Latest Posts

• New Data Puts Aldeyra One Step Closer to FDA Filing for Eye Drug

  Aldeyra Therapeutics has disclosed positive results from the first of multiple Phase 3 studies of a new type of inflammation-fighting medicine the Lexington, MA, company has been testing in a variety of conditions.

  The study Aldeyra (NASDAQ: ALDX) reports on... Read more »

  Ben Fidler3/26/19

• Business Travel Startup Lola Raises $37M to Double Headcount in Boston

  [Corrected 3/26/19, 9;52 am. See below.] Business travel software startup Lola is keeping its foot on the gas.

  The Boston-based company is doubling its headcount—another 60 employees by the end of the year, mostly in sales and engineering—to keep... Read more »

  Brian Dowling3/26/19

• Analysts: Proteostasis Data Are No Boost vs. Vertex in Cystic Fibrosis

  As with cancer and HIV infection, progress in treatment for the genetic disorder cystic fibrosis has come with ever-more sophisticated cocktails of drugs.

  Proteostasis Therapeutics (NASDAQ: PTI) is one of the firms trying to catch up to cystic fibrosis leader... Read more »

  Alex Lash3/25/19

• Qualcomm Backs Industrial IoT Security Firm CyberX in $18M Round

  CyberX, an industrial “Internet-of-things” security startup, has raised $18 million in a funding round led by the venture arm of chip-maker Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM) and Inven Capital, a cleantech and new energy fund based in Prague, the Czech Republic.

  Waltham,... Read more »

  Brian Dowling3/25/19

• Thermo Bags Brammer For $1.7B as Gene Therapy Deal Spree Continues

  Thermo Fisher Scientific late Sunday evening agreed to buy Brammer Bio for $1.7 billion, yet another bet by a large biopharmaceutical organization on the future of gene therapy.

  Thermo (NYSE: TMO), a Waltham, MA, developer of lab equipment, made... Read more »

  Ben Fidler3/25/19

• Bolt Founder Ben Einstein Leaves Hardware Tech VC Firm

  Ben Einstein, co-founder and general partner of hardware-focused investor Bolt, says he has left the venture capital firm he started as his partner, Grace, enters chemotherapy for a cancer diagnosis.

  “Through this gut-wrenching experience, the things I enjoy doing and that... Read more »

  Brian Dowling3/22/19

• Boston Tech Watch: Notarize, Optimus Ride, LogRocket & More

  The self-driving cars are coming (to a gated development near you). Board additions at a novel tech startup. Another big funding round for an industrial 3D printing startup. The Endeavor v. QinetiQ robot competition’s final chapter. Read on for more.

  —Online... Read more »

  Brian Dowling3/22/19

• Bio Roundup: Sage Postpartum Help, Biogen Bids Adu, Heart Beats & More

  One group of people in dire need of medical relief got good news this week. The first drug for postpartum depression was approved. With its complicated logistics, side effects, and potential high cost, it won’t be for everyone who experiences the... Read more »

  Alex Lash3/22/19

• Adieu to Adu: Biogen’s Big Alzheimer’s Bet Flops, Shares Routed

  Another once-promising drug for Alzheimer’s disease has failed. And the news is devastating for the drug’s developer, Biogen (NASDAQ: BIIB), which went all in on a high-stakes gamble that its treatment, aducanumab, might succeed where so many others haven’t.

  This... Read more »

  Ben Fidler3/21/19

• CRISPR Diagnostic Race Heats Up as Sherlock Bio Launches With $35M

  The high-stakes race to use CRISPR gene editing technology to create medicines has been underway for years now, and human trials are just starting. But the idea of using CRISPR as a tool to detect and diagnose a disease has... Read more »

  Ben Fidler3/21/19

• As Exact Sciences’ Sales Surge, CEO Reflects on 10-Year Turnaround

  A decade ago, Kevin Conroy took the CEO job at Exact Sciences, a cancer diagnostic firm on the brink of death. Five years later, the FDA greenlit the company’s first product, Cologuard, which marked the first non-invasive, stool-based DNA... Read more »

  Jeff Engel3/20/19

• Pfizer Bolsters Gene Therapy Position with $51M Vivet Deal

  Pfizer this morning added to its methodical push into the gene therapy field, paying $51 million for a 15 percent stake in Vivet Therapeutics and the option to buy the Parisian biotech in the future.

  Vivet is developing an experimental gene... Read more »

  Ben Fidler3/20/19

• Flagship Reloads With $824M For Latest Growth Capital Fund

  Flagship Pioneering, one of the Boston area’s top biotech company creators, has closed a new $824 million fund to help fuel the growth of its startups.

  The new fund—Special Opportunities Fund II—will complement the cash the firm uses to start its... Read more »

  Ben Fidler3/20/19

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• 3D Printing Startup Markforged Raises $82M to Invest in Products

  Venture capital seems to be onboard with the fourth industrial revolution.

  As the proud poster children for the tech-driven wave of change, industrial 3D printing companies have raised big dollars in the last few years, with Burlington, MA-based Desktop Metal in... Read more »

  Brian Dowling3/20/19

• FDA OKs Depression Drug For New Moms: Fast Relief But Tough to Take

  The FDA has just made brexanolone (Zulresso) the first medicine approved specifically for post-partum depression, a potentially devastating disorder that afflicts roughly one in every seven new mothers in the U.S., according to the American Psychological Association

  Now the drug’s owner,... Read more »

  Ben Fidler3/19/19

• Magnitude Software Takes $179M from Private Equity Firm 3i Group

  Austin—[Updated 10:10 a.m. See below.] Magnitude Software is selling a $179 million stake in the company to London-based private equity firm 3i Group.

  Chris Ney, the founder, chairman, and CEO of Magnitude, is investing alongside 3i, the company... Read more »

  David Holley3/19/19

• Flipside Crypto Grading Scheme Expands to CoinMarketCap, Others

  Flipside Crypto, a Boston startup developing analytics for cryptocurrencies, has landed its main metric onto CoinMarketCap and other financial websites including MarketWatch, TheStreet and Stocktwits, the company says.

  Founded in 2017, Flipside says its Fundamental Crypto Asset Score—FCAS for short—rates the... Read more »

  Brian Dowling3/18/19

• JLabs’ Luby Takes the Reins at TMC Innovation Institute in Houston

  Houston—Tom Luby, the head of JLabs in Houston, has been named the new director of the Texas Medical Center’s Innovation Institute, the center announced Monday morning.

  Luby takes over the innovation institute three months after former director Erik Halvorsen left... Read more »

  Angela Shah3/18/19

• Bio Roundup: Golumbeski’s Legacy, CRISPR Moratorium, Rebate Week & More

  While all eyes in the biopharmaceutical world are currently trained on Bristol-Myers Squibb’s proposal to buy Celgene for $74 billion, it wasn’t that long ago that another company’s gaze was fixed on the Summit, NJ, drug maker.

  In the early... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan3/15/19

• Boston Tech Watch: Dill the Pickle Robot, Via Separations & More

  There’s robotics news, clinical research companies raising cash, and plenty of early-stage venture capital money moving in the Boston technology world this week. Read on for more:

  —Via Separations, a startup developing energy-efficient filtration technology, has raised $4.8 million in a... Read more »

  Brian Dowling3/15/19

• Keen, a San Antonio SaaS Startup Owned by Scaleworks, Hires New CEO

  San Antonio—Ben Kuhn has been promoted to become the CEO of Keen, a San Antonio startup that helps software developers with custom application programming interfaces for data collection and analytics.

  Kuhn was hired as the general manager of Keen in... Read more »

  David Holley3/14/19

• Gene Therapy Boom, Cracking Alzheimer’s: What’s Hot on May 21

  Our annual half-day life sciences variety show, “What’s Hot in Biotech,” is back. Join Xconomy on May 21 at Bristol-Myers Squibb’s brand new offices in Kendall Square for a series of candid discussions, in a variety of formats, on... Read more »

  Ashley Gentile3/14/19

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• X4 Completes Reverse Merger with Arsanis, Looks Ahead to Phase 3 Test

  X4 Pharmaceuticals is the latest biotech to join the public markets, but it didn’t follow the IPO path to get there.

  Cambridge, MA-based X4 said Wednesday that it completed its “reverse merger” with Arsanis (NASDAQ: ASNS). Such business... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan3/13/19

• Nominations Are Open for the 2019 Xconomy Awards in Boston

  John Maraganore, CEO of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals; Penny Heaton, CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Medical Research Institute; digital health leader Pear Therapeutics; and renowned women-in-science advocate and MIT professor emerita Nancy Hopkins. These outstanding leaders were among the winners of... Read more »

  Corie Lok3/13/19

• Clinical Analytics Platform TriNetX Raises $40M to Speed Drug Trials

  TriNetX, a Cambridge, MA, developer of data analytics software for clinical research, has raised $40 million in a Series D funding round led by Merck’s corporate venture capital fund, the company said.

  The company’s analytics platform helps pharma companies detail the... Read more »

  Brian Dowling3/13/19

• The Investments Cisco, Samsung, Toyota, and Chevron Are Making in AI

  Austin—If you’re a startup talking up your artificial intelligence chops in your venture capital pitch, you’re not alone.

  For Cisco Investments, the venture arm of tech giant Cisco, artificial intelligence is no longer one of the key trends to watch... Read more »

  David Holley3/13/19

• Drug-Price Watchdog ICER Dives into Trump-Fueled Pharma Rebate Debate

  [Updated 3/13/19, 12:20pm. See below.] With public and political winds blowing in the same direction, significant reform of the complicated U.S. drug-pricing system seems ever more likely. One part of the system that the Trump administration wants to overhaul... Read more »

  Alex Lash3/13/19

• Jibo’s Last Dance, and the Social Robot’s Hope for the Afterlife

  Last summer, dozens of former Jibo employees returned to the defunct company’s Boston offices for a long weekend of pizza, beer, and brainstorming. The task: How do you teach the company’s “social robot” to say goodbye?

  Rich Sadowsky, Jibo’s former head... Read more »

  Brian Dowling3/12/19

• The Life, Troubles, and Celgene Legacy of Deal Guru George Golumbeski

  George Golumbeski is one of the most prolific dealmakers in the biopharmaceutical world. But the deal that changed his life is a pact he made with himself when he was ten years old.

  Playing with friends in front of his house... Read more »

  Ben Fidler3/11/19

• FDA Clears Way for AquaBounty to Raise Salmon in America’s Heartland

  It’s been more than three years since the FDA approved salmon from AquaBounty Technologies, but debates about labels and other requirements have kept the genetically engineered fish from reaching dining plates. On Friday, the FDA removed the last regulatory hurdle standing... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan3/8/19

• Bio Roundup: Gottlieb Exits, Bristol Defends, Biogen Buys & More

  In early 2017, Scott Gottlieb was considered the most moderate of the potential candidates to head the Food and Drug Administration, which is the most powerful regulator of medical products in the world.

  It wasn’t a high bar to clear. Libertarians... Read more »

  Alex Lash3/8/19

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