Cambridge, MA-based Vertex Pharmaceuticals has seen its stock take a whopping 17 percent hit in the past two days at a scientific meeting, as investors have had time to think about the implications of new clinical trial data from a couple of competitors in the hepatitis C field. Vertex (NASDAQ: [[ticker:VRTX]]) saw its stock tumble … Continue reading “Vertex Stock Drops 17% Over Two Days, As Potent Hep C Rivals Emerge”
Category: National
MEDC Announces New ‘Economic Gardening’ Pilot Program
A new program announced by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation yesterday will connect 54 Michigan small businesses with a team of national experts, who will provide each company with 35 hours of guidance in the areas of strategy and management; market research and competitive intelligence; Internet and social media strategy; and help with identifying potential customers in other … Continue reading “MEDC Announces New ‘Economic Gardening’ Pilot Program”
Perminova Raises $7M to Expand Development of Health IT as a Service
Perminova, a San Diego startup developing Web-based software for use in cardiology centers, says today it has raised $7 million in a combination of equity and credit financing. The company says it is pioneering healthcare’s move from outdated client-server technology to secure cloud-based computing. The company was founded several years ago by Gregory Feld, a … Continue reading “Perminova Raises $7M to Expand Development of Health IT as a Service”
Amylin and Eli Lilly Part Ways on Diabetes Drug; Alkermes Deal Intact
San Diego’s Amylin Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:AMLN]])) and Eli Lilly today called a cease-fire to litigation that began earlier this year, and outlined an agreement to end the alliance they formed in 2002 to commercialize exenatide (Byetta), Amylin’s diabetes drug. A replay of Amylin’s conference call with analysts about the deal is available here. Amylin sued … Continue reading “Amylin and Eli Lilly Part Ways on Diabetes Drug; Alkermes Deal Intact”
Scale Venture Partners Gives Up On Healthcare & Life Sciences Investing
Life sciences investing is up against the ropes. The sector has been beset by such high capital costs and such long paths to market that many venture partners don’t seem to want early- and mid-stage biotech companies tarnishing their portfolios anymore. Hence the news last week that Menlo Park, CA-based Morgenthaler Ventures and Boston-based Advanced … Continue reading “Scale Venture Partners Gives Up On Healthcare & Life Sciences Investing”
Dismal Markets Mean Inrix, nLight Aren’t Rushing to IPO
Ah, the good old days of April. Spring was in the air, and bankers were running the numbers on IPOs for Northwest technology companies. It was fun while it lasted. Here’s the flashback: Real-estate website Zillow filed its paperwork on April 18, and RFID maker Impinj followed suit three days later. I even interviewed Seattle-area investors … Continue reading “Dismal Markets Mean Inrix, nLight Aren’t Rushing to IPO”
Death of the Salesman? Marketo Is Automating Sales Relationships-And Growing Like Crazy
From Phil Fernandez’s point of view, there’s a precise moment in the sales process when a potential buyer is ready to be contacted by a seller. Reach out too soon, and they’ll be annoyed or spooked. Contact them too late, and they may have moved on to another vendor. In the old days, human salespeople … Continue reading “Death of the Salesman? Marketo Is Automating Sales Relationships-And Growing Like Crazy”
The Fortune Story that Saved Immunex, & More Mementos: A Photo Slide Show
When Stewart Parker walked into my office on Seattle’s First Hill the other day, she didn’t mince words. “Here’s the story that saved Immunex,” Parker said, reaching into her bag for a yellowed copy of Fortune magazine from November 1985. This issue has a bold cover story, written by Gene Bylinsky, with the headline “Cancer … Continue reading “The Fortune Story that Saved Immunex, & More Mementos: A Photo Slide Show”
LoCreep Launches with Laughs at NY Tech Meetup
The college students behind New York’s LoCreep deserve credit for the showmanship they displayed at the NY Tech Meetup on Nov. 2, when they officially launched of a Web app designed to hinder so-called creeps in the dating pool. LoCreep team members Andres Campanella and Misha Ponizil, with a little help from former TechStars NY … Continue reading “LoCreep Launches with Laughs at NY Tech Meetup”
PharmaSecure Combats Drug Counterfeiting, Armed With Funding From Eric Schmidt’s Innovation Endeavors
Nathan Sigworth was studying economics at Dartmouth College a few years back when he became fascinated with the problem of counterfeit drugs in developing countries. Plenty of technology had been developed to combat counterfeits—RFID tagging and the like—but it wasn’t affordable enough to be scaled up in places like India. “The technology that was out … Continue reading “PharmaSecure Combats Drug Counterfeiting, Armed With Funding From Eric Schmidt’s Innovation Endeavors”
The Wisdom of the Crowd: Social Networking Meets Capital Formation
Last year I had a chance to visit Washington D.C. and tour the Washington Monument. I later learned that this magnificent national icon was, in fact, an early example of crowd funding. Crowd funding is the process of aggregating small amounts of money from a large number of people in order to accomplish great things. … Continue reading “The Wisdom of the Crowd: Social Networking Meets Capital Formation”
Calcbench Looks to Help Budget-Minded Analysts Crunch Financial Data
Calcbench, a new startup working out of Cambridge, MA and New York, came to being from an app design challenge put on by the people behind XBRL, a technology standard the SEC requires public companies to use in reporting financial data. Yes, the terms app challenge and SEC did in fact appear in the same … Continue reading “Calcbench Looks to Help Budget-Minded Analysts Crunch Financial Data”
Could Detroit Become the Silicon Valley of Social Entrepreneurship?
The first rule of starting any entrepreneurial venture is: Find a problem that needs solving. Detroit, as we all know, has some big social problems: poverty; crime; homelessness; abysmal literacy rates; rampant unemployment. It should hardly be a surprise, then, that a motivated young class of social entrepreneurs has sprung up in the city, and … Continue reading “Could Detroit Become the Silicon Valley of Social Entrepreneurship?”
The Stroke Prevention War is On: FDA Approves J&J/Bayer Contender
Late Friday, the FDA approved rivaroxaban (Xarelto), a blood-thinning drug made by New Brunswick, NJ-based Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: [[ticker:JNJ]]) and Bayer. The approval came just two months after an advisory panel to the FDA posted a negative review of the drug, which suggested the companies should have to perform new trials to gain approval … Continue reading “The Stroke Prevention War is On: FDA Approves J&J/Bayer Contender”
MindShift Acquired by Best Buy as Retailer Expands IT Services
Best Buy is looking to a local IT services firm to spruce up its business, announcing today that it is acquiring Waltham, MA-based MindShift Technologies for $167 million. The deal gives Best Buy (NYSE: [[ticker:BBY]]) more power behind its services offering as the company faces competition in its retail operation from online sources like Amazon. … Continue reading “MindShift Acquired by Best Buy as Retailer Expands IT Services”
Ustream, Coraid, Gogobot: Bay Area BizTech News by the Numbers
Time to round up the latest local funding and deals numbers. Some of this is catch-up from last week. $500 million—The amount of a planned secondary stock offering by Mountain View, CA-based professional networking service LinkedIn (NYSE: [[ticker:LNKD]]), according to a November 3 regulatory filing. The company’s principal shareholders include LinkedIn founder and CEO Reid … Continue reading “Ustream, Coraid, Gogobot: Bay Area BizTech News by the Numbers”
San Diego BizTech Roundup: Battelle, QuickPlay Come to Town, Qualcomm Growth Continues
There were some interesting portents of things to come in San Diego’s emerging cleantech sector last week. Here is our Monday morning roundup of the news you need to know. —Battelle’s Bhima Vijayendran told me he’s on the lookout for new business opportunities with local San Diego companies, as both an R&D partner and as … Continue reading “San Diego BizTech Roundup: Battelle, QuickPlay Come to Town, Qualcomm Growth Continues”
Hark Sounds Off: 1 Billion Listens, and a Quietly Profitable Company
Updated 11/11 with clarification What does 1 billion sound like? At Seattle startup Hark, it’s this clip of Harry Potter deploying the “expelliarmus” spell to disarm an enemy. Expelliarmus! That little incantation marked the 1 billionth play of a sound bite on Hark, which has amassed a huge catalog of snippets, speeches, and quotes on … Continue reading “Hark Sounds Off: 1 Billion Listens, and a Quietly Profitable Company”
Ariad’s Second Cancer Drug Found Safer Than Expected in Early Review of Key Study
Ariad Pharmaceuticals CEO Harvey Berger has been fielding questions from investors for months about how much toxicity his company’s experimental cancer drug might be causing to the pancreas. The final verdict isn’t in yet, but an interim analysis being released today suggests the drug is safer than most thought it would be. The preliminary results … Continue reading “Ariad’s Second Cancer Drug Found Safer Than Expected in Early Review of Key Study”
NPS Charts Positive Results on Parathyroid Drug
NPS Pharmaceuticals’ (NASDAQ: [[ticker:NPSP]]) wild week continues today with the release of Phase 3 trial results on NPSP558, its experimental drug to treat hypoparathyroidism, a rare endocrine disorder characterized by insufficient levels of parathyroid hormone. The study shows that in 53 percent of patients, the drug achieved its treatment endpoint, namely that patients were able to halve … Continue reading “NPS Charts Positive Results on Parathyroid Drug”
NanoString Grabs $20M From GE, Former Genzyme CEO to Pursue Molecular Diagnostics
NanoString Technologies has pulled in another $20 million to capitalize on its genetic analysis instrument for researchers, and to pursue the lofty goal of creating a workhorse diagnostic tool that enables more personalized medicines. The Seattle-based company is announcing today it has raised $20 million in its Series D venture financing, which includes new investors … Continue reading “NanoString Grabs $20M From GE, Former Genzyme CEO to Pursue Molecular Diagnostics”
TechStars Honchos David Cohen & Andy Sack: The Post-Demo Day Download
If you want a glimpse at the leading edge of tech startups, TechStars Demo Day is a fine place to go prospecting. In just 60 minutes of total pitch time, you’ve got a damn good idea of the industries, customers, ideas, and technologies that top entrepreneurs and investors think are ripe for innovation. And the … Continue reading “TechStars Honchos David Cohen & Andy Sack: The Post-Demo Day Download”
Former DoubleClick CEO Takes the Reins at Benchmark Capital-Backed 1stdibs
David Rosenblatt has taken a seat in the chief executive’s office again, this time at online luxury marketplace 1stdibs in New York. Rosenblatt, former CEO of DoubleClick, was appointed CEO of 1stdibs on Nov. 3 in conjunction with an undisclosed investment from Benchmark Capital. Rosenblatt says this is 1stdibs’s first outside funding since its founding … Continue reading “Former DoubleClick CEO Takes the Reins at Benchmark Capital-Backed 1stdibs”
XL Hybrids, With New D.I.Y. Approach, Gears Up to Go Beyond Vehicle Retrofits
If you want something done right, the old saying goes, do it yourself. That’s exactly what XL Hybrids, a Boston-based transportation tech startup, is up to these days. Despite a thin layer of gloom that pervades much of the cleantech industry, XL Hybrids is advancing in its quest to make commercial vans and trucks greener … Continue reading “XL Hybrids, With New D.I.Y. Approach, Gears Up to Go Beyond Vehicle Retrofits”
Groupon: The IPO With More Sizzle, and Money, Than the Entire Biotech IPO Class of 2011
Groupon raked in so much cash through its initial public offering last week that it could buy the entire class of life sciences companies that have gone public in 2011. For those of you who aren’t following the Groupon melodrama, the Chicago-based online daily deals site raised $700 million last week in its IPO after … Continue reading “Groupon: The IPO With More Sizzle, and Money, Than the Entire Biotech IPO Class of 2011”
QuickPlay Media Takes Over Network Control Center from Qualcomm’s Flo TV
[Clarification 11/5/11, 11:10 am. See below.] Toronto’s QuickPlay Media says its goal is to stream video to any IP-connected device on behalf of any media network or wireless carrier. To accomplish this, the Canadian startup founded almost eight years ago has raised about $42 million in venture capital, and established several offices in the United … Continue reading “QuickPlay Media Takes Over Network Control Center from Qualcomm’s Flo TV”
AMAG Shares Zoom on CEO Departure and Re-Org Plans
Today, during its third-quarter earnings announcement, Lexington, MA-based AMAG Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:AMAG]]) announced the departure of its CEO, Brian Pereira, and a restructuring plan designed to decrease its operating expenses. Wall Street applauded, pushing the embattled company’s shares up 18 percent to $16.21.The news came just a couple of weeks after shareholders voted down Amag’s plan to … Continue reading “AMAG Shares Zoom on CEO Departure and Re-Org Plans”
This Week’s Xconomy Report on WGBH: Zuckerberg’s Change of Heart, IDing Adults Online, Vocal Cord Repair, and Verastem IPO
Xconomy and the folks at WGBH (Bob Seay, to be precise) are at it again: bringing you the latest and greatest in news from Boston’s innovation community. The Xconomy Report airs every Friday morning at 7:49am on 89.7 FM. To find out about the project that both The Who’s Roger Daltrey and actress Julie Andrews … Continue reading “This Week’s Xconomy Report on WGBH: Zuckerberg’s Change of Heart, IDing Adults Online, Vocal Cord Repair, and Verastem IPO”
Top 3 Takeaways From Our Twitter Chat With Appature’s Kabir Shahani
In advance of his appearance at Xconomy’s “6×6: Six Cities, Six Big Tech Ideas” conference on Dec. 1 in Boston, I did a live tweet chat with Kabir Shahani, the co-founder and CEO of Seattle-based Appature, yesterday. Thanks to all who tuned in and sent us their thoughts; we had a great audience. Appature is … Continue reading “Top 3 Takeaways From Our Twitter Chat With Appature’s Kabir Shahani”
Mobile App Search is So Bad AltaVista Could Have Done It. Chomp Is Biting Off the Problem
There are roughly 500,000 iPhone and iPad apps in Apple’s iTunes App Store, and almost that many smartphone and tablet apps in Google’s Android Market. That gives mobile consumers lots of choices, but it has created an untenable situation for mobile developers. Unless you get lucky and your app vaults onto the top-5 or top-10 … Continue reading “Mobile App Search is So Bad AltaVista Could Have Done It. Chomp Is Biting Off the Problem”
Celgene To Pump $45M into Quanticel to Discover Cancer Drugs, Gets Option To Acquire
Celgene and a San Francisco-based cancer drug startup called Quanticel Pharmaceuticals have struck an unusual agreement in which the big company is getting the inside track on a new cancer drug discovery platform, and the little company is arranging upfront for a way to get its venture investors some returns. Summit, NJ-based Celgene (NASDAQ: [[ticker:CELG]]) … Continue reading “Celgene To Pump $45M into Quanticel to Discover Cancer Drugs, Gets Option To Acquire”
Come Get Coffee With Xconomy at Our Tuesday Meetup. And GI Alumni, Bring Your Swag
We spend most of our time at Xconomy banging out stories about innovation, and putting together our big conferences like “The Genetics Institute Impact” coming up Dec. 14. But sometimes we love nothing more than just meeting at a local establishment to shoot the breeze with readers over a cup of coffee. So that’s what … Continue reading “Come Get Coffee With Xconomy at Our Tuesday Meetup. And GI Alumni, Bring Your Swag”
Langer Nabs Cash From Rock Stars, Verastem Seeks $50M IPO, Alnylam Snags RNAi Collab, & More Boston-Area Life Sciences News
We’ve seen life sciences headlines from a mix of established drugmakers and universities in New England this week. —Waltham, MA-based Repligen is picking up a unit of the Danish industrial-biotech products maker Novozymes A/S for about $22.7 million in cash. Repligen (NASDAQ: [[ticker:RGEN]]) could also pay another roughly $5.6 million to the unit, Novozymes Biopharma … Continue reading “Langer Nabs Cash From Rock Stars, Verastem Seeks $50M IPO, Alnylam Snags RNAi Collab, & More Boston-Area Life Sciences News”
TechStars Seattle Demos: One Room, 10 Startups, Tons of Potential
David Cohen has seen this movie before. As the founder and CEO of TechStars, he knows that the first year in any city is about building community, making impressions, and proving the model. Then things get turned up a notch. “Year one is a lot of excitement, the town really supports it,” Cohen said. “People come … Continue reading “TechStars Seattle Demos: One Room, 10 Startups, Tons of Potential”
Optimer Pulls in $10.6M in Sales, With Commercial Rollout of New Antibiotic
San Diego-based Optimer Pharmaceuticals is new to this idea of being a commercial enterprise, but it did OK in its first quarter with an actual product to sell. Optimer (NASDAQ: [[ticker:OPTR]]) said today it generated $10.6 million in net sales of fidaxomicin (Dificid) in the quarter that ended on Sept. 30. The drug, a treatment … Continue reading “Optimer Pulls in $10.6M in Sales, With Commercial Rollout of New Antibiotic”
Yaletown Venture Partners Opening Up Seattle Office, Led by Kirk Washington
Yaletown Venture Partners, the Vancouver, BC-based startup investor, said today that one of its founding partners, Kirk Washington, has opened up an office in Seattle. Yaletown made the announcement at the Venture Northwest Conference in Portland, OR, according to a statement on the firm’s website. The firm, which raised funds in 2003 and 2008, has … Continue reading “Yaletown Venture Partners Opening Up Seattle Office, Led by Kirk Washington”
Massive Health’s App Data Proves It: People Eat More Junk Food at Work
Yesterday we told you about The Eatery, a new iPhone app from San Francisco-based Massive Health. The app lets users snap photos of their meals, rate how healthy they are, and get a reality check on those ratings from other users. While the app is designed to be fun, it also has a serious point—if … Continue reading “Massive Health’s App Data Proves It: People Eat More Junk Food at Work”
Seattle Genetics Beats Expectations With $10M Sales in Lymphoma Drug Debut
[Update: 2:55 pm PT] Seattle Genetics handily beat Wall Street expectations by selling $10 million worth of its new lymphoma drug in its first 30 business days on the market. The Bothell, WA-based company (NASDAQ: [[ticker:SGEN]]) said today it generated $10 million in net product sales in the quarter ended Sept. 30, according to its … Continue reading “Seattle Genetics Beats Expectations With $10M Sales in Lymphoma Drug Debut”
Xconomists of the Week: Tom Maniatis and Marc Tessier-Lavigne Lead the Charge on the New York Genome Center
Today marked the official launch of the New York Genome Center, a collaboration among 11 top academic institutions that’s designed to accelerate genomic research. The initiative—supported by the City of New York and private and public institutions—is being guided by two of our Xconomists: Rockefeller University’s Marc Tessier-Lavigne, who will serve on the center’s board … Continue reading “Xconomists of the Week: Tom Maniatis and Marc Tessier-Lavigne Lead the Charge on the New York Genome Center”
Facebook Grabs New Seattle Office, Doubling Space for More Hires
Facebook’s Seattle office, the social networking giant’s biggest engineering presence outside its Palo Alto, CA headquarters, is doubling its footprint to make room for more engineers. Facebook Seattle opened in August 2010 with three employees, and has grown to about 60 people in the year-plus since then, the company says. Some key early projects that … Continue reading “Facebook Grabs New Seattle Office, Doubling Space for More Hires”
UW Spinoff PhysioSonics Snaps up $2.5M Defense Grant to Monitor Brain Blood Flow
Bellevue, WA-based PhysioSonics has picked up a $2.5 million grant from a military agency to see if its ultrasound technology can be adapted to the battlefield. PhysioSonics said today it has gotten the grant from the Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center, an organization at the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command, located at … Continue reading “UW Spinoff PhysioSonics Snaps up $2.5M Defense Grant to Monitor Brain Blood Flow”
TechTown’s Charlton Wins $100K Purpose Prize
Randal Charlton, who recently announced he’s stepping down as TechTown’s executive director to lead a program aimed at assisting baby boomers who want to become entrepreneurs, has just been awarded the 2011 Purpose Prize. This annual $100,000 award honors social entrepreneurs over 60 who use their experience and passion to effectively address societal challenges. Charlton … Continue reading “TechTown’s Charlton Wins $100K Purpose Prize”
Deals Inked for Basho, Innocentive
Boston’s big data cluster recently got some attention at the MassTLC Innovation UnConference, and Basho Technologies, one of the companies in the space, followed up this week with a funding announcement. Check out that news and another IT financing below. —Basho, a Cambridge, MA-based developer of data storage and management software, announced it had pulled … Continue reading “Deals Inked for Basho, Innocentive”
Infographic: College or Incubator for Startup Founders?
[Updated 11/4 at 2:30 pm] Not everyone can be a Gates, Allen, Jobs, or Zuckerberg—founders who dropped out of college and went on to change the technology industry by starting landmark companies. But there are more options available for budding entrepreneurs these days, most notably the explosion of incubators, accelerators, and other startup nurseries that … Continue reading “Infographic: College or Incubator for Startup Founders?”
Verastem, the 15-Month Old Christoph Westphal Venture in Cancer Stem Cells, Seeks IPO
Cambridge, MA-based Verastem has big names and big science on its side, which a lot of startups have, but now it’s doing something quite unconventional for a company that’s just 15 months old—it’s trying to go public. Verastem, the company led by former Sirtris Pharmaceuticals CEO Christoph Westphal and founded on science from MIT luminaries … Continue reading “Verastem, the 15-Month Old Christoph Westphal Venture in Cancer Stem Cells, Seeks IPO”
TEDMED Walking, FDA Clears Pacira Drug, Zogenix Close to NDA, & More San Diego Life Sciences News
Drug approvals and advances in new cancer therapies were the prevailing themes in San Diego’s life sciences news over the past week. Our briefing begins now. —TEDMED, the exclusive medical and healthcare symposium that died in 2004 and was resurrected in 2009, is now the walking TEDMED. The entertaining show with a mix of big … Continue reading “TEDMED Walking, FDA Clears Pacira Drug, Zogenix Close to NDA, & More San Diego Life Sciences News”
Medivation, Astellas Prostate Cancer Drug Helps Men Live Longer; Shares Skyrocket
[Updated: 7:10 am PT] San Francisco-based Medivation has some big news to report today with a prostate cancer drug candidate that has been shown to prolong lives. Medivation (NASDAQ: [[ticker:MDVN]]) and its partner, Japan-based Astellas Pharma, said today that their experimental drug MDV3100 was able to prolong lives of men with advanced prostate cancer by … Continue reading “Medivation, Astellas Prostate Cancer Drug Helps Men Live Longer; Shares Skyrocket”
Trade Shows Go Virtual at ON24; The Civilized Alternative to Second Life?
The boardroom windows at ON24 look out over San Francisco’s Moscone Center, the city’s largest convention complex. Every year, Moscone is home to giant events like Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference, Oracle OpenWorld, Salesforce.com’s Dreamforce, and the MacWorld Expo; in fiscal year 2009-2010, more than 919,000 registered event attendees visited the complex. But as busy as … Continue reading “Trade Shows Go Virtual at ON24; The Civilized Alternative to Second Life?”
The Accidental Entrepreneur: David Skok of Matrix Partners Talks Marketing Lessons, VMware Killers, and VC Missteps
His last name means “forest” in Norwegian. Which is appropriate, because this guy sees the forest for the trees. David Skok of Matrix Partners is one of the most talked-about venture capitalists in town, among young entrepreneurs and experienced ones alike. He is best known for his investments in JBoss, the open source middleware company … Continue reading “The Accidental Entrepreneur: David Skok of Matrix Partners Talks Marketing Lessons, VMware Killers, and VC Missteps”
NPS Pharma’s Not-So-Excellent Wall Street Adventure
On Monday morning, the phones were ringing off the hook at NPS Pharmaceuticals’ (NASDAQ: [[ticker:NPSP]]) Bedminster, N.J. headquarters, but no one could hear them. The freak autumn snowstorm over the weekend knocked out the company’s phone lines. And CEO Francois Nader and other top executives had lost power at their nearby homes, so they couldn’t charge … Continue reading “NPS Pharma’s Not-So-Excellent Wall Street Adventure”