As MicroCHIPS Inc. prepares to leave the laboratory and enter clinical development, the company is bringing in a new CEO to replace outgoing co-founder John Santini.
The Bedford, Mass.-based drug delivery systems developer tapped Ajit Gill, the former CEO of Auspex Pharmaceuticals and Nektar Therapeutics, for its corner office. In addition to his duties as president and CEO, Gill will also sit on the company’s board of directors.
Isis Biopolymer Inc., a company developing a new generation of non-invasive drug delivery patches, has raised $3 million through an equity sale to existing investors.
The Providence, R.I.-based firm has developed the Isis Patch, a compact, wireless, active iontophoretic patch using a design that implements advances in microprocessors, thin film batteries, biopolymers and adhesives.
In a statement sent to MassDevice, CEO Emma Durand said the current round “clearly shows the confidence of the investment community in Isis Biopolymer and our innovative transdermal drug delivery and biosensor technology.”
Echo Therapeutics Inc. (OTC:ECTE) reached a milestone with one of its two flagship products, the Prelude SkinPrep system, which is ready for clinical trials examining its use in dispensing lidocaine.
The Franklin, Mass.-based company, which is also developing a needle-free glucose monitoring system called the Symphony tCGM, said its development work on the Prelude system is complete and it’s ready for a study in the “near term.”
What does MicroCHIPS Inc. have in common with Twitter?
Both were among a pool of 26 firms named 2010 Technology Pioneers by the World Economic Forum in Switzerland. The awards are handed out yearly to companies that are “involved in the development of a life-changing technology innovation and have the potential for long-term impact on business and society.”
The 26 companies were winnowed from a pool of 300 applicants and judged by 58 “experts,” according to the Swiss think tank, from the ranks of academia, media and industry.
Echo Therapeutics Inc. will complete a clinical study of its Symphony non-invasive, wireless transdermal continuous glucose monitoring system by the fourth quarter, in what would be a major step forward for a company that has burned through more than $60 million trying to bring its products to market.
MicroCHIPS Inc. may have been the result of divine inspiration (as the story goes, MIT professor Robert Langer thought of the idea while watching PBS), but it took people like Maggie Pax to turn his vision into a suite of implantable devices that could one day revolutionize medicine.
MassDevice caught Rob Campbell, Insulet Corp.‘s vice president of clinical research, on his way to dinner in Paris after a day spent lining up a distribution deal for the company’s flagship OmniPod insulin management system.
European Union regulators gave the nod for the device to hit the market there, meaning the Bedford-based diabetes device maker is cleared to start selling the OmniPod in countries that recognize the EU’s CE Mark.
