Decibel Therapeutics of Boston to discover and develop drugs that could restore hearing. Regeneron is granting Decibel access to its technology and providing cash to support its partners’ R&D, but specific financials were not disclosed.
—Codiak BioSciences raised another $76.5 million in financing, the latest sign that investments in technology harnessing exosomes continue to pick up.
—PureTech Health-backed resTORbio, a biotech developing drugs for diseases of aging, raised a $40 million Series B round led by OrbiMed.
—Cambridge, MA, and Providence, RI-based Semma Therapeutics bagged a $114 million Series B round to continue developing a cell therapy meant to free Type 1 diabetes patients from daily insulin injections.
—Biogen (NASDAQ: [[ticker:BIIB]]) paid $28 million up front to grab rights to ALKS8700, a multiple sclerosis drug Alkermes (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ALKS]]) has been developing to one-up Biogen’s dimethyl fumarate (Tecfidera).
—Fractyl Laboratories raised $44 million in a Series D financing round that the Lexington, MA, will use to help fund clinical testing of the intestinal procedure it has developed to treat Type 2 diabetes.
—San Mateo, CA-based Medior Therapeutics raised $57 million in a Series B round that will support Phase 3 studies of MDR-101, a cellular immunotherapy meant to replace the immunosuppressive drugs given to kidney transplant patients.
—-The Medicines Co. (NASDAQ: [[ticker:MDCO]]) of Parsippany, NJ, sold three infectious disease drugs to Melinta Therapeutics for $215 million, which it plans to apply toward late-stage clinical trials of an experimental cholesterol-lowering drug inclisiran.
—In April, the FDA awarded BioMarin Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:BMRN]]) a priority review voucher after the San Rafael, CA, company won approval for its Batten disease drug cerliponase alfa (Brineura). This week, the company reached a deal to sell that voucher for $125 million.
BIOTECH MOVERS AND SHAKERS
—As CEO of Sarepta Therapeutics (NASDAQ: [[ticker:SRPT]]), Ed Kaye helped engineer one of the most controversial drug approvals in recent memory, the 2016 FDA approval of Duchenne muscular dystrophy treatment eteplirsen (Exondys 51). Now he’s resurfacing as the CEO of a stealthy startup, Stoke Therapeutics. Xconomy spoke with Kaye about his long journey up the ranks in the biotech industry, his reflections on the eteplirsen saga, and his new gig.
—Xconomy profiled the work of Biogen, Women in Bio, and Harvard Medical School’s Joan Reede building diverse and inclusive workforces, efforts that earned them recognition as the winners in the Commitment to Diversity category in our Xconomy Awards.
—The Boston Business Journal reported that Ensemble Therapeutics, a developer of mid-size drugs, has quietly shut down.
—Teva got some shaking of the unpleasant kind. New CEO Kare Schultz axed several top execs amid big layoffs as the Israeli giant tries to parry generic competition.
Ben Fidler and Alex Lash contributed to this report.
Photo by Flickr user tr0tt3r via a Creative Commons license.
