-based biotech firm Clinical Data (NASDAQ:[[ticker:CLDA]]) acquired Germantown, MD-based Avalon Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:[[ticker:AVRX]]) in an all-stock deal valued at $10 million.
—HealthCare Ventures of Cambridge, MA, took the lead in a $28 million Series B round of financing for Trevose, PA-based InfaCare Pharmaceuticals. Atlas Venture, Longitude Capital, and FirstMark Capital joined the round.
