Two MetroWest Firms Awarded Life Sciences Loans
The Massachusetts Life Sciences Center awarded a total of $3.4 million in accelerator loans today for early stage biotechnology companies, including one in Marlborough and one in Westborough, according to center officials.
Spectra Analysis in Marlborough, maker of molecular spectroscopy systems, and Westborough-based Wadsworth Technologies, which makes a medical device that painlessly closes wounds, were among the seven companies that received loans. The other five were awarded to companies in Dorchester, Boston, Cambridge, Woburn and Watertown.
Spctra will receive a $500,000 loan and Wadsworth will get $400,000. The loans carry a 10 percent interest rate and are to be repaid in five years or when the companies raise $5 million in capital, whichever comes first.
There were 88 applicants for the loans, according to the center. The criteria for awarding the loans included a high potential for technology commercialization, rapid growth and private equity financing scheduled in the not-too-distant future.
The loans are for up to $500,000 and the seven companies chosen were able to raise a total of $5.8 in matching funds from other sources, according to Marc Beer, chairman of the center's investment committee. The loan program is to fill the funding gap for early stage companies so they can finish their research. Completed research attracts more investment and improves the chances of commercial success.
"The awardees are companies whose commercial prospects, scientific innovation and potential for development of new therapies and devices for the life sciences are consistent with the MLSC's mission and vision, and we aim to help translate this innovation into creating new jobs in Massachusetts and new life-saving technologies," said Dr. Harvey Lodish, chairman of the center's scientific advisory board.
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