Waltham, MA-based security software company V.i. Labs, which closed an $8 million Series B financing round in November 2007, announced today that it has gathered an additional $4 million in venture funding from existing investors Core Capital and Ascent Ventures. V.i. Labs’ leading products are Code Armor Protection, which encrypts Windows and .NET applications so … Continue reading “$4M for V.i. Labs”
Category: Boston
Funding Round Two for T2 and Its Pint-Sized Diagnostic Devices
T2 Biosystems, a Cambridge, MA-based startup founded by a cadre local life sciences legends, today announced it has closed a $10.8 million Series B financing round. Flagship Ventures, Polaris Venture Partners, Flybridge Capital Partners, Partners Healthcare, and In-Q-Tel provided the new cash; the first three also participated in T2’s initial $5.5 million financing in 2006. … Continue reading “Funding Round Two for T2 and Its Pint-Sized Diagnostic Devices”
Is Brown the New Green? Why Boston’s Ugly, Expensive Macallen Condos Shouldn’t Be a Model For Green Buildings
Along West 4th Street in Boston, just past I-93 and the MBTA train yard, there’s a big brown apartment building with an odd sloping roof. I live about a mile away, and I’ve gone past this building several times on walks and bike rides without thinking much about it, except that it’s unattractive in an … Continue reading “Is Brown the New Green? Why Boston’s Ugly, Expensive Macallen Condos Shouldn’t Be a Model For Green Buildings”
T2 Biosystems Receives $10,800,000 Series B Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=b1fbb0aa-8310-4569-a11c-9ee157320d1f&Preview=1 Date 10/17/2008 Company Name T2 Biosystems Mailing Address 286 Cardinal Medeiros Avenue Cambridge, MA 02141 Company Description T2 Biosystems is a newly formed diagnostics company ushering in a new wave of innovative products to improve medical decision-making and treatment. Our proprietary biosensor technology was invented by a team of world-renowned scientists … Continue reading “T2 Biosystems Receives $10,800,000 Series B Round”
V.i. Laboratories, Inc. Receives $4,000,000 New Financing
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=556811d3-37f2-4192-9b0f-f385a734add0&Preview=1 Date 10/17/2008 Company Name V.i. Laboratories, Inc. Mailing Address 130 Turner Street Waltham, MA 02453 Company Description V.i. Labs’ provides software protection solutions that secure valuable applications against piracy, tampering and code theft. Unlike other security technologies available today, our solutions protect applications without requiring modifications to the application source code … Continue reading “V.i. Laboratories, Inc. Receives $4,000,000 New Financing”
Dying Cancer Patient Gets Tysabri After Biogen Idec’s Earlier Denial
Frederick Baron, the prominent attorney dying of bone marrow cancer, has gotten his wish for a dose of Tysabri after all. The FDA and the Mayo Clinic found a legal basis to give him the drug in an emergency situation, according to a post on Dembot by his son, Andrew. “We have every expectation of … Continue reading “Dying Cancer Patient Gets Tysabri After Biogen Idec’s Earlier Denial”
Infinity Starts Trial of Hedgehog Pathway Blocker
Infinity Pharmaceuticals, the Cambridge, MA-based developer of cancer drugs, said today it has started an early-stage clinical trial of 30 to 50 patients with advanced solid tumors, or those that have spread. The company (NASDAQ: [[ticker:INFI]]) will test IPI-926, an orally-given blocker of the hedgehog pathway, which researchers say can play a central role in … Continue reading “Infinity Starts Trial of Hedgehog Pathway Blocker”
Predictive Biosciences Closes $21.75 Million Round to Help Detect Cancer From Urine
No sooner did Rebecca note the recent dearth of life sciences venture financings than we got word of a sizable one: Lexington, MA-based Predictive Biosciences, which has a small office in San Diego and is out to help build a new era of personalized medicine, announced today that is has secured $21.75 million in Series … Continue reading “Predictive Biosciences Closes $21.75 Million Round to Help Detect Cancer From Urine”
1366 Opens Plant in Lexington
1366 Technologies, a solar-cell manufacturing startup commercializing research by MIT mechanical engineering professor Emanuel Sachs, is holding a grand-opening reception today at its Lexington, MA, pilot plant. Massachusetts Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs Ian Bowles is expected to deliver a keynote speech at the event, which will also include tours of the facility. 1366, … Continue reading “1366 Opens Plant in Lexington”
Biogen Idec Makes Controversial Tysabri Decision, Boston Scientific Explains Stock Sales, Charles River Heads to China, & More Boston-Area Life Sciences News
There was not one venture financing among Boston-area life sciences firms that I could find this week, but plenty of news nonetheless. —Luke took a look at Provasculon, the second company to be taken under Biogen Idec’s (NASDAQ: [[ticker:BIIB]]) wing at its Cambridge, MA-based incubator. Formed around research from Boston’s Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Provasculon … Continue reading “Biogen Idec Makes Controversial Tysabri Decision, Boston Scientific Explains Stock Sales, Charles River Heads to China, & More Boston-Area Life Sciences News”
First Inhalable TB Vaccine Being Prepped for Clinical Trials By Harvard, MEND Scientists
David Edwards, a biomedical engineering professor at Harvard University, thinks he may have a better vaccine against tuberculosis in the works. He’s negotiating with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other international nonprofits to pump enough cash into a clinical trial to get an early glimpse into whether he’s really onto something. Edwards, through … Continue reading “First Inhalable TB Vaccine Being Prepped for Clinical Trials By Harvard, MEND Scientists”
Predictive BioSciences Lands $21,750,000 Series B Financing
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=2ed2f836-8b50-4d54-87cb-7def05b1cfec&Preview=1 Date 10/16/2008 Company Name Predictive BioSciences Mailing Address 128 Spring Street, 400 Level, B Annex Lexington, MA 02421 Company Description Predictive Biosciences is a molecular diagnostics company headquartered in Lexington, MA. Launched in 2006 with a $10 million Series A financing, the company was jointly founded by leading healthcare investors, experienced … Continue reading “Predictive BioSciences Lands $21,750,000 Series B Financing”
Panel Discussion: Combination products from the medical and biopharma sectors.
Xconomy’s own Robert Buderi will moderate this panel discussion about the latest innovations and trends in combination products in the medical and biopharma sectors. Panelists include Ann Merrifield, President of Genzyme Biosurgery; Edward Kerslake, VP for Corporate R&D, Boston Scientific; and Iain Simpson, Senior Consultant, Team Consulting, UK. To request an invitation email Matthew Campion … Continue reading “Panel Discussion: Combination products from the medical and biopharma sectors.”
2008 US-China Clean Technology Exchange Conference
Presented by the New England Chinese Information and Networking Association (NECINA) to launch the NECINA Clean Technology Initiative (NCTI). The keynote is by Christina Lampe-Onnerud, founder and CEO of Boston-Power, who will speak on The US-China Clean Technology Opportunity. More information on the event web site.
The Second Annual MIT $100K Elevator Pitch Contest
Okay, here’s the pitch. In fact, here’s five hours of pitches from hopeful entrepreneurs, each pitch no more than 60 seconds long. As part of the festivities, the Next Big Thing—a Tech Expo and Networking Session—will showcase research being performed across Harvard and MIT. More details at the event web site.
Genzyme Starts Fabrazyme Trial
Genzyme, the maker of drugs for rare genetic diseases, said today it has started enrolling patients in a study of patients with mild Fabry disease to see if a low dose of Fabrazyme will help. Data from the study could enable the company to apply for expanded approval of the drug for early treatment of … Continue reading “Genzyme Starts Fabrazyme Trial”
Charles River Opens Pre-Clinical Labs in Shanghai
Charles River Laboratories International (NYSE:[[ticker:CRL]]), a Wilmington, MA-based provider of drug development services, announced the opening of a 60,000-square-foot pre-clinical facility in Shanghai. The company says that the facility is intended to support the global drug-development needs of its clients.
Highland’s Paul Maeder Taking Firm Into Energy Investments—Targeting Efficiency, Not “Science Projects”
Three or four years ago, Highland Capital Partners made one cleantech investment—in Amp Resources, a Nevada geothermal company that was sold last year to Italian power company Enel. That’s been it for Highland’s cleantech or energy deals. But all that is about to change: Highland general partner Paul Maeder, who traditionally has focused on information … Continue reading “Highland’s Paul Maeder Taking Firm Into Energy Investments—Targeting Efficiency, Not “Science Projects””
Brightcove Aims at the Mainstream: Talking with CEO Jeremy Allaire
Tuesday brought two big pieces of news in the Internet video industry: The relaunch of New York-based Joost as a Hulu clone and the official launch of the newest video hosting platform from Cambridge, MA-based Brightcove. The former development was probably of more interest to consumers, who get an increasing portion of their video entertainment … Continue reading “Brightcove Aims at the Mainstream: Talking with CEO Jeremy Allaire”
Biogen Turns Down Dying Patient’s Request For Tysabri—and Explains Why
Biogen Idec has turned down the requests of the family and high-profile friends of a dying patient at the Mayo Clinic to provide an emergency dose of Tysabri to try to combat the man’s cancer—an unapproved use of the drug. It’s a vivid example of the ethically treacherous zone that companies must traverse when patients … Continue reading “Biogen Turns Down Dying Patient’s Request For Tysabri—and Explains Why”
Targanta Preps For FDA Advisory Panel on New Antibiotic
Targanta Therapeutics is getting ready for a day next month that will go a long way toward determining whether it can sell its first marketed product. The Cambridge, MA-based biotech company, said it has been asked to appear before an FDA advisory committee on Nov. 19 to make its case for why regulators should approve … Continue reading “Targanta Preps For FDA Advisory Panel on New Antibiotic”
Novell Buys Managed Objects
Waltham, MA-based Novell said today that it will acquire McLean, VA-based Managed Objects for an undisclosed cash sum. Managed Objects makes “business service management” software that monitors the performance of corporate IT systems. Novell said in a statement that the acquisition would “complement and extend Novell’s existing workload management and virtualization solutions by adding flexible … Continue reading “Novell Buys Managed Objects”
Dionne Takes Surface Logix Helm
Boston-based drug Surface Logix announced today that Keith Dionne taken the reins as president and CEO of the privately held developer of small-molecule drugs. Dionne was previously CEO of Alantos Pharmaceuticals, which was acquired by by Amgen for some $300 million; he also spent 7 years in various roles at Cambridge, MA-based Millennium Pharmaceuticals.
Harvard Spins Off Brand Monitoring Startup Crimson Hexagon
Harvard’s Office of Technology Development has been grabbing headlines this week. On Sunday, it went public with news about a Beverly, MA-based spinoff called SiOnyx that hopes to commercialize “black silicon,” a highly light-absorbant form of the material discovered in a Harvard physics lab. And today it took the lid off Crimson Hexagon, which plans … Continue reading “Harvard Spins Off Brand Monitoring Startup Crimson Hexagon”
Charles River Funds Webaroo
Charles River Ventures of Waltham, MA, is one of the lead participants in an $11 million Series A funding round for Mumbai, India-based Webaroo, according to several reports this week. The mobile software company sells SMS-based systems for group messaging. Charles River was joined in the round by Helion Venture Partners.
RXi Obtains License to RNAi Delivery Technology From UMass Medical School
RXi Pharmaceuticals, a Worcester, MA-based developer of drugs based on RNA interference technology, said today it has obtained an exclusive worldwide license to certain technology for oral delivery of RNAi drugs. The technology was developed by Michael Czech and Gary Ostroff at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Synta Gets $25M From Glaxo For Cancer Drug Milestone
Synta Pharmaceuticals, a Lexington, MA-based cancer drug developer, said today it has earned $25 million from its partner, GlaxoSmithKline, for reaching milestones in development of elesclomol. The drug is currently in the final stage of testing for metastatic melanoma, in a trial called Symmetry. Synta (NASDAQ: [[ticker:SNTA]]) is eligible to receive another $25 million in … Continue reading “Synta Gets $25M From Glaxo For Cancer Drug Milestone”
Brightcove Makes Web Video Publishing Easier, Cheaper
Brightcove, the Cambridge, MA-based Internet video publisher founded in 2004 by Boston-area serial entrepreneur Jeremy Allaire, today introduced a thoroughly overhauled version of its video hosting platform. The company says the new service, called Brightcove 3, is designed to help big media companies get more creative about the way they deploy video on their websites, … Continue reading “Brightcove Makes Web Video Publishing Easier, Cheaper”
Turbine Powers Up West Coast Office
Westwood, MA-based video game developer Turbine announced Monday that it will open a new studio in Redwood City, CA. The company, best known for creating the massively multiplayer online game The Lord of the Rings Online, said opening a Bay Area office would allow it to tap into the large pool of game development talent … Continue reading “Turbine Powers Up West Coast Office”
New Pfizer Incubator Chief Looks Far and Wide for New Science, But Backs Off Plans for Boston Site
Mark Benedyk follows a broad charter for The Pfizer Incubator (TPI): to find and nurture the best science in the world to feed the R&D machine for its parent company, global drug giant Pfizer (NYSE:[[ticker:PFE]]). Benedyk, a biotech industry veteran, took the reins of TPI in January, and he has plans to expand the reach … Continue reading “New Pfizer Incubator Chief Looks Far and Wide for New Science, But Backs Off Plans for Boston Site”
Concert Pharmaceuticals, Flush With Well-Timed Venture Round, Aims for Hot Flashes, HIV
Concert Pharmaceuticals caught my eye a few weeks back with something unusual—an experimental drug for the hot flashes women get during menopause, without the risks of standard hormone-replacement therapy. I didn’t have a chance to interview CEO Roger Tung last month when his Lexington, MA-based company took this drug into its first clinical trial, so … Continue reading “Concert Pharmaceuticals, Flush With Well-Timed Venture Round, Aims for Hot Flashes, HIV”
How to Build a Successful Innovation Ecosystem: Educate, Network, and Celebrate
Last week, I was honored to give a keynote speech in Dublin, Ireland, at an international symposium marking the launch of the nation’s ambitious new R&D program in energy by its NSF equivalent, the Science Foundation of Ireland (SFI). The Symposium on Science and Engineering Underpinning Sustainable Energies and Energy-Efficiency was an excellent opportunity to … Continue reading “How to Build a Successful Innovation Ecosystem: Educate, Network, and Celebrate”
Takeda Hands $20M Over to Alnylam, Skyhook Helps Mozilla Find its Way, Nuance Nabs Nokia Agreement, & More Boston-Area Deals News
For those of you who had a long weekend like we did, welcome back. And to refresh your memory about last week’s Boston-area tech and life sciences deals… —Polaris Venture Partners of Waltham, MA, helped aim a $20 million Series B financing at San Mateo, CA-based internet video advertising firm BlackArrow. Cisco Systems, Comcast Interactive … Continue reading “Takeda Hands $20M Over to Alnylam, Skyhook Helps Mozilla Find its Way, Nuance Nabs Nokia Agreement, & More Boston-Area Deals News”
Mintera Corporation Secures $8,000,000 New Funding Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=731165d0-ee36-48a9-8e0f-3012e6f2665f&Preview=1 Date 10/14/2008 Company Name Mintera Corporation Mailing Address 35 Nagog Park Acton, MA 01720 Company Description Mintera was founded in 2000 to be the technology leader enabling next generation 40 Gbps optical transport in metro-core, regional, long- haul and ultra long-haul optical networks. Website http://www.mintera.com Transaction Type Debt Transaction Amount $8,000,000 … Continue reading “Mintera Corporation Secures $8,000,000 New Funding Round”
Taking a Day Off
Between the launch of our San Diego site and putting together our soon-to-be announced energy event everybody’s been working their tails off here at Xconomy, so I gave the boys a day off. Oh, and evidently something happened 516 years ago involving some Italian guy and three sailboats, but we’re all a little conflicted about … Continue reading “Taking a Day Off”
SiOnyx Brings “Black Silicon” into the Light; Material Could Upend Solar, Imaging Industries
Silicon is a wonderfully cooperative element. It takes relatively little energy to promote the electrons in a silicon crystal from their usual, docile orbits around the atomic nuclei into wild, free circulation. That’s what makes silicon a semiconductor—valuable for electronic switching devices such as transistors, sensing devices such as the CCDs in cameras and X-ray … Continue reading “SiOnyx Brings “Black Silicon” into the Light; Material Could Upend Solar, Imaging Industries”
BSX CEO Buys 350K Shares
Boston Scientific CEO James Tobin exercised $2.1 million worth of options on shares of the Natick, MA-based medical device firm yesterday as an “an expression of confidence in the company,” according to a report in the Boston Business Journal. The CEO’s purchase of 350,000 shares of Boston Scientific (NYTS:[[ticker:BSX]]) stock at $6.13 per share followed … Continue reading “BSX CEO Buys 350K Shares”
Playful vs. Preachy: Sizing Up TV’s New Science Dramas
Crime shows generally turn me off, but for years I’ve enjoyed CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, because (as I’ve written before) the heroes are scientists. They catch crooks not by outgunning them, but by observing, hypothesizing, and testing. Of course, the dramatic license that CSI and other series sometimes take with real-world science can be disturbing: … Continue reading “Playful vs. Preachy: Sizing Up TV’s New Science Dramas”
MIT’s Langer, Renowned for Inventing Solutions to Medical Problems, Strives to Do the Same for Hurricanes
When renowned MIT professor (and Xconomist) Bob Langer spoke last month at our Xconomy Forum on building life sciences companies—a task at which he has been exceedingly successful—we weren’t expecting him to mention that he has struggled for some eight years to raise money to study “hurricane mitigation.” It turns out that Langer—a chemical engineer … Continue reading “MIT’s Langer, Renowned for Inventing Solutions to Medical Problems, Strives to Do the Same for Hurricanes”
Challenging Microsoft, Startup AutoVirt Fixes Windows Data Migration Nightmares
If you’ve ever had to replace your home computer, you know what a hassle it can be to copy your most important software and data from the old computer’s hard drive to the new one. The IT-industry term for this process is “data migration”—and it’s even more of a headache for system administrators at big … Continue reading “Challenging Microsoft, Startup AutoVirt Fixes Windows Data Migration Nightmares”
Sprint’s WiMax Network Operative in Boston, Mobile Computing Site Confirms
On Monday I blogged about a report that the XOHM WiMax network, Sprint Nextel’s venture into broadband wireless service, is up and running in Boston and several other cities, even though the company has officially launched the service only in Baltimore. Today, the source of that report, Robert Wray of in-car-computing site MP3Car.com, wrote to … Continue reading “Sprint’s WiMax Network Operative in Boston, Mobile Computing Site Confirms”
Boston Scientific Co-Founders Sell Stock; Didn’t Mean It, Company Says
Lots of people have been selling Boston Scientific stock, and that includes the co-founders of the company. The Natick, MA-based medical device company (NYSE: [[ticker:BSX]]) said today that co-founders Pete Nicholas and John Abele (an Xconomist) sold off about 13 million of their shares in the company yesterday, during frenzied volume of 38 million shares … Continue reading “Boston Scientific Co-Founders Sell Stock; Didn’t Mean It, Company Says”
Silicon Valley Sounds the Alarm—Sequoia Calls Emergency Meeting Warning Entrepreneurs to Brace for Financial Impact
The word spread quickly through the Silicon Valley blogosphere and around the entrepreneurial and venture worlds last night: legendary California venture capitalist Mike Moritz and the Sequoia Capital folks had called an emergency meeting of the firm’s portfolio-company leaders and told them to brace for what might well be the worst economic times they had … Continue reading “Silicon Valley Sounds the Alarm—Sequoia Calls Emergency Meeting Warning Entrepreneurs to Brace for Financial Impact”
Acronis Names Donahue CEO
Acronis, a Burlington, MA, company that makes storage management and disaster recovery software, said today that it has appointed veteran West Coast tech CEO Jason Donahue as its new chief executive. Donahue previously led ClearApp (recently acquired by Oracle) and Meiosys (acquired by IBM in 2005). Former Acronis CEO Walter Scott will remain with the … Continue reading “Acronis Names Donahue CEO”
Provasculon, a Biogen-backed Startup, Testing Regenerative Medicine on Hearts
Provasculon is tackling one of the bigger ideas in regenerative medicine—how to stimulate growth of new blood vessels after they’ve been damaged by a heart attack. The Cambridge, MA-based startup hasn’t drawn a lot of attention since it was unveiled in March, but since it’s the second company that Biogen Idec has decided to bet … Continue reading “Provasculon, a Biogen-backed Startup, Testing Regenerative Medicine on Hearts”
Nuance, Nokia in Partnership
Nuance Communications, the Burlington, MA-based maker of speech recognition software, said today it has struck a multi-year agreement with Finnish mobile giant Nokia to provide speech and predictive-text technologies for Nokia mobile devices. The two companies also agreed to work together on advanced input technologies, including open programming interfaces that outside developers could use to … Continue reading “Nuance, Nokia in Partnership”
Michigan Ups Mascoma Grant
By shifting a $26 million Department of Energy grant originally intended for a Tennessee biofuels plant to another project in the upper peninsula of Michigan, Cambridge-MA based Mascoma has persuaded the state to pony up an additional $8.5 million in grants, according to company announcement yesterday. The State of Michigan has now committed $23.5 million … Continue reading “Michigan Ups Mascoma Grant”
Mozilla Adapts Skyhook’s Loki Location-Finding System for Firefox
When you open the Google Maps application on the Apple iPhone and click the “target” button, the device pulls up a local map and shows your current position as a blue dot. You could easily do the same thing on your laptop—if, that is, your Web browser could communicate with a location-sensing device in your … Continue reading “Mozilla Adapts Skyhook’s Loki Location-Finding System for Firefox”
No Appeal for Boston Scientific, No Luck for CombinatoRx Drug, No Complaints From Harvard, & More Boston-Area Life Sciences News
Overall, the news from Boston-area life sciences firms this past was not as much of a bummer as the first part of the headline might imply, but this first one isn’t great either… —Cambridge, MA-based Idera Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:[[ticker:IDRA]]) reported that its experimental drug, IMO-2055, failed to have the desired effect on tumor size in a … Continue reading “No Appeal for Boston Scientific, No Luck for CombinatoRx Drug, No Complaints From Harvard, & More Boston-Area Life Sciences News”
At Pixily, Cloud Computing Quenches the Downpour of Paper
I am not a David Allen disciple, but the one practice I did adopt after reading his time-management bible Getting Things Done many years ago was to start a filing system for the stacks of papers that used to cause a distracting mess around my home and office. As a result, I’ve got about six … Continue reading “At Pixily, Cloud Computing Quenches the Downpour of Paper”