1) Patrick signs bill tackling health care costs Wicked Local – 08/06/2012

Gov. Deval Patrick signed a sweeping health care reform law on Monday that seeks to build on the state’s near universal access to insurance by reining in costs and improving the quality and transparency of care. As it did for former Gov. Mitt Romney, the bill holds the potential, for better or worse, to become a defining accomplishment for both Patrick and the House and Senate leaders who crafted the legislation.

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2) OvaScience ups most recent round to $4M Mass High Tech – 08/06/2012

Fertility treatment startup OvaScience Inc. has added another $2.5 million and 75 new investors to an equity offering it first reported in early July, bringing the total amount the company has raised this year to more than $40 million. A federal filing Monday is the company’s second amendment to one first filed on July 5. The amendment raises the amount the company is reporting to have raised from $1.6 million to $4 million, and says there are now 116 investors involved in the round, an increase from 41 in July.

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3) FDA approves Sanofi/Regeneron colon cancer drug Reuters – 08/03/2012

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Friday that it had approved the Sanofi SA and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc drug Zaltrap for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer whose tumors have failed to respond to earlier treatment with chemotherapy. The infused medicine, to be taken in combination with standard chemotherapy, will compete with Roche Holding AG’s Avastin and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co’s Erbitux.

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4) Tokai taps ex-AstraZeneca exec as new CMO Mass High Tech – 08/09/2012

Cambridge biopharmaceutical business Tokai Pharmaceuticals has named Adrian Senderowicz, M.D. as its new head of medical development. The former medical director of oncology clinical development at AstraZeneca will take the role of chief medical officer and vice president of medical development at Tokai, and will help advance its lead drug candidate, galeterone.

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5) Alnylam says it’s on track to meet ’5×15′ goal  Mass High Tech – 08/07/2012

A year-and-a-half since Alnylam announced a plan to have five RNA interference (RNAi) drug candidates in clinical trials by the end of 2015, the company says it’s still on course to meet that goal. And investors appear to believe it, too. he Cambridge company’s so-called “5×15” strategy was launched in January 2011. COO Barry Greene told Mass High Tech that it came at a time when RNAi therapeutics – a method by which genes in cells can be turned off, preventing disease-causing proteins from being made – wasn’t particularly popular among investors.

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