Category: Research & Development

Bioscience Vaccines grabs $400,000 in seed funding

March 3, 2010 by MedCity News

By Brandon Glenn

WEST LAFAYETTE, Indiana — Bioscience Vaccines Inc. received a $400,000 seed investment to develop technology that enhances the effectiveness of vaccines.

The company will use the funding to prepare for a Phase 1 human clinical trial, no doubt hoping that recent publicity surrounding vaccines for the H1N1 influenza virus will help it draw the attention of additional investors.

Parexel expands clinical testing facilities in South Africa

February 23, 2010 by MassDevice staff

Parexel International Corp. (NSDQ:PRXL) opened up a new facility for early-phase studies in patients in South Africa, adding to its presence in that country and increasing its capacity worldwide.

The Waltham, Mass.-based contract research organization's early-phase studies business provides a range of clinical testing studies for medical devices and drug compounds from first-in-man through proof-of-concept studies. Parexel has more than 580 beds in four countries in North America, the United Kingdom, Germany and South Africa. The new 40-bed facility in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, is the third facility in that country, according to a

Charles River Labs: Back in black

February 8, 2010 by MassDevice staff

Less than a month after it announcing layoffs for 300 workers in Massachusetts, Charles River Laboratories International Inc. (NYSE:CRL) swung to a profit during 2009.

But it's unlikely that anyone at the Wilmington, Mass.-based contract research organization, which announced in January that it will suspend operations at its preclinical services unit in Shrewsbury, was celebrating the return to black ink.

In the fourth quarter of 2008, the company took a massive, non-cash goodwill impairment charge of $700 million, which led it to report a a $525 million loss for the year. Absent the write-down, the 2009 results looked rosier, but only on the surface.

Pressure BioSciences picks up five new U.S., international patents

January 12, 2010 by MassDevice staff

Pressure BioSciences Inc. (NASQ:PBIO) has five new patents to protect its intellectual property following recent actions by U.S. and foreign regulatory bodies.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued Easton, Mass.-based PBIO a patent for its pressure-enhanced extraction and purification technology, complementing the company's three previously issued patents for pressure-cycling inventions. Regulators in Japan and Canada each issued a new patent to PBIO recently, while IP Australia issued two patents.

The new rulings increase the company's patent total to 24 — 14 in the U.S. and three each in Europe and Australia and two apiece in Japan and Canada.

Charles River Labs to lay off nearly 300 workers in Shrewsbury

January 11, 2010 by MassDevice staff

Charles River Laboratories International Inc. (NYSE:CRL) suspended operations at its preclinical services unit in Shrewsbury, a move that will result in about 300 layoffs.

About 30 of the 300 employees will be kept on to maintain the facility or be reassigned to other positions within the company, according to a spokeswoman for the Wilmington, Mass.-based contract research organization. Operations will resume at the facility when "global preclinical market conditions improve and the Company requires additional capacity," according to a press release.

The preclinical unit provides the services required to take a drug through the development process, including discovery support, toxicology, pathology, as well as Phase I clinical trials, according to the company.

BioTrove spits out RapidFire spinout Biocious Life Sciences

December 16, 2009 by MassDevice staff

Biocious Life Sciences, the spinout of BioTrove Inc.'s RapidFire drug screening business, is officially an independent entity.

Woburn, Mass.-based Biocious holds all of the RapidFire mass spectrometry intellectual property. The company also kept all of BioTrove's former RapidFire employees, including chairman and CEO Jeffrey Leathe and the rest of the company's management team.