Archive for the ‘Boston’ Category

May
18

Massachusetts plants seed for new biotech destination

Posted under Bay State, Blog, Boston, Cambridge, Companies, Deval Patrick, Diagnostics, Fall River, Funding, massachusetts, Massachusetts Accelerator for Biomanufacturing, Medical Devices, Medical Supply, Pharmaceuticals, R&D, Startups, Universities, University of Massuchusetts, Videos by Ryan McBride

With plans to kick-start a bumper crop of biotech activity in Fall River, MA, Massachusetts officials are touting plans for a $28 million biotech facility in the southeastern part of the Bay State. Plans call for the Massachusetts Accelerator for Biomanufacturing to attract a host of startups and companies that will hopefully put the small city on the biotech map.

Yet the site is far from even approaching the biotech largesse of Boston/Cambridge. This week Gov. Deval Patrick and officials from the University of Massachusetts, which will run the new facility, stood on the muddy construction site and talked up the future prospects of the project, The Herald News reported. With grand projections to employ 8,000 people at a life sciences park planned for the area, the biotech facility is expected to house a modest 10 UMass employees when it opens next year.

Patrick championed the growth of the life sciences industry in the Bay State with a $1 billion plan to stimulate biotech activity that was passed early in his first term, yet lawmakers from around the state demanded that the money flow to areas outside of the state's industry core in the Boston area. The state's Life Sciences Center, which administers the stimulus money, granted about half of the funding for the project with UMass and other sources cobbled together the rest, according to the Herald.

Fall River has a history as a hub of manufacturing in the Bay State, and officials hope that the production of life sciences products in the city will bring new jobs. The new facility will serve as a test site for producing biotech products and house startups involved in life sciences.

- here's the Herald article

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May
15

New chief takes helm at Promedior and steers a course for Boston

Posted under Blog, Boston, Chutes and Ladders, Companies, Diagnostics, Funding, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, Medical Devices, Medical Supply, myelofibrosis, Pharmaceuticals, Promedior, Shire, Startups, Suzanne Bruhn, Universities, Videos by john

Just a couple of months after Promedior lined up its $21.5 million D round for fibrosis drug work, a new CEO has stepped up to the helm with plans to abandon Philadelphia and head for the bustling biotech hub in Boston.

"I think it's just a time of change generally," newly named CEO Suzanne Bruhn tells FierceBiotech. "After the closing of the Series D, it's a nice, well financed company for the future, moving to later stage clinical trials. The decision was made to transition to a more product-focused company."

Bruhn had been senior vice president, strategic planning and program management for Shire's Human Genetic Therapies division. She replaces Dominick Colangelo, who left the small biotech in the proverbial pursuit of "other opportunities."

Promedior has an early-stage study under way for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. And there's a mid-stage trial being planned for myelofibrosis, currently slated to get under way early next year. Bruhn says she hasn't yet decided where to move to in the Cambridge/Boston area.

Like a lot of early-stage biotechs, Promedior has always aimed at keeping the staff small, relying on outsourcing much of the work to vendors. The company's payroll has stayed consistently at about a dozen. Bruhn says the company may expand on that a little, but not a lot. And she adds Promedior will be hiring in Boston, though she adds that staffers in Philadelphia are still mulling over the prospect of moving.

- here's the press release

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Apr
24

Merck KGaA shuttering Swiss complex, dispatching R&D to Boston

Posted under Blog, Boston, Companies, Diagnostics, Funding, Medical Devices, Medical Supply, Merck, Merck KgAA, Merck Serono, Pharmaceuticals, Startups, Universities, Videos by john

Once again a big pharma company is restructuring in the wake of a dismal R&D record. And once again the Boston research hub is coming out ahead in the deal.

Today it's Merck KGaA's turn to downsize. The pharma giant is closing the swanky Swiss headquarters facility it picked up in the big Serono takeover, laying off more than 500 workers while dispersing hundreds more to Boston as well as Darmstadt and Beijing. The headquarters functions at the company are all being consolidated in Darmstadt as Merck Serono relocates a total of some 750 workers to facilities around the world. And to help take some of the sting out of the big layoffs planned in Switzerland, the company plans to invest up to $40 million in seed financing for any companies that spin out of the company during the restructuring.

Merck KGaA was once considered a leader in the race for an oral MS drug. But the poorly conceived cladribine program failed to produce the kind of data needed to convince regulators, forcing the company to scrap the program and take a hard look at who was running the research division and exactly what they were accomplishing. The pharma giant has been talking about laying off staffers for months, and now plans to start handing out pink slips in the second half of the year. Downsizing workforces in Europe is no easy matter, leaving Merck KGaA looking to the first half of 2013 to complete much of the restructuring.

The global work being done to reengineer Big Pharma's pipeline has proven a boon to Boston, where the booming R&D hub has been rewarded with jobs from companies like Pfizer ($PFE). As Bloomberg notes in its coverage, Merck Serono's Lake Geneva facility cost $1.25 billion to build, featuring a glass and steel roof that can be tilted to help cool the building. That 725,000-square-foot complex will now go on the market.

- here's the press release
- read the Bloomberg report

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Apr
11

Partnering Launches for the International Convention

Posted under 2012 BIO International Convention, 2012 Business Forum, BIO Events, Blog, Boston, Business and Investments, business development, Companies, Diagnostics, Events, exhibitor partnering, Funding, Medical Devices, Medical Supply, One-on-One's, Partnering, Pharmaceuticals, profile, search, Startups, Universities, Videos, What would George do? by biotechnow@bio.org (Biotechnology Industry Organization)

It’s here folks! The One-on-One Partnering™ System for this year’s BIO Business Forum® and Exhibitor Partnering has officially launched! What does that mean? If you’re registered for the event, you’ll be receiving your login credentials shortly. If you’re not registered, you should do that now, so you can get in to the system. From there, you can start building your company’s profile, search for companies, and send your targeted meeting requests.

This year, we’re pleased to debut a variety of new and exciting features. The biggest of all being the addition of Exhibitors in the Partnering System. We’ll go into more detail about some key differences between the Business Forum and Exhibitor Partnering in a future post, but for now, take a look at some other new features.

The new and improved Company Profile! There was a point in time when you had to complete 10 steps in order to add information about your company. How many are there now? Four! The change is not just about making it easier to complete and update your profile – it’s meant to consolidate the most important things about your company and allow your visitors to get the true breadth of what you do. At the end of the day, it’s not only about licensing projects, it’s about being able to list all the products and services, current and future, and the brand of your company’s work.

The Delegate Profile becomes more relevant. For the first time ever, the information you add to your delegate profile can be carried over to a future One-on-One Partnering event. Plus, it’s been simplified, and you can add the networks you care about most.

Search arrives in the Message Center. Sometimes, you need to find an email pretty quickly, especially when you’re onsite at the event. Voila! You can now search for companies in your messages. We think this will prove to be one of the handiest upgrades for our attendees.

We’ll be going into more detail about these new features in future posts, so please stay tuned! You can also reach us at biopartnering@bio.org with any questions or comments about the system.