Harvard Medical School student Timothy Lu, is making its pitch in the BU $50K Business Plan Competition, the Harvard Business School Business Plan Contest, and the MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition. Lu believes the science is advanced enough that Novophage’s founders can start thinking about pitching to venture investors as well.
—Connecticut-based biotech Helix Therapeutics raised $515,000 from quasi-public investor Connecticut Innovations as part of a $965,000 round of financing to support its development of DNA-based treatments for AIDS/HIV, sickle cell anemia, Gaucher’s disease and other ailments. The round also included funding from LaunchCapital and individual backers, and a line of credit from Webster Bank.
—Luke profiled the decades-long efforts of Waltham, MA-based ImmunoGen (NASDAQ: [[ticker:IMGN]]) to realize one of cancer research’s grand dreams: super-targeted treatments that combine antibodies and toxins to destroy cancer cells and spare healthy ones. If all goes well, a drug that incorporates ImmunoGen’s technology with Genentech’s trastuzumab (Herceptin) could be on the market next year.
—Ryan caught up with Jonathan Bush, the CEO of Watertown, MA-based Athenahealth (NASDAQ:[[ticker:ATHN]]), whose Web-based software helps medical practices manage billing, electronic medical records, and other functions. Given his company’s offerings, you might think that Bush would be excited about the $19 billion in last month’s stimulus plan allocated to helping doctors switch to electronic medical records, but the famously outspoken CEO—the first cousin of former President George W. Bush–has his questions and quibbles about the program.
—Brighton, MA-based Surface Logix raised $20 million in a Series E financing that included $15 million in venture capital from Arch Venture Partners, HBM BioVentures, Healthcare Focus, Intel Capital, Saudi Venture Development, Unilever Technology Ventures, and Venrock Associates, and a $5 million loan from Silicon Valley Bank. Luke talked to Surface Logix CEO Keith Dionne, who has held the job for less than six months, about the company’s unusual chemical for treating obesity and diabetes, and its strategy for hopefully overcoming the problems that have plagued similar drugs in the past.
—Backers including HealthCare Ventures and Morgenthaler Ventures reportedly put $14 million into Stemgent of Cambridge, MA, and San Diego. The startup, whose scientific advisory board includes luminaries such as MIT’s Bob Langer, Bob Weinberg, and Rudolf Jaenisch; Harvard University’s Douglas Melton; Harvard Medical School’s Leonard Zon; and Sheng Ding of the Scripps Research Institute, aims to sell specialized tools and consumable materials for stem cell researchers.
