NewsFlash Roundup: Aura Biosciences, Biogen, CloudSwitch

Shares drop, lawsuits grow and personnel move in today’s NewsFlash Roundup:

• Bhatia, Best, Kivel join Aura Biosciences advisory boards

Aura Biosciences, a Cambridge-based biotechnology company focused on new drug delivery methods, has added three Boston-area advisors to its leadership team.

• Biogen shares drop on 10th Tysabri PML case

Shares of Biogen Idec Inc. sank Monday after the biotechnology giant confirmed that another patient taking the multiple sclerosis drug Tysabri has been diagnosed with a potentially fatal brain infection called progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy, or PML.

• New funding, CEO and HQ for CloudSwitch

Former SolidWorks Corp. CEO John McEleney will join the company along with the round of funding, which was led by new investors Commonwealth Capital Ventures, and increase the total amount invested in Cloudswitch to $15.4 million.

• Kenneth Bair heads R&D at Forma Therapeutics

Bair joins Forma having worked previously in the same role at EntreMed Inc.; as senior vice president and head of biopharmaceuticals research at Chiron Corp.; and as vice president, discovery oncology, at Pharmacia Corp.

• Pilot study shows promise for combination weight loss device

GI Dynamics has announced results from a pilot clinical study combining the company’s EndoBarrier Gastrointestinal Liner with a new EndoBarrier Flow Restrictor. 

• Alnylam joins suit against Whitehead, MIT, UMass

Filed in Suffolk Superior Court in Boston, the complaint alleges that the Whitehead Institute is in breach of contract with Max Planck and Alnylam  in how it is prosecuting the Tuschl I patent applications, as well as in its fiduciary duty to the co-owners of the Tuschl I patent series.

• Data security breach hits state solar program

The quasi-public agency that administers the program said a file containing the names, addresses and Social Security numbers of 810 customers and businesses was posted on the MTC’s site for 50 minutes before being taken down on June 25.

Posted by Brendan Lynch

Tags: Alnylam, Aura Biosciences, Boston Scientific, CloudSwitch, Commonwealth Capital Ventures, Forma Therapeutics, GI Dynamics, Hepregen, John McEleney, Kenneth Bair, Lawrence Best, Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, Max Planck Society, MIT, Richard Kivel, Sangeeta Bhatia, Theragenetics, UMass, Whitehead Institute

This entry was posted on Monday, June 29th, 2009 at 4:51 pm and is filed under Education & Training, Energy, Entrepreneurship, Envirotech, IT, Internet, Life Sciences, Massachusetts, Networks, Public Policy, Software, Startups. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.