Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | January 23, 2017 | Worcester Business Journal 7 Marlborough drugmaker completes $2.7M Cambridge purchase Marlborough drugmaker RXi Pharmaceuticals Corp. has completed its purchase of Cambridge cancer treat- ment company MirImmune Inc. RXi will pay MirImmune sharehold- ers 3.85 million shares of the its stock, which is valued at 70 cents per share. The purchase gives RXi a unique cell therapy platform strategy, which will be a competitive advantage in the market- place. In December, RXi completed an $11.5-million offering of its stock, which was used to fund the MirImmune purchase, along with funding the company's clinical trials. MedStar Ambulance pays $13M in lawsuit MedStar Ambulance, which has operations in Worcester and through- out Worcester County and MetroWest, paid $12.7 million for overbilled Medicare claims, the attorney for the whistleblower in the case announced. Boston lawyer Jeffrey Newman said MedStar paid out the settlement after a four-year investigation found the firm collected money for medically unneceesary ambulance rides. "MedStar was pleased to work with the Department of Justice to resolve these overpayment issues," said Ken Pickering, attorney for MedStar from Worcester law firm Mirick O'Connell. FLEXcon VP named MassMEP board chair Massachusetts Manufacturing Extension Partnership in Worcester, the manufacturing association, elected William Sullivan as chair of its board, replacing retiring chair John Prosser. Sullivan is vice president, in perfor- mance products, for FLEXcon, Inc. in Spencer. Cognex announces two tech acquisitions Natick machine vision technology developer Cognex Corp. over the last two months acquired 3D vision and industrial ID firms Cognex acquired Chiaro Technologies of Boulder, Colo. on Nov. 30. Chiaro is the maker of the Cloudburst sensor, which offers real- time, high-speed 3D image streaming that is best used when speed is more important than capturing a high-reso- lution image. Cognex acquired Webscan, a Longmont, Colo.-based barcode verifi- cation solutions provider, on Dec. 9. W RXi President and CEO Geert Cauwenbergh Healthcare spending Private spending Mass. rank among states In a report sponsored by Associated Industries of Massachusetts and the Massachusetts Association of Health Plans, the Freedman Healthcare of Newton said price variances can be 3.4 times higher between hospitals in the state and Massachusetts residents' income-adjusted spending on health care is among the highest in the nation. Transportation ............................................................................... 15 Health care .................................................................................. 18 Recreation ..................................................................................... 18 Housing & utilities ......................................................................... 23 Restaurants ................................................................................... 28 Groceries ....................................................................................... 40 Gasoline & energy ......................................................................... 44 Household equipment ................................................................... 44 Source: Freedman Healthcare

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