Genzyme, Epizyme, & Rib-X Among the Week’s Life Sciences Newsmakers

We’ve seen clinical trial, funding, partnership, and IPO news from local drug developers this week.

—Genzyme, the Cambridge, MA-based unit of Sanofi (NYSE: [[ticker:SNY]]) shared more positive data about its experimental multiple sclerosis drug alemtuzumab (Lemtrada) at the American Academy of Neurology’s annual meeting this week. Patients in a late stage trial receiving the drug were about “twice as likely to experience an improvement or reversal of disability,” compared with patients in the trial treated with the drug Rebif sold by EMD Serono and Pfizer (NYSE: [[ticker:PFE]]), said Michael Panzara, Genzyme head for multiple sclerosis, immune diseases, and neurology.

—New Haven, CT-based antibiotics developer Rib-X Pharmaceuticals revealed in new federal documents that it plans to raise $92.8 million in an initial public offering, selling 6.6 million shares at $14 apiece. The company first revealed its intent to go public last November.

—Cambridge startup Epizyme inked a deal with New Jersey-based Celgene (NASDAQ: [[ticker:CELG]]) worth $90 million upfront, with potentially $160 million more to come in milestone payments for Epizyme. The two companies will build on Epizyme’s work in the field of epigenetics to create targeted cancer treatments.

—OncoPep, a North Andover, MA-based developer of cancer vaccines, raised $2.5 million in equity-based funding from 19 investors, an SEC filing shows.

Author: Erin Kutz

Erin Kutz has a background in covering business, politics and general news. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Boston University. Erin previously worked in the Boston bureau of Reuters, where she wrote articles on the investment management and mutual fund industries. While in college, she researched for USA Today reporter Jayne O’Donnell’s book, Gen Buy: How Tweens, Teens and Twenty-Somethings Are Revolutionizing Retail. She also spent a semester in Washington, DC, reporting Capitol Hill stories as a correspondent for two Connecticut newspapers and interning in the Money section of USA Today, where she assisted with coverage on the retail and small business beats. Erin got her first taste of reporting at Boston University’s independent student newspaper, as a city section reporter and fact checker and editor of the paper’s weekly business section.