Recent posts and comments

• Q&A With Massachusetts’ Billion-Dollar Woman: Susan Windham-Bannister. Part 1.

  Susan Windham-Bannister is pretty long as names go, so the staff simply calls her Dr. Sue. The moniker is short but her task is big. She’s the newly-hired president and CEO... Read more »

• Sonus Shareholders Approve Merger With OncoGenex

  Sonus Pharmaceuticals, (NASDAQ: SNUS) the Bothell, WA-based company that failed in an effort to develop a less toxic form of chemotherapy, said today its shareholders have approved a deal to... Read more »

• Kryptiq Acquires Secure Network Solutions

  Kryptiq, the Hillsboro, OR-based maker of software that enables health providers and health plans to share information, said it has acquired Portland, OR-based Secure Network Solutions. The acquisition allows Kryptiq to... Read more »

• Hollister-Stier, a Year After Getting Bought by Indian Conglomerate, Grows in Spokane

  Here’s a storyline you might find hard to believe if you get overdoses of election-year rhetoric about protecting American jobs. It goes like this: A growing conglomerate from India takes over... Read more »

• CellCyte Genetics Running Out of Cash, Stops Paying Employees

  CellCyte Genetics, the Bothell, WA-based stem cell research company, said today in a regulatory filing that it had $215,000 in cash and investments at the end of June, and it doesn’t... Read more »

• Abiomed To Sell 2.4 Million Shares of Common Stock

  Abiomed, the Danvers, MA-based maker of devices to treat heart failure, said today it is offering 2.4 million shares of common stock. Morgan Stanley is the sole underwriter for the offering,... Read more »

• Fluke Networks Acquires Intellectual Property of Viola

  Fluke Networks, an Everett, WA-based maker of wireless network technology, said in a statement it has acquired the intellectual property of Viola Networks including its NetAlly product line. Financial terms weren’t... Read more »

• Helicos Promotes Steve Lombardi to CEO

  Helicos Biosciences (NASDAQ: HLCS), the maker of tools for genetic researchers, said today it has promoted Steve Lombardi to CEO. Lombardi, 53, joined the company in October 2007 as president... Read more »

• Vertex Drug Poised for Pivotal Trial Among Patients Who Fail Prior Hepatitis C Treatments

  Vertex Pharmaceuticals, the developer of telaprevir for hepatitis C, said today it has reached agreement with U.S. and European regulators to begin a pivotal trial for patients who failed to have... Read more »

• Trubion Hires Stromatt as Chief Medical Officer, Replacing Burge

  Trubion Pharmaceuticals, the Seattle-based developer of treatments for autoimmune diseases, said today it has hired Scott Stromatt as senior vice president and chief medical officer. Stromatt previously oversaw clinical and regulatory... Read more »

• Dyax Shares Climb as Lead Drug Candidate Passes Trial

  Dyax looks like it may have just transformed into a commercial drug company today. Shares in the Cambridge, MA-based company (NASDAQ: DYAX) shot up 15 percent today after it said... Read more »

• Accelerator Bankrolls New Company, Mirina, To Develop MicroRNA-Blocking Drugs

  Accelerator’s latest big idea is coming in a micro-sized package. The Seattle-based biotech startup machine, affiliated with Leroy Hood’s Institute for Systems Biology, has formed a new company called Mirina to... Read more »

• Is Your City or Town BioReady? Mass Biotech Council Wants to Make It Happen

  I have to admit this idea made me snicker when I first heard it. The Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, a trade group for state biotech companies, has set up a new... Read more »

• Taligen CEO Aims to Develop Drugs For Inflammatory Diseases, Build Company in Cambridge

  Abbie Celniker has been climbing biotech’s corporate ladder for much of her career. Higher and higher she went, in senior R&D jobs at Genentech, Wyeth Biopharma, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, and most recently... Read more »

• Seattle Non-Profit PATH Set to Launch “Ultra Rice” to Fight Global Malnutrition

  Duffy Cox and his dad, James, had a great idea that went nowhere for years. Their quest to develop Vitamin-A fortified rice, which could put a dent in global malnutrition, started... Read more »

• An Accelerator, By Any Other Name…Does Not Smell as Sweet

  Carl Weissman shook his head in disbelief when he got the e-mail. A couple years ago, the Cambridge Healthtech Institute in Massachusetts was inviting him to speak on a panel that... Read more »

• Sonus Obtains License From Bayer to Develop Cancer Drugs

  Sonus Pharmaceuticals said today it has agreed to pay $450,000 upfront, plus future milestones and royalty payments, to obtain an exclusive license from Bayer to develop a family of drugs currently... Read more »

• Amgen Looks to Biomarkers to Boost Its Batting Average in Developing New Drugs

  Amgen had an epiphany of sorts a little more than four years ago. The world’s largest biotech company decided clinical trials had become too much of a crapshoot, and it needed... Read more »

• Alnylam’s In the Money: Expects $500 Million in Bank at Year-End

  Alnylam Pharmaceuticals is building one big cash horde for a company with no moneymaking products. The Cambridge, MA-based biotech company said today that it expects to sign two or more “major... Read more »

• Genzyme, Isis Start Pivotal Trial for High Cholesterol

  Cambridge, MA-based Genzyme (NASDAQ: GENZ) and its partner, Carlsbad, CA-based Isis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ISIS), said today they have started a pivotal clinical trial for patients with a genetic disorder... Read more »