The Massachusetts Life Sciences Center awarded a total of nearly $4 million in loans to 4 Boston-area life sciences startups – Arch Therapeutics, Bio2 Technologies, ImmuneXcite and MedicaMetrix each received loans of up to $1 million.
The quasi-public agency’s flagship investment program supports and "de-risks" early-stage companies by providing unsecured loans instant decision to match other sources of capital as a part of Massachusetts’ 10 year, $1 billion Life Sciences Initiative.
"Entrepreneurship is essential to the strength of our innovation economy, and the Life Sciences Center’s Accelerator program is playing a crucial role in helping early-stage life sciences companies," Governor Deval Patrick said in prepared remarks. "We look forward to working with these companies as they put down roots and grow in Massachusetts, supporting the future of innovation right here."
Natick, Mass.-based medical device startup Arch Therapeutics aims to help surgeons stop bleeding, control leaking, and mitigate infection during surgery and trauma care.
Bio2Technologies’s flagship CLM Technology allows the use of rapid, low-cost component fabrication methods. The Woburn, Mass.-based device maker is working on early human clinical trial.
ImmuneXcite is a Watertown, Mass.-based biopharmaceutical company, focusing on attacking tumors.
Wayland, Mass.-based medical device maker MedicaMetrix is developing its 1st product, the ProstaGlove, and is paving the way for a 1st-in-man study.
This was MLSC’s 6th round of accelerator loans, the 1st round taking place in December 2008.
The MLSC also said that Cambridge,Mass.-based skin graft company MoMelan Technologies, which was awarded a $750,000 accelerator loan in 2011, repaid it’s loan early with a total of $811,000 after the company was acquired by Texas-based Kinetic Concepts in November.
"The companies in our accelerator portfolio have been making extraordinary progress in attracting private capital, creating jobs and advancing important new medical technologies to the marketplace," MLSC president & CEO Dr. Susan Windham-Bannister said in prepared remarks. "We are pleased to accept MoMelan’s early repayment of our loan, and we look forward to seeing the positive impact that their technology will have on patients."
