It seems that IT news has dominated this week, so we’re bringing you a short and sweet roundup of life sciences funding and drug development news from around New England.
—Cambridge, MA-based Ironwood Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:IRWD]]) and New York-based Forest Laboratories (NYSE: [[ticker:FRX]]) announced that they submitted a new drug application to the FDA for their irritable bowel syndrome treatment, linaclotide. The application included data from safety studies and four placebo-controlled clinical trials of patients with IBS with constipation and chronic constipation.
—Boston-based T1D Exchange, funded by a three-year $26 million grant from the charitable trust set up by hotel heiress Leona Helmsley and her husband, is launching a social media site for diabetes patients, called Glu. T1D got started in September 2010 as a clinical registry service focused on connecting diabetes patients and researchers.
—T2 Biosystems of Lexington, MA, nabbed a $23 Series D investment from new investor Aisling Capital, with participation from its return backers Flagship Ventures, Polaris Venture Partners, Flybridge Capital Partners, Physic Ventures, Partners Healthcare, Arcus Ventures, RA Capital, Camros Capital, and WS Investments. T2 said it will put the funding toward development and clinical trials for its diagnostic machine that it says can identify biological substances such as proteins, small molecules, viruses, and DNA more quickly and cheaply than traditional optical-based technology.
—The FDA has set a deadline of January 28 to complete its newly updated review of exenatide once-weekly (Bydureon), a once-weekly injectable diabetes medicine from San Diego-based Amylin Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:AMLN]]), Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly (NYSE: [[ticker:LLY]]), Waltham, MA-based Alkermes (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ALKS]]).
