New England biotech firms are roaring out of summer with news of fundraising, hires, regulatory moves, and acquisitions.
—Cambridge, MA-based medical imaging startup Lantos Technologies announced a new round of funding and a new CEO. The firm pulled in $4.1 million in Series B money—led by return Lantos investor Excel Venture Management and with participation from previous backers Catalyst Health Ventures and Mass Medical Angels—and hired former Biocius Life Sciences CEO Jeffrey Leathe as its new chief executive.
—Merck KGaA’s Billerica, MA-based subsidiary EMD Millipore said it had agreed to acquire Amnis of Seattle for an undisclosed sum. Amnis spun out of the University of Washington in 1998 and makes an imaging device providing detailed images of a large number of cells.
—GI Dynamics, a Lexington, MA-based developer of medical devices for treating diabetes and obesity, went public in Australia, raising $85 million USD in its IPO.
—Xconomy national biotech editor Luke Timmerman profiled George Scangos and his path as chief executive of (for now) Weston, MA-based Biogen Idec (NASDAQ: [[ticker:BIIB]]).
—Waltham, MA-based Repligen is finishing up its application for FDA approval of synthetic human secretin (SecreFlo), a hormone-based drug designed to enhance MRI images of the pancreas, as my colleague Arlene wrote. The product has already nabbed fast-track status from the FDA, meaning Repligen will receive a verdict from the agency within six months of submitting the application.
—Pfizer said it will be adding space for 300 employees in Cambridge’s Kendall Square, with a 10-year lease for more than 180,000 square feet. The company had previously announced job cuts in its global research and development operations.
