There has been plenty of excitement on the local biotechnology scene, with three local start-ups acquired in the past 13 months.
The most recent deal has the Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche Holdings paying $125 million for Madison-based Mirus Corp. Established in 1995 based on the gene therapy work of UW-Madison scientists, Mirus has about 60 total employees here who are expected to keep their jobs.
Last June, Roche also purchased NimbleGen, a privately held Madison-based genomics company, for $272.5 million. NimbleGen has about 90 employees here. And earlier this summer, Boston-based Hologic Inc. announced a $580 million acquisition of Madison-based Third Wave Technologies that was just recently completed.
The deals have been widely cheered by the local biotech industry, and why not? It sure beats the drumbeat of job cuts and plant closings, the latest from Synergy Web Graphics in Mazomanie and Stoughton