This week saw a long-awaited FDA approval for a Boston-area drug maker, speculation about a possible buyout of a local biotech giant, and some in-depth profiles on other key life sciences players.
—Hospital software maker Picis, of Wakefield, MA, said it is being acquired by Ingenix, an Eden Prairie, MN-based healthcare intelligence and analytics firm. The companies didn’t disclose financials details of the transaction, but Ingenix said it will maintain Picis’ locations in Wakefield and throughout the U.S. and Europe.
—Cambridge, MA-based Momenta Pharmaceuticals nabbed a long-sought FDA approval for a generic version of the anti-clotting drug it developed with Novartis unit Sandoz. The regulatory approval proves that Momenta (NASDAQ: [[ticker:MNTA]]) can make equivalents of more complex drug mixtures, which pose a greater challenge for would-be generics makers than do more conventional small-molecule pills, Luke wrote.
—Ryan took a look at RainDance Technologies, a Lexington, MA-based company developing next-generation genomic analysis technology. The startup’s first commercial product is a system that conducts thousands of DNA experiments simultaneously, which has caught the eye of research houses and pharma companies.
—Cambridge-based BioScale has flown relatively under the radar while developing a method of measuring biological samples using sound wave technology, Ryan wrote. But the company has caught the eye of another Cambridge biotech player: Millennium, The Takeda Oncology Company, which is using BioScale’s technology to measure cancer-related proteins for its drug research. The access comes as part of BioScale’s beta release of its technology.
—Following last week’s talk of a potential acquisition of Genzyme by drug giant Sanofi-Aventis, Ryan asked readers to weigh in on how much they thought Cambridge-based Genzyme’s stock would be worth in a buyout. Their answers averaged out to $76.29 per share, for a total value of about $20.4 billion. That’s well above the $70 per share that the Sanofi (NYSE: [[ticker:SNY]]) board authorized the company to offer for Genzyme (NASDAQ: [[ticker:GENZ]]).
