Category: National

Biogen Idec, Isis Forge 2nd Alliance This Year for Rare Disease

Biogen Idec and Isis Pharmaceuticals are apparently warming up to each other as partners, as they are doubling down on their efforts to treat rare muscular disorders. The Weston, MA-based biotech giant (NASDAQ: [[ticker:BIIB]]) is announcing today that it has formed a new partnership with Carlsbad, CA-based Isis (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ISIS]]) to develop a treatment for … Continue reading “Biogen Idec, Isis Forge 2nd Alliance This Year for Rare Disease”

What Apple’s New Podcasts App Means For Listeners—And for Apple

Without warning or fanfare, Apple introduced a new Podcasts app this week that gives users of iPhones, iPads, and iPods a much simpler way to find and listen to downloadable audio shows. Pundits had been expecting the move as part of the introduction this fall of iOS 6, the latest version of Apple’s mobile operating … Continue reading “What Apple’s New Podcasts App Means For Listeners—And for Apple”

ServiceNow IPO Tests Investors’ Mood After Facebook’s Downer IPO

ServiceNow, the San Diego-based provider of cloud-based services for managing enterprise IT operations, priced its IPO late yesterday at $18 a share, slightly higher than the initial range of $15 to $17 per share the company estimated in regulatory filings last week. The higher price suggests that underwriters expect investors will show an appetite for … Continue reading “ServiceNow IPO Tests Investors’ Mood After Facebook’s Downer IPO”

Tesaro, Vertex, Infraredx, & More Boston Life Sciences Headlines

This week New England life sciences companies reported a mix of IPO, acquisition, and clinical trial news. —Cambridge, MA-based Semprus Biosciences, an MIT spinout from professor Robert Langer’s lab, was acquired by the medical device company Teleflex (NYSE: [[ticker:TFX]] for $30 million up front. Semprus develops a polymer technology designed to reduce the attachment of … Continue reading “Tesaro, Vertex, Infraredx, & More Boston Life Sciences Headlines”

SD Life Sciences Roundup: Arena, PatientSafe, MEI Pharma, & More

Here’s my roundup of new developments from San Diego’s life sciences cluster over the past week. —After initially rejecting a new drug application from San Diego’s Arena Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ARNA]]), the FDA approved lorcaserin (Belviq)—the first new weight-loss drug to be approved in 13 years. With some two-thirds of Americans considered overweight or obese, the … Continue reading “SD Life Sciences Roundup: Arena, PatientSafe, MEI Pharma, & More”

Gates Foundation Looks to Make More Equity Bets in Biotech

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has looked at a lot of different ways to get the most bang for every buck it puts into global health. Now its new global health leader, Trevor Mundel, says he hopes to do that by making more equity investments in biotech companies. Mundel, a former Novartis executive, said … Continue reading “Gates Foundation Looks to Make More Equity Bets in Biotech”

“Engineering is For Helping People”: Xconomist of the Week Yoky Matsuoka

We had an amazing lineup of speakers at our first-ever forum on the future of robotics at SRI International in Menlo Park back in May. But I was especially excited to have the opportunity to do an on-stage interview with Yoky Matsuoka, whose pioneering studies of “neurobotics” have brought us closer to a future where … Continue reading ““Engineering is For Helping People”: Xconomist of the Week Yoky Matsuoka”

After Big Oops, Vertex Plows Ahead With Cystic Fibrosis Drug Combo

Vertex Pharmaceuticals shot itself in the foot last month when it reported on some encouraging partial results from an ongoing clinical trial, then later had to correct some faulty statistics. Now it’s had time to run the final analysis from that study, and while the numbers have changed a little, the conclusion hasn’t: It still looks … Continue reading “After Big Oops, Vertex Plows Ahead With Cystic Fibrosis Drug Combo”

Context Relevant Raises $1.3M to Democratize Data Science

From DNA sequencing to high finance to time-wasting games, our ever-growing networks of powerful computers are generating piles of data about virtually every facet of life. That makes it a pretty good time to be a high-level data scientist. Stephen Purpura should know—he’s one of them. Educated at Harvard and Cornell, the former Microsoftie has seen the … Continue reading “Context Relevant Raises $1.3M to Democratize Data Science”

Qualcomm Steps into the Sun with Focus on Mobile OS Development

Qualcomm (NASDAQ: [[ticker:QCOM]]) Chairman and CEO Paul Jacobs kicked off the wireless technology giant’s annual conference for mobile software developers in San Diego yesterday with a message that was akin to declaring “Our time has come.” Jacobs made this point by offering a few staggering factoids: —Annual sales of smartphones now exceed PCs, and are … Continue reading “Qualcomm Steps into the Sun with Focus on Mobile OS Development”

Corporate VC Investing Drops in Q1, Mobile Funding Poised to Jump

Deals made by the venture capital arms of major companies fell for the fourth straight quarter—a clear sign that corporate VCs are being more conservative than independent investment firms are—according to a report released today by New York-based deal tracker CB Insights. Corporate VCs participated in 11 percent of all venture deals in the first … Continue reading “Corporate VC Investing Drops in Q1, Mobile Funding Poised to Jump”

Arena Shares Boom on FDA Approval of Obesity Drug

Arena Pharmaceuticals has faced long odds in its quest to win FDA approval for a new obesity drug, but it overcome the obstacles today. The San Diego-based biotech company (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ARNA]]) and its partner Eisai Pharmaceuticals of Japan won clearance from the FDA to start selling lorcaserin (Belviq) as a treatment for obesity in addition … Continue reading “Arena Shares Boom on FDA Approval of Obesity Drug”

Explore the Online-to-Offline Economy with Eventbrite on August 7

In its infancy, toddlerhood, and adolescence, the Web was pretty much stuck in its own little world. Most Web content and service providers were keen to keep people online for as long as possible (think Farmville). But as the Web matures, it’s going through an interesting transformation. It’s turning outward and taking a more practical, … Continue reading “Explore the Online-to-Offline Economy with Eventbrite on August 7”

Avalara Rings Up $20M Growth Round Led by Battery Ventures

Fast-growing sales tax software provider Avalara wasn’t out looking for additional investment cash, after raising a $21 million round just last year. But when Battery Ventures came knocking, the Bainbridge Island, WA, company couldn’t say no. “They’d researched the market, they’d researched Avalara, they’d really done a lot of homework. And they came to us … Continue reading “Avalara Rings Up $20M Growth Round Led by Battery Ventures”

Ed-Tech Startup K12 Kit Looks to Revamp Social Networks for Schools

In case you haven’t noticed, we have quite the education-tech cluster forming around Boston. May I direct your attention westward, out to Worcester, MA, and a new startup called K12 Kit, which is making its software broadly available today. The idea is to provide a cloud-based software platform for K-12 schools and their students to … Continue reading “Ed-Tech Startup K12 Kit Looks to Revamp Social Networks for Schools”

Todacell Helps Brands Curate Mobile Ads, Helps Itself to More Cash

As the advertising industry marches deeper into the wireless frontier, getting the most out of mobile devices becomes more crucial for marketers. New York-based Todacell has developed an ad network platform that can help marketers pick the right mobile ads to catch the attention of individual consumers, no matter what smartphone or tablet they are … Continue reading “Todacell Helps Brands Curate Mobile Ads, Helps Itself to More Cash”

Demandware and the Future of Retail: A Post-IPO Snapshot

In the world of e-commerce, Amazon is going one way, and everyone else is going the other. Amazon has cornered the market on commodities and price-driven shopping, it seems, but what’s still up for grabs is the luxury market. One of the more interesting tech companies in that sector is Demandware (NYSE: [[ticker:DWRE]]), the Burlington, … Continue reading “Demandware and the Future of Retail: A Post-IPO Snapshot”

Meet Siri’s Little Sister, Lola. She’s Training for a Bank Job.

Whatever you want Lola to get, Lola will get it for you. As long as it has something to do with your bank account. Lola is a new virtual personal assistant that BBVA Compass, the North American subisidiary of Spanish banking giant Banco Bilbao Viczaya Argentaria, started testing on its website Tuesday. She’s the co-creation … Continue reading “Meet Siri’s Little Sister, Lola. She’s Training for a Bank Job.”

Semprus, Nara, UberSense, & More Names from the Boston Deal Roundup

This week’s deal headlines show a healthy mix of startup funding, acquisitions, and IPO news across both the tech and healthcare industries. —PatientKeeper, a Waltham, MA-based maker of software for physician workflow, said it raised $6.25 million from existing investors like Flybridge Capital Partners, New Enterprise Associates, and Whitney & Co. The money comes atop a … Continue reading “Semprus, Nara, UberSense, & More Names from the Boston Deal Roundup”

Remembering Walter Zable and Cubic’s Era of Electronics Innovation

San Diego’s local newspapers served up big stories today about the death of Walter J. Zable, who founded San Diego-based Cubic Corp. (NYSE: [[ticker:CUB]]) in 1951 and continued to serve as chairman and CEO for the next 61 years. Today the little electronics business he started in a Point Loma garage is a stalwart defense … Continue reading “Remembering Walter Zable and Cubic’s Era of Electronics Innovation”

NJ Shocker: Roche to Shutter Nutley R&D Site

Swiss drug giant Roche said today it would close its 80-year-old research site in Nutley, NJ—a move that will slash 1,000 jobs in the U.S., as the company consolidates its R&D activities in Basel and Schlieren, Switzerland and Penzberg, Germany. The company will continue to maintain a separate biotech research site in South San Francisco, where … Continue reading “NJ Shocker: Roche to Shutter Nutley R&D Site”

Top Detroit Tech Companies Launch Program to Beef Up Talent

It’s a criticism that’s often heard in Michigan tech circles: The biggest challenge in growing the local IT sector is a glaring lack of talent. It’s not that we don’t produce people capable of filling the many open tech jobs here, it’s that we have a hard time keeping them in the state. A new … Continue reading “Top Detroit Tech Companies Launch Program to Beef Up Talent”

Roche Deal Gives Seaside a Leg Up in Autism Race

Two years ago, Xconomy pinpointed a growing “autism mini-cluster” in Boston—a bevy of startups seeking to develop drugs to treat the condition and other brain disorders. Now one resident of that cluster has a major partner on board to help it meet that goal: Cambridge, MA-based Seaside Therapeutics, which announced on June 19 that it … Continue reading “Roche Deal Gives Seaside a Leg Up in Autism Race”

San Diego’s ServiceNow In Starting Gate for IPO This Week

ServiceNow, the San Diego provider of Web-based IT management services, is expected to become a public company this week, after submitting final changes to its IPO in a series of regulatory filings and setting a range between $15 and $17 per share for the 11.65 million shares of its offering. The IPO, which amounts to … Continue reading “San Diego’s ServiceNow In Starting Gate for IPO This Week”

Comparison Buying App ShopAdvisor Targets Blogs With Newest Update

Maynard, MA-based Evoqu has been flying somewhat under the radar, but its mobile app ShopAdvisor hasn’t exactly been doing the same. It now boasts a combined 2.5 million users across its iPhone, iPad, and Android editions. And today, the company, which earlier this month revealed raising a $1.95 million seed round, is releasing a new … Continue reading “Comparison Buying App ShopAdvisor Targets Blogs With Newest Update”

Drawbridge Ads Follow You from Desktop to Smartphone

Drawbridge founder and CEO Kamakshi Sivaramakrishnan is reimagining the way advertisers target consumers. When Google acquired mobile advertising network AdMob back in 2009, Sivaramakrishnan, the company’s lead applied research scientist, went along with it. But six months after starting work at Google, she decided to strike out on her on in the mobile ad space. … Continue reading “Drawbridge Ads Follow You from Desktop to Smartphone”

Nara Pockets $4M for Neuroscience-driven, Personalized Web Discovery

Tom Copeman says he moved to Boston from Southern California in 2010 to be near the best and brightest in neuroscience and computer science. He wanted to tap East Coast PhDs to tackle a tech problem that’s decidedly not as associated with Boston: consumer Web search. “There’s so much inundation with information on the Web … Continue reading “Nara Pockets $4M for Neuroscience-driven, Personalized Web Discovery”

Primus Green Energy Primes Its Pumps to Make High Octane Bio-Gasoline

Weaning the country off its addiction to petroleum is a lofty dream many renewable fuel companies undertake. Last Friday, the folks at Hillsborough, NJ-based Primus Green Energy revealed their plans to ease our reliance on traditional gasoline, as it opened the doors to its demo plant. The eleven-year-old company developed technology that coverts biomass, such … Continue reading “Primus Green Energy Primes Its Pumps to Make High Octane Bio-Gasoline”

Status-Report Startup Thinkfuse Acquired by Salesforce

The trend of enterprise software consolidation marches on. On the same day that Microsoft confirmed its $1.2 billion buyout of corporate communication platform Yammer, Seattle startup Thinkfuse announced that it’s being acquired by Salesforce.com. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. It doesn’t sound like the Thinkfuse product will be ported over to Salesforce—in its blog post, … Continue reading “Status-Report Startup Thinkfuse Acquired by Salesforce”

“Like” It? Now You Can Also Want It (And Tell Your Network)

A new startup called Want aims to take the “Like” button one step further. Based in Farmington Hills, MI, and backed by the Camelot Venture Group, Want has created a Facebook-integrated social button for online retailers that enables consumers to track what they want to buy while spreading the word across their social network. “People … Continue reading ““Like” It? Now You Can Also Want It (And Tell Your Network)”

Analyzing Social Media: Graffiti and a Tweet Heard Round the World

I’m sitting with Patrick Giblin in the back of Caffé Calabria in North Park, and he’s talking about Graffiti, analytic software developed by 451 Degrees, the business he founded in 2003 to provide a variety of Internet and media-related products and services. Among San Diego’s Internet entrepreneurs, Giblin is one of the ancients. He dropped … Continue reading “Analyzing Social Media: Graffiti and a Tweet Heard Round the World”

CoupFlip, Led by Ex-Googler, Opens in Boston to Go After Unused Groupons

A trio of Dartmouth MBAs are setting their sights on Boston as the starting point for their young Internet company. CoupFlip, whose Web service is open to the masses as of today, is creating a marketplace for consumers to buy and sell daily deals quickly and efficiently. Before you say, “Not another deals site,” well, … Continue reading “CoupFlip, Led by Ex-Googler, Opens in Boston to Go After Unused Groupons”

Visual IQ Nabs $12M Series B for Ad Optimization Software

Needham, MA-based advertising software startup Visual IQ is revealing today that it has raised $12 million in Series B funding, just three months after CEO Manu Mathew told me the company was planning to raise a second round.  The money comes from Boston-based Volition Capital and return investor Fog City Capital, which led the company’s … Continue reading “Visual IQ Nabs $12M Series B for Ad Optimization Software”

NPS Rallies as Good News Flows for Two Rare-Disease Drugs

Shares of Bedminster, NJ-based NPS Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:NPSP]])  jumped 14 percent to $8.21 on Friday after a panel of drug experts in Europe recommended that the regulatory agency there approve teduglutide (Gattex), the company’s experimental drug to treat a rare intestinal disorder called short bowel syndrome. The stock is moving again today, following the company’s weekend … Continue reading “NPS Rallies as Good News Flows for Two Rare-Disease Drugs”

Clash of the BioPharma Titans Looms Over Biosimilars

Fights between powerful combatants form the foundation of many mythological tales. In the epic film Clash of the Titans, Perseus, the mortal son of Zeus, must kill the monstrous Kraken before it can annihilate his beloved Princess Andromedra and the citizenry of Joppa. Perseus heroically decapitates the dreaded Gorgon Medusa to obtain the most powerful … Continue reading “Clash of the BioPharma Titans Looms Over Biosimilars”

Can We Be Too Connected? A Harvard Scholar Explores Interoperability

If you’re fond of delicious ironies, as I am, there’s a new book that will leave you positively gorged. It’s called Interop: The Promise and Perils of Highly Interconnected Systems, and last week I got to speak with one of its authors, Harvard Law School professor John Palfrey. The central irony that fascinates Palfrey and … Continue reading “Can We Be Too Connected? A Harvard Scholar Explores Interoperability”

First Round Capital’s Chris Fralic Tunes into Digital Music Startups

Picking the right startup in the digital media world to back can be a challenge even for an investor with Chris Fralic’s experience in the technology arena. Fralic, a partner at the New York office of First Round Capital, spoke on Tuesday at the New Music Seminar’s tech summit held near Union Square. While he … Continue reading “First Round Capital’s Chris Fralic Tunes into Digital Music Startups”

You Say You Want A Healthcare Revolution?

You say you want a revolution Well, you know We all want to change the world —The Beatles I had the pleasure of attending a “salon” type dinner hosted by Xconomy and its chief correspondent and San Francisco editor Wade Roush last week (and graciously sponsored by Silicon Valley Bank and Alexandria Real Estate Equities). … Continue reading “You Say You Want A Healthcare Revolution?”

Late-Breaking Boston Deals: MineralTree, DataGravity, & Tracelytics

No summer slowdown here. We found a few more New England tech deals that have been cooking in the last day or two. —Boston-based MineralTree, a maker of cloud-based secure payment software for small and medium-size businesses, is announcing today that it has inked $6.3 million in Series A funding from Fidelity Growth Partners India and … Continue reading “Late-Breaking Boston Deals: MineralTree, DataGravity, & Tracelytics”

Now Hear This: Hark Racks Up Hollywood Success (and Profits)

From its earliest days, sound-sharing website Hark.com had its sights set on Hollywood. And these days, the Seattle-based startup is hitting the mark—it’s profitable, counts a growing audience, and has inked licensing partnerships with several big-name studios. But, like countless entertainment industry hopefuls before it, Hark found that the road to show-business success wasn’t always … Continue reading “Now Hear This: Hark Racks Up Hollywood Success (and Profits)”

Madefire’s Comics Bring a New Visual Grammar to the iPad

Allow me to geek out for a moment. (Okay, for the entirety of this article.) I was 13 years old in 1980, when George Lucas released The Empire Strikes Back. Like every other boy my age, I had enjoyed Star Wars, but I can’t say that I’d been bowled over by it. I saw it … Continue reading “Madefire’s Comics Bring a New Visual Grammar to the iPad”

Onyx Shares Boom on Positive FDA Panel for Myeloma Drug

Onyx Pharmaceuticals surprised a lot of people yesterday at an FDA advisory panel, and its stock is booming today as a result. The South San Francisco-based biotech company (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ONXX]]) saw its shares rocket up $16.22, or about 36 percent, to $60.80 in pre-market trading today. That’s way beyond its previous 52-week high of $47.80. … Continue reading “Onyx Shares Boom on Positive FDA Panel for Myeloma Drug”

Gamification Hits Healthcare as Startups Vie for Cash and Partners

Would working out at the gym be easier if you earned cash every time you hopped on the treadmill? Boston-based startup GymPact is betting that millions of Americans will answer that question with a resounding “yes,” and at least some members of the VC community agree. The startup uses GPS to track how much time … Continue reading “Gamification Hits Healthcare as Startups Vie for Cash and Partners”

Juliet Marine’s “Ghost” Ship Emerges from Stealth Startup, Gears Up for War

About an hour north of Boston, in a city by the sea, there’s a project underway to reinvent the marine industry. More specifically, the marine defense industry. Imagine a boat that moves through the water differently from any other boat in existence. It uses “supercavitation”—the creation of a gaseous bubble layer around the hull to … Continue reading “Juliet Marine’s “Ghost” Ship Emerges from Stealth Startup, Gears Up for War”

SD Life Sciences Roundup: Ambrx Gets Big Partner, GenMark, & More

While much of the life sciences news seemed to come out of the big BIO conference in Boston, San Diego still had its share of significant developments over the past week. Here’s my rundown. —Merck (NYSE [[ticker:MRK]]), the New Jersey pharmaceutical giant, agreed to pay San Diego-based Ambrx $15 million—and another $288 million in potential … Continue reading “SD Life Sciences Roundup: Ambrx Gets Big Partner, GenMark, & More”

MitoStem Wins Big at GLEQ; Stays Hopeful About Future of Detroit Biotech

The winner of the top prize at last week’s Great Lakes Entrepreneur’s Quest (GLEQ) competition was TechTown tenant and Wayne State University spin-off company MitoStem. Jim Eliason, the founder and CEO of MitoStem, says he’s thrilled with the win, and will use the $100,000 prize to build the business and marketing side of the regenerative … Continue reading “MitoStem Wins Big at GLEQ; Stays Hopeful About Future of Detroit Biotech”

BioMed Realty Remains Mostly Mum About New BioMed Ventures

Bruce Steel has managed to stay more or less off the radar screen since the fall of 2010, when he was named as managing director of BioMed Ventures, an investment arm of BioMed Realty (NYSE: [[ticker:BMR]]), the San Diego-based real estate investment trust (REIT). But as I’ve noted many times, San Diego is not exactly … Continue reading “BioMed Realty Remains Mostly Mum About New BioMed Ventures”

Yesware Nabs $4M Series A for “Platform Expansion”

Cambridge, MA-based Yesware has landed $4 million in Series A funding to further develop its trove of communication tools for sales people. The new cash infusion was led by new investor IDG Ventures and included Yesware seed backers Google Ventures, Foundry Group, and Golden Venture Partners, says CEO Matthew Bellows. The new lead investor is “really … Continue reading “Yesware Nabs $4M Series A for “Platform Expansion””