New CEOs, new financings, new approvals, and new data—it was an interesting week for New England’s life sciences companies.
—Cambridge, MA-based Molecular Insight Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:[[ticker:MIPI]]) named a new president and CEO, Daniel Peters, just months after giving that post to co-founder John Babich. Babich will stay on as chief scientific officer of Molecular, which is developing a cardiac imaging agent called Zemiva.
—Artisan Pharma of Waltham, MA, indicated in an SEC filing that it has raised $9.4 million of an $11.8 million round of debt financing from undisclosed sources. Artisan is developing a treatment for a blood-clotting condition in patients with sepsis.
—Ryan chatted with Jeff Carbeck, co-founder of Watertown, MA-based Arsenal Medical, chief scientist at Cambridge, MA-based Nano-Terra, and newly named New England Clean Energy Council fellow. One of the top chemical engineers to come out of the lab of Harvard’s George Whitesides, Carbeck is bringing material science discoveries to bear not only in medical products but also in clean technology and a host of other industries.
—Cambridge, MA-based OmniGuide raised $1.8 million in an equity financing, according to an SEC filing that did not disclose investors in the deal. OmniGuide is developing fiber-optic laser scalpels for minimally invasive surgery.
—Biogen Idec (NASDAQ: [[ticker:BIIB]]) launched a one-two punch at Carl Icahn, the billionaire investor campaigning to take over the board of the Cambridge, MA-based biotech giant. In a first regulatory filing, Biogen disputed Icahn’s criticism of its leadership, pipeline, dealmaking, and stock price—and argued that Icahn’s nominees for the Biogen board would
