I’ve got a nice variety of deals—particularly venture financings—to tell you about this week.
—Swiss drug giant Novartis opted to extend a collaboration with Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:[[ticker:ALNY]]) of Cambridge, MA, for a fifth year. Under the extension, Novartis will continue to fund certain RNA interference research and development efforts at Alnylam through October 2010.
—Software maker Ibrix agreed to be acquired by Hewlett-Packard for an undisclosed sum. The Billerica, MA-based firm’s technology allows large enterprises to manage network file servers holding petabytes of data.
—Andover, MA-based Acquia raised $8 million in a second financing round. North Bridge Venture Partners and Sigma Partners participated in the deal, as well as the 2007 first round of financing for Acquia, which sells a commercial version of the open-source content-management platform Drupal.
—Cambridge-based Archemix teamed with Watertown, MA-based Dicerna Pharmaceuticals to make new drugs that combine the former’s “aptamer” technology with the latter’s RNA interference technology. Specific financial terms were not revealed, but Dicerna has an option to get exclusive rights to take the new drugs through development.
—Aveo Pharmaceuticals, also of Cambridge, cut a deal worth $20 million—including $5 million in cash and $15 million in investment—to extend a partnership with Melville, NY-based OSI Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:OSIP]]). The deal, which also includes two years of research funding, will give OSI expanded access to Aveo’s mouse model of cancer.
—Boston-based virtualization company
