TomoTherapy CEO is poised to get $4.7 million exit package

If shareholders and regulators approve Accuray’s $277 million purchase of TomoTherapy, chief executive officer Fred Robertson will be out of a job, but he stands to gain an exit package worth $4.7 million. Plus, Robertson owns nearly 600,000 shares of TomoTherapy stock, worth about $2.75 million. Together, they total about $7.5 million for the physician and former anesthesiology professor turned businessman. (WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL, 4/21)

Madison drug company Cellectar to merge with Boston's Novelos

Cellectar Inc., a Madison pharmaceutical company working on cancer-fighting drugs, has merged with a publicly traded Boston-area firm, Novelos Therapeutics Inc. The transaction essentially grafts Cellectar’s research onto the upper management of Novelos. With the merger, Novelos will shift its official headquarters from Newton, Mass., to Madison. (MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL, 4/12)

Cellular Dynamics raises $30 million

Cellular Dynamics International has raised $30 million of funding from mostly Midwestern investors in a deal that hints at the possibility of an initial public offering. The round brings to $100 million the total amount raised by the six-year-old, privately-held company. Cellular Dynamics, known as CDI, will use the latest investments to launch new stem cell lines and increase production capacity, said Robert Palay, chairman and chief executive officer. (MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL, 4/7)

TomoTherapy to be sold to California company

Accuray announced early Monday that it plans to buy TomoTherapy in a $277 million deal, or $4.80 a share in cash and stock. Accuray, founded in 1990, makes the CyberKnife, a robotic radiation therapy device developed at Stanford University that shoots radiation beams at tumors from a variety of angles. TomoTherapy, established in 1997 based on technology with UW-Madison roots, has a Hi-Art system that spirals around a patient firing radiation beams at cancerous tissue. (WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL, 3/8)

FluGen lands $7.8 million shot of investment capital

FluGen Inc. has landed $7.8 million that should help bring one of its leading technologies into human clinical trials this year. Madison-based FluGen will use the money to fund a Phase I clinical trial for its vaccine delivery device, a poker chip-sized, micro-needle skin patch the company says is more effective and less painful than standard needle injections. FluGen will use a vaccine that’s already on the market in the trial, said Paul Radspinner, president and chief executive officer. (MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL, 2/22)

Epic seeks to add huge auditorium to Verona campus

Epic Systems Corp. wants to add a huge auditorium to its Verona campus. The electronic health records company is asking the city of Verona for permission to build a fan-shaped, auditorium adjacent to its learning center, with 10,000 to 13,000 seats. (WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL, 2/11)

Flex Biomedical gets $866,000 from investors

Flex Biomedical, a Madison company developing treatments for orthopedic diseases, has received $866,000 from investors, the Wisconsin State Journal reports. The money will be used to advance the Flex Polymer, a synthetic polymer designed to treat osteoarthritis. (WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL, 1/28)

GE Healthcare’s profit climbs

General Electric Co. reported Friday that fourth-quarter operating profit for its GE Healthcare unit rose 10 percent to about $1 billion, compared with $911 million for the same period last year, the Milwaukee Business Journal reports.

Revenue for the London-based GE Healthcare unit, which has major operations in the Milwaukee area, rose 8 percent to $5.1 billion, compared with $4.7 billion for the year-ago period. GE Healthcare is part of GE’s Technology Infrastructure unit. (MILWAUKEE BUSINESS JOURNAL, 1/24)

Lucigen awarded $1.46 million R&D grant

Lucigen, a Middleton biotech firm, said Monday it has been awarded a $1.46 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to fund additional research and development, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports. The Phase II Small Business Innovation Research grant will be used over the next three years to develop research tools with the potential to improve human health, the company said. (JOURNAL SENTINEL, 1/18)