Latest Posts

• Failed Clinical Trial Puts Eli Lilly Cancer Drug in Limbo

  An Eli Lilly drug on the market for a rare form of cancer is now in limbo, after it failed a trial needed to retain the FDA approval the treatment, known as olaratumab (Lartruvo), won two years ago.

  Lilly (NYSE: LLY... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan1/18/19

• Michigan Mobility Institute Aims to Expand AV Talent, Ecosystem

  A new tech education effort is forming in Detroit—created by Fontinalis Partners co-founder Chris Thomas—that focuses on teaching adult students the skills they need to compete for the increasingly large number of open jobs in the mobility industry.

  Called the Detroit... Read more »

  Sarah Schmid Stevenson1/18/19

• Bio Roundup: Aimmune Drama, Shutdown Blues, Perlmutter Talks Cancer

  The partial government shutdown, now the longest in U.S. history, began to take a bite out of biotech this week, served with a hot side dish of confusion.

  On Tuesday, Aimmune Therapeutics (NASDAQ: AIMT) said the shutdown would delay the... Read more »

  Ben Fidler1/18/19

• Educational Play Kit Company Osmo Sold to India’s Edtech Firm Byju’s for $120M

  Byju’s, an edtech company based in India that claims a $3.6 billion valuation based on its sales success there, announced it has acquired Palo Alto, CA-based learning-through-play firm Osmo for $120 million.

  Named after the teacher Byju Raveendran, who founded... Read more »

  Bernadette Tansey1/17/19

• FDA’s Gottlieb Adds Confusion to Aimmune’s Claims of Shutdown Delay

  The first biotech company to cite the partial government shutdown as a reason for serious delay was Aimmune Therapeutics (NASDAQ: AIMT), as Xconomy reported Tuesday. The announcement, however, soon raised more questions than answers.

  Aimmune reported in a regulatory... Read more »

  Alex Lash1/17/19

• What’s Your Emergency? Law Enforcement’s Increasing Interest in Tech

  Fort Worth, TX—Data analytics and visual search technologies are increasingly being used by law enforcement agencies, growth that has captured the attention of tech giant Motorola.

  The Chicago-based tech company, which has long sold narrow-band radios to law enforcement, has... Read more »

  Angela Shah1/17/19

• CommonGrounds Raises $100M to Open More New Flexible Office Spaces

  Billions of dollars have already flowed to the purveyors of shared workspaces, and the investment spigot isn’t turning off yet.

  CommonGrounds Workspace, a San Diego, CA-based company that operates flexible office spaces in California and Colorado today, announced Wednesday that it... Read more »

  Sarah de Crescenzo1/17/19

• ScoutRFP Scores $33M to Compete in Supplier Management Sector

  ScoutRFP, whose software is designed to help businesses streamline the process of ordering goods from suppliers, announced that it raised $33 million in a Series C fundraising round led by Scale Venture Partners.

  San Francisco-based Scout, part of a tech... Read more »

  Bernadette Tansey1/16/19

• NAIAS: Ford’s Foray into Microtransit Proved Valuable, Klevorn Says

  Detroit’s North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) pulled back the curtains for a media preview Monday and Tuesday before it opens its doors to the public next week.

  Coming on the heels of CES—the annual technology conference in Las Vegas that... Read more »

  Sarah Schmid Stevenson1/16/19

• After 33 Exits in 5 Years, WI Seeks “More and Bigger” Startup Deals

  When Propeller Health’s founders initially tried to raise funding for their new healthcare technology venture, many of the investors they spoke with were hesitant to take the risk.

  It was the early part of this decade, and Propeller was navigating the... Read more »

  Jeff Engel1/16/19

• Merck And The Future of Immuno-Oncology: A Chat With Roger Perlmutter

  Cancer immunotherapy is, in a word, tantalizing. It might save the life of someone at death’s door and keep the cancer at bay for years. Or it might not work at all. There’s no telling what a patient will experience.

  “There’s... Read more »

  Ben Fidler1/16/19

• Five Prime’s Shakeup Cuts Staff 20%, Keeps Focus on Clinical Programs

  Five Prime Therapeutics is cutting its headcount by 20 percent, part of a cash-saving effort the company is making to focus on the cancer drugs it has already advanced into clinical trials.

  South San Francisco, CA-based Five Prime (NASDAQ: FPRX)... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan1/15/19

• A VC’s Take: Global Volatility Hurts U.S. Venture Ecosystem

  As Xconomy’s editors looked back at the year just passed, we asked technology leaders to comment on the trends they’d observed in 2018, and the developments they expected in 2019. Some leaders responded with their views on the business impact of... Read more »

  Bernadette Tansey1/15/19

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• Government Shutdown Hits Biotech as FDA Punts Review of Aimmune Drug

  [Updated, 11:25 am ET, see below] The partial U.S. government shutdown has just had its first tangible effects on the potential approval of a new drug: The FDA review of a peanut allergy treatment from Aimmune Therapeutics (NASDAQ: AIMT... Read more »

  Ben Fidler1/15/19

• San Diego Life Science Companies See Stock Bumps, Slips in JPM Wake

  The massive life sciences meeting now known as the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference started out as a clubby get-together hosted by investment bank Hambrecht & Quist.

  Back in the days of H&Q, bankers and entrepreneurs flocked to San Francisco to get... Read more »

  Sarah de Crescenzo1/14/19

• Pensa, AI-Enabled Drones Maker for Inventory Monitoring, Raises $5M

  [Updated, 1/18/19, 1:10 pm CT] Austin—The grocery store shelf has yet to be plugged into the increasingly digital food supply chain. Instead, inventory is typically tallied by employees by hand in a slow and laborious process.

  “It’s one... Read more »

  Angela Shah1/13/19

• E-Commerce Startups, Legacy Stores Grapple With Changing Retail Scene

  The changing of the guard transforming retail is accelerating.

  Sears, the nation’s first “everything store,” is teetering toward bankruptcy after years of stagnation as industry leaders prepare to gather in New York at the National Retail Federation’s annual conference. Yet, new... Read more »

  Angela Shah1/11/19

• Tech Companies Share Shutdown Losses, With Little Chance of Back Pay

  As federal agency employees miss their first paychecks today due to the partial government shutdown that began Dec. 22, federal contractors and their workers—including technology professionals—face a loss of income that they may never recover.

  Big technology companies such as Oracle... Read more »

  Bernadette Tansey1/11/19

• Report: After a Boffo 2018, VC Deals in Digital Health May Flatten

  Investments in digital health startups totaled $8.1 billion in 2018, a record year that marked a 42 percent increase over 2017’s total, according to a report released this week by Rock Health. But the report’s authors say it’s unlikely that... Read more »

  Jeff Buchanan1/11/19

• Bio Roundup: #JPM19 Notes, Loxo Buyout, Black Diamond’s Cash & More

  Diabetes drugs are Eli Lilly’s bread and butter, but the pharmaceutical giant hasn’t lost its appetite for cancer drugs. It grabbed hold of a few more this week by betting $8 billion on Loxo Oncology.

  Loxo (NASDAQ: LOXO) has made... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan1/11/19

• Notes from the JPM19 Vortex: Price Apocalypse, Celgene Fallout & More

  [Editor’s note: Ben Fidler and Sarah de Crescenzo coauthored this report.] It is here, and then it is gone. But by the time everyone staggers to the airport or back home to sleep in their own beds, the annual... Read more »

  Alex Lash1/11/19

• Uncertainty Grows for Biotech as Government, FDA Shutdown Drags On

  The partial government shutdown could soon become the longest shutdown in history, and biotech firms that have submitted regulatory filings are facing greater uncertainty about their future plans. More than 40 percent of FDA workers and thousands at the SEC are... Read more »

  Corie Lok1/10/19

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• FAANG, Public Trust, Valuations, in 2019: The Read from Menlo Ventures

  The market caps of some of the most successful tech titans reach as high as $1 trillion. Yet in 2018, perceptions about these dominant companies often reflected uneasiness and doubt—and for some, so did their stock performance.

  Maybe the mood shift... Read more »

  Bernadette Tansey1/10/19

• Black Diamond Gets $85M for Cancer Drugs R&D and New Cambridge HQ

  When Black Diamond Therapeutics emerged from stealth mode last month with $20 million in backing and a handful of preclinical cancer drugs, the company signaled that another financing was in the works for 2019. That day is here.

  Black Diamond announced... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan1/10/19

• Big Deals, Life Sciences Push U.S. VC in 2018 to Dot-Com Boom Levels

  [Updated 1/18/19, 3:27 pm. See below.] Venture capital investments rose in 2018 to levels not seen since the heady days of 2000, the last year U.S. startups collectively took in more than $100 billion.

  That’s according to PitchBook and... Read more »

  Sarah de Crescenzo1/10/19

• Beta Bionics Secures $63M as AI-Driven “Pancreas” Heads to Key Tests

  Beta Bionics, a startup developing a medical device that monitors and manages blood sugar levels in diabetes patients, has closed $63 million to back late-stage clinical tests of its AI-powered technology.

  The cash tops off a Series B round of funding... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan1/9/19

• With Room To Grow, Facebook Boston Moves Into Shiny, New Office

  Facebook’s new Boston office—which is really in Cambridge, MA—is up and running, and there’s plenty of elbow room.

  The digs measure 130,000 square feet of open-style tech workspaces, something called micro-kitchens, a massive cafeteria, and cheeky-titled conference rooms. Floor-to-ceiling windows offer... Read more »

  Brian Dowling1/9/19

• The Power Combo of A.I. Devices with Cloudlets Comes with Cyber Risks

  When we have a chance to view it from a distance, the year 2018 may be seen as a period when innovations in a number of technological fields came together to transform not only the future of computing, but also the... Read more »

  Bernadette Tansey1/8/19

• Motorola Solutions Pays $445M for VaaS, Which Tracks Car Locations

  Fort Worth—Motorola Solutions (NYSE: MSI) is acquiring a Texas company that sells law enforcement offices and private businesses data it collects about license plates—which can reveal where a car is at a certain time, say—for $445 million in cash... Read more »

  David Holley1/7/19

• Alector Files for IPO to Fund Studies of Alzheimer’s, Dementia Drugs

  Alector, a biotech company focusing on the immune system to treat degenerative brain disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, has filed to go public to fund human tests of its experimental therapies.

  South San Francisco, CA-based Alector set a preliminary $150 million... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan1/7/19

• Microsoft, Kroger Advance Grocery Tech to Fend Off Amazon

  From the cloud on down to the floors of supermarkets, the rivalry between Microsoft and Amazon spans many sectors in software, gadgets, and increasingly, retail.

  The Seattle-area tech giants are battling—both with one another, and other competitors—to further digitize grocery shopping.... Read more »

  Jeff Buchanan1/7/19

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