EnVivo, Biogen, Momenta, & Other Boston-Area Life Sciences Newsmakers

Drugs, conglomerates, medical nutrition companies, and biotechs dominated the New England life sciences news this week.

—EnVivo Pharmaceuticals of Watertown, MA, said its experimental schizophrenia drug EVP-6124 demonstrated statistically significant improvements in patient cognitive function in a Phase 2b study. Patients also demonstrated improvements in what are known as negative schizophrenia symptoms, such as inability to experience pleasure and to carry on normal social interactions.

—Weston, MA-based Biogen Idec is forming a $300 million joint venture with the Korea-based conglomerate Samsung to develop biosimilars, which are low-cost versions of biotech drugs that are losing their patents. Biogen (NASDAQ: [[ticker:BIIB]]) will get a 15 percent stake in the operation for the $45 million it’s putting in, and Samsung is fronting $255 million.

—Cambridge, MA-based Momenta Pharmaceuticals bought the assets of Virdante Pharmaceuticals, a nearby biotech that raised $30 million in venture capital and is apparently winding down its operations. Virdante was developing technology for increasing the anti-inflammatory properties of antibodies. Momenta (NASDAQ: [[ticker:MNTA]]) paid $4.5 million for the assets, with potentially $51.5 million more to come in milestones, and plans to plug the technology into its discovery platform.

—I profiled Cambrooke Foods, an Ayer, MA-based maker of low-protein foods and metabolic formulas for patients with conditions such as phenylketonuria (PKU), which can be treated with proper diet. Read here about the company’s founders, growth, and latest products.

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.