[Updated: 6:17 pm Eastern, 3/5/10, with company comment.] Cell Therapeutics stock is trading at less than a buck, but the company’s board still rewarded its senior management with a big boost in the annual bonus column. The Seattle biotech company (NASDAQ: [[ticker:CTIC]]) made the disclosure in a regulatory filing after markets closed for the week … Continue reading “Cell Therapeutics Offers Execs Big Cash Bonuses As Stock Trades Below a Buck”
Category: National
Seattle’s Loss: DocVerse Bought by Google (Maybe as a Bridge to Microsoft)
It’s the second notable Google acquisition in these parts, coming on the heels of Seattle-based Picnik getting bought by the search giant earlier this week. DocVerse, a collaborative-document software startup founded in the Seattle area in 2007 by former Microsofties and MIT alums Shan Sinha and Alex DeNeui, has been acquired by Google, according to … Continue reading “Seattle’s Loss: DocVerse Bought by Google (Maybe as a Bridge to Microsoft)”
Trius Puts the Brakes on IPO Plan, While It Adjusts to New FDA Clinical Guidelines
[Updated: 4:05 pm Eastern, 3/5/10, with company comment] San Diego will have to wait a while longer for another biotech IPO. Trius Therapeutics, the San Diego-based developer of an antibiotic against dangerous MRSA infections, said this week it has postponed its plan to go public while it adapts to new guidelines from the FDA that … Continue reading “Trius Puts the Brakes on IPO Plan, While It Adjusts to New FDA Clinical Guidelines”
ImThera Medical Generating Buzz Over Neurostimulation for Sleep Apnea
Some 800,000 people in the U.S. are diagnosed each year with obstructive sleep apnea, in which the tongue relaxes during the onset of sleep to the point of physically blocking much of the upper airway. The condition often causes repeated interruptions of sleep, which can lead to increased blood pressure, coronary problems, and diabetes. The … Continue reading “ImThera Medical Generating Buzz Over Neurostimulation for Sleep Apnea”
Register Now for Mobile Madness—Only a Handful of Seats Left; Plus, A Mass Mobile Month Video
The impressive lineup of speakers we’ve assembled for next Tuesday’s Xconomy Forum, Mobile Madness: The New Future of Computing, is doing the trick–we’ve sold most of the available seats at Microsoft’s New England R&D Center, and only have about 20 more available. Now’s your chance to secure one of the last seats. If you missed … Continue reading “Register Now for Mobile Madness—Only a Handful of Seats Left; Plus, A Mass Mobile Month Video”
Amazon, Cozi, Pathway, Talyst, and VholdR Among Winners at WTIA Awards Bash
Pardon me if I’m still a little hung over, but last night was a blast. Eight hundred techies packed into the Showbox SoDo in Seattle for the 15th annual Industry Achievement Awards organized by the Washington Technology Industry Association (WTIA). The awards recognize excellence in local tech companies, and the winners were selected by a … Continue reading “Amazon, Cozi, Pathway, Talyst, and VholdR Among Winners at WTIA Awards Bash”
Where’s World Wide Wade? Four Encores
I regret to report that both I and my column are going on a bit of a hiatus, as I’ve been seated as a juror on an extended civil trial in Boston. To fill some airtime, I thought I’d direct you to a few old columns that are special favorites of mine or that have … Continue reading “Where’s World Wide Wade? Four Encores”
Ekos, Swedish Aim to Shake Up Stroke Treatment with Ultrasound Brain Clot Buster
Innovation stories don’t get more local than this. A local medical device company provides an innovative tool to a local doctor, who gets money from local taxpayers to test the idea. And, before you dismiss this as some irrelevant insider-y project, an independent expert from Boston has said publicly that this Seattle collaboration may transform … Continue reading “Ekos, Swedish Aim to Shake Up Stroke Treatment with Ultrasound Brain Clot Buster”
Una Ryan Searching for Riches to Deliver Inexpensive Diagnostics to the Poor
This week I spoke with veteran biotech executive Una Ryan at her office about her strategy for raising money to advance the cause at the Harvard spinout Diagnostics For All. So it was no surprise to spot her just a few hours later at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT, networking with accomplished … Continue reading “Una Ryan Searching for Riches to Deliver Inexpensive Diagnostics to the Poor”
The Pharmaceutical R&D Model is Broken. Here’s How to Fix It
Research is the lifeblood of the biotech and pharmaceuticals business. The pharma and biotech industry spent some $65 billion dollars on R & D in 2008, according to the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association. That’s a tremendous amount of money considering that the FDA only approved 24 new drugs (21 new molecular entities and 3 … Continue reading “The Pharmaceutical R&D Model is Broken. Here’s How to Fix It”
An Entrepreneur’s First Co-Founder: The Community
To do great work, you need community. I don’t think people generally comprehend just how important it is. If you’re not the social type, perhaps you can get more work done today and tomorrow working behind closed doors. But if you do this long enough, you start to lose touch with the world. Your work … Continue reading “An Entrepreneur’s First Co-Founder: The Community”
Avila Sets Out to Take on Vertex, CombinatoRx Nails FDA Approval, Millipore Opts for Merck KGaA over Thermo Fisher, & More Boston-Area Life Sciences News
Stories of drugmakers, deals, health IT companies, and even some nonprofits made it a busy life sciences news week for us. —Waltham’s Avila Therapeutics is on a quest to outdo well-known Boston drugmaker Vertex Pharmaceuticals when it comes to treating hepatitis C, Luke wrote last week. The company’s drugs rely on forming covalent bonds to … Continue reading “Avila Sets Out to Take on Vertex, CombinatoRx Nails FDA Approval, Millipore Opts for Merck KGaA over Thermo Fisher, & More Boston-Area Life Sciences News”
Innovation Summit Highlights Drug Development, Cleantech, and Potential Impact of Drought
The La Jolla Research & Innovation Summit held yesterday at the Salk Institute was a smaller and a much more modest affair than the inaugural summit that Connect CEO Duane Roth organized last year. I have some impressions from the morning presentations: —Climatologist Dan Cayan of UCSD’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography explained why multiple computerized … Continue reading “Innovation Summit Highlights Drug Development, Cleantech, and Potential Impact of Drought”
Steve Ballmer at UW: Is This Microsoft’s Cloud Computing Strategy, or Just Internet Software?
The first sign that Steve Ballmer was in the house came when I saw a cop car parked outside the University of Washington’s Computer Science & Engineering building. Then there were the paper signs telling you where to line up for his 10 am talk today. The Microsoft CEO doesn’t make many local public appearances, … Continue reading “Steve Ballmer at UW: Is This Microsoft’s Cloud Computing Strategy, or Just Internet Software?”
Adventrx Pharmaceuticals Set Back by FDA, La Jolla Pharmaceutical Can’t Cure Shareholder Apathy, Regulus Signs Another Deal With Glaxo, & More San Diego Life Sciences News
There was a flurry of San Diego life sciences news over the past week, but we’ve got it all sorted for you here. —Politicians sometimes complain about voter apathy, but consider the plight of San Diego’s La Jolla Pharmaceutical. The biotech, which failed to develop a drug for lupus, has been unable to muster enough … Continue reading “Adventrx Pharmaceuticals Set Back by FDA, La Jolla Pharmaceutical Can’t Cure Shareholder Apathy, Regulus Signs Another Deal With Glaxo, & More San Diego Life Sciences News”
Soane Energy’s Oil-Grabbing Polymers Could Make a Necessary Industry Less Noxious
When you hear the phrase “cleantech,” you generally think of green hills studded with wind turbines, or buildings sheathed in shiny solar panels. The oil sands of Alberta—where mining companies foul vast amounts of freshwater while extracting crude oil from surface deposits, leaving behind huge, toxic tailings ponds—don’t usually come to mind. But the way … Continue reading “Soane Energy’s Oil-Grabbing Polymers Could Make a Necessary Industry Less Noxious”
Dendreon’s False Rumor, Cell Therapeutics’ New FDA Day, Microsoft’s Health-IT Plan, & More Seattle-Area Life Sciences News
Speculation about the future of a few cancer drugs attracted a ton of interest in Seattle biotech this week. —Seattle-based Dendreon (NASDAQ: [[ticker:DNDN]]) lived up to its nickname on Wall Street this week: Dendrama. The company was forced to fight back against a rumor from analyst Elliott Favus, which turned out to be wrong, but … Continue reading “Dendreon’s False Rumor, Cell Therapeutics’ New FDA Day, Microsoft’s Health-IT Plan, & More Seattle-Area Life Sciences News”
ActivX Biosciences, Showing Life After Takeover, Keeps Innovative Ties in San Diego
Cover business long enough, and some storylines becomes routine. Startup creates something valuable, gets acquired. Valuable thing gets plucked away by big company, cost cuts ensue, jobs are lost, founders bolt, remaining employees are never to be heard from again. But ActivX Biosciences isn’t following that script. This San Diego-based company was a highflier during … Continue reading “ActivX Biosciences, Showing Life After Takeover, Keeps Innovative Ties in San Diego”
Donuts for Developers: CEO Scott Kveton on Getting Urban Airship Aloft
Every startup has a defining moment from its early days. Its first big customer. Its first outside funding round. Its first big change in strategy or revenue model. For Urban Airship, I would say it was its first big developers conference. And the company didn’t even make it in the door. You might think the … Continue reading “Donuts for Developers: CEO Scott Kveton on Getting Urban Airship Aloft”
Tolerx, After a Decade and $150M, Eagerly Awaits Data from Big Diabetes Trial
By the end of this year, the people at Tolerx will have a good sense of what they’ve created with $150 million of investment over the past decade. If the Cambridge, MA-based company has played its cards right, it should have positive results from a pivotal clinical trial of a drug with an unorthodox approach … Continue reading “Tolerx, After a Decade and $150M, Eagerly Awaits Data from Big Diabetes Trial”
Dendreon Follow-Up Confirms Survival Edge, Helping Fend off Sanofi Rival
Dendreon’s pivotal clinical trial is standing up to the test of time—and it may need that sort of analysis to fend off a tough new competing chemo drug. The Seattle-based biotech company (NASDAQ: [[ticker:DNDN]]) said today that its first-of-a-kind immune booster for prostate cancer helped men live longer than a placebo, after another couple extra … Continue reading “Dendreon Follow-Up Confirms Survival Edge, Helping Fend off Sanofi Rival”
Seaweed Biofuel Company, Seattle’s Bio Architecture Lab, Struck by Chile Quake
One of Seattle’s most interesting clean energy startups is feeling the impact from the earthquake last weekend in Chile. Seattle-based Bio Architecture Lab, a University of Washington spinoff that’s developing microbes to turn seaweed into renewable fuel, has built a big part of its business on relationships in Chile. The company has an office in … Continue reading “Seaweed Biofuel Company, Seattle’s Bio Architecture Lab, Struck by Chile Quake”
Microsoft’s Full-Court Innovation Press: TechFest User Interfaces, IT for Hospitals, Ballmer at UW
Please excuse the March Madness sports metaphor, but Microsoft is picking up the intensity around its innovative new products (and earlier-stage projects) this week. Between its TechFest research showcase, healthcare software product announcements, and a special local appearance by CEO Steve Ballmer, the Redmond, WA-based company is on a serious PR roll, getting the word … Continue reading “Microsoft’s Full-Court Innovation Press: TechFest User Interfaces, IT for Hospitals, Ballmer at UW”
Qualcomm CEO Sees Company Driving Wave of Mobile Internet Innovation
Some people in the audience began to gasp audibly as Qualcomm chairman and CEO Paul Jacobs neared the end of his presentation at the San Diego wireless company’s annual shareholders’ meeting yesterday. The exclamations came about 40 minutes into Jacobs’ address, as he began explaining how various aspects of Qualcomm’s technology are expected to come … Continue reading “Qualcomm CEO Sees Company Driving Wave of Mobile Internet Innovation”
Geospiza Runs in the Black, as Scientists Turn to Software to Help Crunch Genomes
The faster and cheaper that gene sequencing gets, the better things start to look for Seattle-based Geospiza. This small angel-backed company has stuck to its guns for 13 years, many of them lean, arguing that biologists need better software to make sense of the digital mountains of DNA being created every day. Geospiza—knock wood—has now … Continue reading “Geospiza Runs in the Black, as Scientists Turn to Software to Help Crunch Genomes”
Prominent Flatley Family Launches Boston Nonprofit for Cystic Fibrosis Drug Research
When a rare disease strikes one of their own, some families take it upon themselves to find a cure. Unsatisfied with treatment options for the genetic disorder cystic fibrosis, the Flatleys have become one of those families. John Flatley, a Braintree, MA, real estate developer, is spearheading his family’s effort to find a cure for … Continue reading “Prominent Flatley Family Launches Boston Nonprofit for Cystic Fibrosis Drug Research”
ShopIgniter Adds $3M for Social Commerce, Led by Madrona Venture Group; Amazon Watches
Portland, OR-based ShopIgniter, a startup working to unify the worlds of e-commerce and social media, has raised $3 million in Series A funding led by Seattle-based Madrona Venture Group. As part of the deal, former Madrona venture partner Matt Compton has joined ShopIgniter as CEO. ShopIgniter was founded in 2008 by Alan Wizemann, Dan Warner, … Continue reading “ShopIgniter Adds $3M for Social Commerce, Led by Madrona Venture Group; Amazon Watches”
Novalar Strikes Deal With Sanofi to Market Dental Drug in Germany, Maybe Rest of EU
Novalar has convinced one of the world’s biggest drugmakers, Paris-based Sanofi-Aventis, that it might be onto something. The San Diego-based biotech is announcing today that it has struck a partnership in which Sanofi’s unit in Germany will have exclusive marketing rights to the vasodilator drug phentolamine mesylate (OraVerse) in that country, plus an option to … Continue reading “Novalar Strikes Deal With Sanofi to Market Dental Drug in Germany, Maybe Rest of EU”
Announcing the Official Mass Mobile Month iPhone App, from Swift Mobile
On the third official day of Mass Mobile Month, we’re extremely pleased to unveil the official Mass Mobile Month iPhone app. Created by Swift Mobile of Cambridge, MA, and available at no cost through Apple’s iTunes App Store, the app includes the full list of Mass Mobile Month events, as well as a map guiding … Continue reading “Announcing the Official Mass Mobile Month iPhone App, from Swift Mobile”
British Invasion: Finsphere Expands to U.K., With A Little Help From Its Friends
A couple of weeks ago, I had an interesting chat with Finsphere, a technology company in Bellevue, WA, that makes mobile software to help banks and other institutions fight financial fraud and identity theft. Finsphere has been working on expanding globally, and it took a big first step last August when it opened an office … Continue reading “British Invasion: Finsphere Expands to U.K., With A Little Help From Its Friends”
Marathon and Zafgen Add to Series B Rounds, Athenahealth and Sermo Announce Partnership, Sensata Sets IPO Terms, & More Boston-Area Deals News
Early round venture funding dominated the deals news this week, but there were still announcements of partnerships, acquisitions, and IPOs to mix it up. —Newton, MA-based energy storage company General Compression announced it had closed more than $17 million in commitments to its Series A round, but did not reveal how much of that money … Continue reading “Marathon and Zafgen Add to Series B Rounds, Athenahealth and Sermo Announce Partnership, Sensata Sets IPO Terms, & More Boston-Area Deals News”
San Diego Biotechs Raise Cash for Novel Drugs to Treat Cancers, Broad Disease Spectrum
A number of biotechs and medical device companies in the San Diego area have disclosed funding deals in recent weeks. As I noted last month, San Diego-based ProActa raised about $1.1 million to continue its anti-cancer drug development work. I found some more deals while reviewing filings submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission: —Auspex … Continue reading “San Diego Biotechs Raise Cash for Novel Drugs to Treat Cancers, Broad Disease Spectrum”
Amicas Warms Up to Merge Healthcare’s Buyout Bid
Amicas has changed its tune about its competitor Merge Healthcare’s efforts to buy the Boston-based software firm. After criticizing those efforts last month, Amicas’s board says that Merge’s updated buyout offer is superior to the one it had agreed to accept from the private equity group Thoma Bravo in December. Milwaukee-based Merge is offering to … Continue reading “Amicas Warms Up to Merge Healthcare’s Buyout Bid”
Tech Coast Angels’ Dollars Invested and Number of Deals Declined in 2009
Investments by Southern California’s Tech Coast Angels dropped in 2009, as the network of individual investors helped raise a total of $61.7 million in direct investments by TCA members and affiliated investors. The angel investor group says it participated in seven new deals and 17 follow-on deals last year, according to a statement. The organization, … Continue reading “Tech Coast Angels’ Dollars Invested and Number of Deals Declined in 2009”
Konarka Gets A $20M Power Boost From Konica Minolta For Photovoltaics
Konarka Technologies, a Lowell, MA, developer of flexible, nanotechnology-based “Power Plastic” that converts light to energy, will receive $20 million from Konica Minolta in an R&D and investment agreement announced today. The companies will jointly develop and distribute organic thin-film photovoltaics. Konarka brings to the table its simplified, roll-to-roll manufacturing process, which the firm says … Continue reading “Konarka Gets A $20M Power Boost From Konica Minolta For Photovoltaics”
Dendreon Stock Rides Roller Coaster on FDA Panel Rumor
Dendreon stock is in for some wild times today. The Seattle-based biotech company woke up this morning to a new rumor that suggests it will have to appear before an FDA advisory panel one more time before it can get clearance to sell its prostate cancer drug in the U.S. Shares of the company (NASDAQ: … Continue reading “Dendreon Stock Rides Roller Coaster on FDA Panel Rumor”
CombinatoRx Grabs $40M with FDA Approval
CombinatoRx has garnered its first drug approval. It’s a milestone for the Cambridge, MA-based drug developer, even if the path the company took to reach this point isn’t the one its founders had mapped out when they launched the company in 2000. The FDA has approved the pain drug hydromorphone HCL (Exalgo), which is an … Continue reading “CombinatoRx Grabs $40M with FDA Approval”
PhotoRocket Opens Financing Round, Alliance of Angels Has Record 2009, Picnik Gets Bought by Google, & More Seattle-Area Deals News
The big news of the week (and year) is Picnik’s acquisition by Google. But read on for some other notable deals from the Northwest as well. —Seattle-based Picnik, the popular photo-editing software startup, was bought by Google in a deal of undisclosed size. The folks at Picnik seem pretty happy, and it sounds like a … Continue reading “PhotoRocket Opens Financing Round, Alliance of Angels Has Record 2009, Picnik Gets Bought by Google, & More Seattle-Area Deals News”
San Diego’s Printer Industry Veterans Offer Some Insights Into Memjet’s Technology
One of the most surprising personnel moves announced in San Diego so far this year came in early January, when former Qualcomm COO Len Lauer was named to head Memjet, a startup the Wall Street Journal described as “a closely held company most people have never heard of.” Lauer’s move was puzzling. As a wireless … Continue reading “San Diego’s Printer Industry Veterans Offer Some Insights Into Memjet’s Technology”
Monster and Eons Founder Jeff Taylor Starts Incubator as Protest to Startups Fleeing Boston
Monster.com and Eons.com founder Jeff Taylor thinks entrepreneurs are bluffing when they cite Boston’s harsh winter weather as the reason for fleeing the city for operations elsewhere, such as California’s Silicon Valley. “The real objection is that it’s hard to get discovered in Boston, and that our resource-rich community feels like it’s locked behind closed … Continue reading “Monster and Eons Founder Jeff Taylor Starts Incubator as Protest to Startups Fleeing Boston”
Ion Torrent Systems Unveils New Gene Machine, Introducing Watson to Moore’s Law
The world of DNA sequencing is buzzing about a startup based in Guilford, CT, and San Francisco called Ion Torrent Systems. This stealthy operation, which is advised by Harvard genomics pioneer George Church and supported by a partner in Seattle, finally pulled off the veil last weekend on a tool that uses semiconductors to generate … Continue reading “Ion Torrent Systems Unveils New Gene Machine, Introducing Watson to Moore’s Law”
Picnik CEO on Getting Bought by Google, and How It Affects Startups and Consumers
Google’s acquisition of Seattle-based photo editing company Picnik is the deal of the year—and maybe more—for the local tech startup community. It just closed this morning, and terms aren’t being disclosed, but suffice to say Picnik’s leadership and team of 20-odd employees will make out pretty well. What’s more, the acquisition adds a bookend to … Continue reading “Picnik CEO on Getting Bought by Google, and How It Affects Startups and Consumers”
Google Buys Picnik, Developing Its Strength in Photo Editing and Storage
Well, this is no big surprise. Seattle-based Picnik was on everybody’s list as a local tech company with great potential to be acquired. The photo-editing startup announced today it has been bought by Google. Terms of the deal weren’t given, but this is big news for a startup community that hasn’t seen a major tech … Continue reading “Google Buys Picnik, Developing Its Strength in Photo Editing and Storage”
Millipore To March Down the Aisle with Merck KGaA, Not Thermo Fisher
Reports last week that Billerica, MA-based life sciences equipment supplier Millipore was in merger talks with Waltham, MA-based Thermo Fisher Scientific were half right. Millipore was in merger talks—but it has settled on suitor Merck KGaA, the German pharmaceutical and chemicals giant. And Millipore is fetching a higher price than the earlier reports suggested, too. … Continue reading “Millipore To March Down the Aisle with Merck KGaA, Not Thermo Fisher”
Cell Therapeutics Gets New Day in Front of FDA
Cell Therapeutics has been walking a “tight-wire act” for more than a year, and now we’ll see if the company keeps its balance or crashes to the ground on March 22. That’s the date FDA has now set for a re-scheduled a meeting of cancer drug experts who will recommend whether the Seattle-based company ought … Continue reading “Cell Therapeutics Gets New Day in Front of FDA”
Awarepoint Raises $10M to Accelerate Its Sensor Network for Hospitals
JAFCO Ventures of Palo Alto, CA, has stepped in as lead investor in a $10 million round announced today by San Diego’s Awarepoint, which provides wireless sensor systems to help hospitals monitor the real-time location of equipment and patients. Existing investors Cardinal Partners and Venrock Associates joined in the Series E round. As I explained … Continue reading “Awarepoint Raises $10M to Accelerate Its Sensor Network for Hospitals”
Enrollment Begins at Founder Institute After Inaugural Class Completes Training
School’s out for the Founder Institute’s inaugural class in San Diego, which started with 22 students in November and last week graduated 13 entrepreneurs who are moving forward to develop 12 startup companies, according to Jeanine Jacobson, a San Diego organizer. After starting the four-month mentoring program for startup founders in San Francisco a year … Continue reading “Enrollment Begins at Founder Institute After Inaugural Class Completes Training”
Athenahealth Taps Sermo Docs for Opinions on Electronic Health Records
What do doctors think about electronic health records? That’s a question at the heart of a newly announced partnership between Athenahealth and Sermo, according to the companies’ press release this morning. Athenahealth (NASDAQ:[[ticker:ATHN]]), the Watertown, MA-based provider of Internet software and services for medical practices, is tapping Cambridge, MA-based Sermo’s online community of physicians to … Continue reading “Athenahealth Taps Sermo Docs for Opinions on Electronic Health Records”
Russ Wilcox Steps Down at E Ink—Smart Energy Venture Next?
[Updated 9:55 a.m. and 1:35 p.m., see below] Russell Wilcox, until recently the president and CEO at Cambridge, MA-based display technology pioneer E Ink, has left the company, Xconomy has learned. In his 13 years with E Ink, Wilcox rose from the level of vice president of business development to the leadership helm, and engineered … Continue reading “Russ Wilcox Steps Down at E Ink—Smart Energy Venture Next?”
Napera Networks Evolves, Moves Into Purely Cloud-Based IT Security
Startups almost never end up doing what they started out doing. The key is, can they adjust to the market and find enough paying customers before they run out of money? Here’s an interesting case study in the making: Napera Networks. The computer-network security startup, based in Mercer Island, WA—are there any other startups there?—is … Continue reading “Napera Networks Evolves, Moves Into Purely Cloud-Based IT Security”