GreatPoint, Enanta, NextView, & More Boston Dealmakers

VC, cleantech, and biotech players populated the New England deal news this week.

—Cambridge, MA-based coal-to-natural-gas company GreatPoint Energy formed a $1.25 billion partnership with China Wanxiang Holdings, according to a report in Dow Jones VentureWire. The deal also included $420 million in a Series D investment.

—On-Q-ity, the Waltham, MA-based cancer diagnostics startup announced a new $5 million fundraise alongside the hiring of its new CEO and president Michael Stocum. The Series B funding was led by existing investors Mohr Davidow Ventures, Atlas Venture, and Physic Ventures, and will go toward research and partnership efforts.

—Cambridge, MA-based Hydra Biosciences, formed a collaboration with Zalicus to develop multiple novel drug candidates for the treatment of pain. The deal gives Hydra an upfront payment and funding for development for two years.

—Enanta Pharmaceuticals of Watertown, MA, nabbed $34 million upfront payment from Novartis as part of a deal to co-develop an experimental hepatitis C drug called EDP-239. Enanta is also eligible for another $440 million in milestone payments if the drug hits certain goals, as well as royalties on a double-digit percentage of worldwide product sales.

—Boston-based micro-VC firm NextView Ventures has closed on its first fund with $21 million in capital commitments, as first reported by Dan Primack of Fortune. The firm, founded by David Beisel, Rob Go, and Lee Hower, already has 16 portfolio companies and plans to add another 15 to 20, according to the report.

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.