Boston ad agency Arnold Worldwide said it is collaborating with Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project to launch Reality Drop, an initiative using online game mechanics as it seeks to build an advocacy community to take on critics of global warming. Reality Drop offers a database of “climate-change myths” along with the science to refute them. “We had to custom-design a strategy that wouldn’t just find the right people passionate about this topic, but also make it easy for them to speak up and take part in real-time discussions that work in our digital culture,” Arnold’s Pete Favat said. Marlborough drug maker Sunovion Pharmaceuticals Inc. said that US regulators have agreed to review its application to market a potential new treatment for the most common form of epilepsy. The drug candidate is called Stedesa, the proposed trade name for eslicarbazepine acetate, and if approved, Stedesa could offer US adults with epilepsy a way to manage partial onset seizures. Epilepsy is a neurological disorder that affects nearly 2.2 million people in the US. Sunovion expects the FDA to make a decision about Stedesa later this year. Plastiq, a Boston company that provides online payment services to merchants, said it has closed a $6 milliion round of Series A financing. The round was jointly led by venture capital firms Atlas Venture and Flybridge Capital Partners. Investors from the previous round, NextView Ventures and Greenoaks Capital Management LLC, also participated alongside angel investors including Harvey Golub, former chairman and CEO of American Express. Plastiq’s cofounders Dan Choi and Eliot Buchanan logged time at Harvard’s i-lab. Staples Inc., the Framingham-based office supply giant, announced Thursday a rewards program that gives members 5 percent back on everything, including technology and services, and provides free shipping on Staples.com. The new program is scheduled to start on March 15, and it was influenced by feedback from the company’s small business customers, Staples said. Kala Pharmaceuticals Inc. said Thursday that it has secured $11.5 million in Series A equity financing. New and lead investor, Crown Venture Fund LLC joined Kala’s existing investors, including Lux Capital Management, Polaris Venture Partners, and Third Rock Ventures. Waltham-based Kala is developing products that are capable of penetrating mucosal barriers for the treatment of major diseases that affect the eyes, lungs, gastrointestinal tract, and female reproductive system. One of Kala’s cofounders is Robert Langer of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Commercial real estate developer Forest City Enterprises plans to break ground this fall on a stalled 250,000-square-foot biotechnology office and lab complex at 300 Massachusetts Ave. in Cambridge, outside Central Square, after the City Council approved the zoning petition. The building will be occupied by Millennium Pharmaceuticals, the Japanese-owned cancer drug company, which has about 1,200 employees in Massachusetts and is outgrowing its space in a half dozen other buildings at Forest City’s University Park development near the proposed site. Several months after buying discount Internet retailer Sierra Trading Post, TJX Cos. disclosed plans to launch ecommerce websites later this year to hawk the Framingham retailer’s offprice merchandise. TJX chief executive Carol Meyrowitz said in a conference call Wednesday that the company aims to develop a T.J. Maxx website in a “controlled, small test mode in the back half of this year.” | 
| |
No comments:
Post a Comment