One-on-one meetings were front and center at BIO 2012, with nearly one-fourth of the exhibit floor at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center accommodating the long gray line of nondescript partnering booths.

BOSTON – Since the BIO International Convention was last held in Boston in 2007, the number of publicly traded biotech companies has declined by 35 percent, from 394 to 255, David Thomas, BIO's director of industry research and analysis, told conference attendees Wednesday morning.

BOSTON - The 2012 BIO International Convention may have fallen a tad short of its nadir in 2007, when BIO attendance topped more than 20,000 people from 49 U.S. states, Washington D.C., Puerto Rico and more than 60 countries. But that’s not to say BIO 2012 isn’t a numbers game of the highest order. If you’re one of the more than 17,000 estimated attendees at this year’s conference, you’ll need to have your ducks in a row to navigate in orderly fashion. The volume of participants associated with BIO is on display around the convention center and practically shouted from...

A month after the FDA accepted its new drug application (NDA) for lead compound lomitapide as an adjunct to a low-fat diet and other lipid-lowering therapies to reduce cholesterol in patients with homozygous familial hypercholesteremia (HoFH) and familial chylomicronemia (FC), Aegerion Pharmaceuticals Inc. priced an underwritten public offering of 3.4 million shares of common stock at $14.75 each, seeking to raise approximately $47.3 million.

Global Blood Therapeutics Inc. (GBT) came charging out of the gate Thursday with a $40.7 million Series A, becoming the first company "organically constructed, formed and launched" from the West Coast office of Third Rock Ventures LLC, according to Mark A. Goldsmith, the company's CEO and a Third Rock venture partner.

Privately held Igenica Inc. hooked Third Rock Ventures LLC, which traditionally launches biotech start-ups, as lead investor in a $33 million Series C to propel initial monoclonal antibody (mAb) candidates toward the clinic.

MediGene AG became the latest biotech to choose a royalty deal over other financing options to bolster its bottom line. Last week, the company transferred its 2 percent royalty share of European net sales in prostate cancer drug Eligard (leuprolide acetate) to Cowen Healthcare Royalty Partners II LP for $17.7 million in cash.

Less than two years after its founding and 10 months after licensing its technology from Seattle's Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, privately held Blaze Bioscience Inc. raised $5 million in a Series A financing.

MediGene AG became the latest biotech to choose a royalty deal over other financing options to bolster its bottom line. The company transferred its 2 percent royalty share of European net sales in prostate cancer drug Eligard (leuprolide acetate) to Cowen Healthcare Royalty Partners II LP for $17.7 million in cash.