New England biotechs have been reporting funding, partnership, and clinical trial news this week.
—Visterra pulled in $12.9 million of a targeted $19.6 million equity- and options-based funding round, an SEC filing shows. The Cambridge, MA-based startup is developing treatments for infectious diseases.
—Xconomy East Coast biotechnology editor Arlene Weintraub took a look at Genentech in the three years since Roche acquired the South San Francisco-based biotech. The story details some of the Boston-area companies Genentech has picked up along the way.
—On Tuesday, Cambridge-based Vertex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:VRTX]]) revealed it had mistakenly overstated the benefit of an experimental treatment for cystic fibrosis when reporting on an ongoing clinical trial in early May. Vertex’s stock price took a 21 percent tumble on the news.
—Waltham, MA-based N-of-One announced a deal it formed with Cambridge-based Foundation Medicine to transform genomic data from individual cancer patients into treatment strategies. It has also enlisted Christine Cournoyer, veteran of the health IT firm Picis, as its new CEO.
—Flexion Therapeutics said its osteoarthritis drug met its goal of significantly relieving joint pain in a mid-stage trial. The Woburn, MA-based company was founded in 2007 to determine if drugs ditched by Big Pharma companies had the potential to be developed as treatments for inflammatory diseases.
