This week we saw news from Genzyme’s much-awaited annual meeting, in addition to funding news and profiles of startups with Boston roots and West Coast backing.
—Nonprofit organization Women Entrepreneurs in Science and Technology held its third annual Leadership Awards celebration. Three of the four award winners were from life sciences companies: On-Q-ity CEO Mara Aspinall, Avila Therapeutics CEO Katrine Bosley, and Elemè Medical CEO Nancy Briefs.
—Cambridge, MA-based BioScale, a maker of tools for protein analysis, said it grabbed $25 million in a funding round led by China-based Morningside Venture. The money, some of which also comes from individual investors, New Science Ventures, WFD Ventures, and F2 Ventures, will go to sales and manufacturing of BioScale’s research products.
—Newton, MA-based Clinical Data (NASDAQ: [[ticker:CLDA]]) reported netting about $30 million in a sale of 2.24 million shares of its common stock. The FDA recently agreed to consider the company’s application for approval of its first drug, depression treatment vilazodone.
—Genzyme (NASDAQ: [[ticker:GENZ]]) re-elected its entire board of directors at its annual meeting. Ryan observed that it was a relatively calm session, considering the Cambridge-based biotech giant’s tumultuous year of proxy battles with activist investor Carl Icahn and fallout from manufacturing problems at its Allston, MA, site. The company will add two of Icahn’s associates to the board, as well as an Amgen veteran, bringing the total number of seats from 10 to 13. Earlier in the week, Genzyme announced its plans to sell $1 billion in corporate debt to help finance a $2 billion stock buyback designed to boost its share price.
—FoldRx Pharmaceuticals, a Cambridge-based developer of drugs targeting diseases caused by misfolded proteins, announced it had raised $29 million in a round of bridge financing from a mix of new and existing investors. In the second half of this year, the company plans to apply for FDA approval of its drug for TTR amyloid polyneuropathy, a rare neurological disease that affects 5,000 to 10,000 people and causes patients to lose control of movement in their arms and legs.
—Lexington, MA-based Predictive Biosciences pulled in $25 million in Series C money, leaving the biotech startup with enough cash to start selling its test for bladder cancer and to continue researching and developing its diagnostic products. The company is a
