Biogen shutters digital health group

BIOTECH

Harbinger Health raises $140m for blood test to screen for cancers

A Cambridge biotech run by the former head of the Food and Drug Administration has raised $140 million to complete the study of a blood test it developed to screen for cancers in people without symptoms. Harbinger Health, founded in 2020 by Flagship Pioneering, the venture capital giant that created the vaccine-maker Moderna, is testing the cancer screening technology in a clinical trial of 10,000 volunteers. Some trial results are expected next year. Harbinger wants to market a blood-based test that can detect multiple types of cancer, including tumors of the lung and pancreas, that are often detected too late for patients to survive. Dr. Stephen Hahn, Harbinger’s chief executive, served as FDA commissioner during the last 13 months of the Trump administration. A radiation oncologist, he previously served as chief medical executive at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Harbinger, which is located in West Cambridge, has about 60 employees and plans to hire another 20 by the end of the year, Hahn said. Multiple investors contributed to the fund-raising round, including Flagship, Pictet, Partners Investment, and Catalyst at M&G Investments. All told, Harbinger has now raised roughly $190 million. — JONATHAN SALTZMAN

3-D PRINTING

Merger of Desktop Metal with rival is off

Burlington-based 3-D printing company Desktop Metal won’t be merging with larger rival Stratasys, after all. The $600 million deal announced in May fell apart after Stratasys shareholders rejected the plan, Desktop Metal said on Thursday. While the management of Stratasys, based in Minnesota and Israel, wanted to close the deal, 79 percent of Stratasys shareholders did not. The company has been the subject of several takeover offers itself from other companies. Shares of Desktop Metal closed down 1.42 percent Thursday at $1.39. The stock has been struggling and lost more than 90 percent of its value since Desktop Metal went public by merging with a SPAC in December 2020. Desktop Metal cut about 15 percent of its workforce in February. The company was founded in 2015 by Ric Fulop and a group of MIT professors, including Ely Sachs, who invented the method known as binder jet printing, which sprays liquid onto layers of powder to form products. The merger would have combined Desktop Metal’s printing technology using metals, composites, and wood with Stratasys’s plastic-based tech. — AARON PRESSMAN

AIRLINES

United to improve travel for passengers who use wheelchairs

United Airlines has agreed to improve air travel for passengers in wheelchairs after the federal government investigated a complaint by a disability-rights advocate. United and the Transportation Department said Thursday that the airline will add a filter to the booking tool on its website to help consumers find flights on which the plane can more easily accommodate their wheelchairs. The cargo doors on some planes are too small to easily get a motorized wheelchair in the belly of the plane. The airline also agreed to refund the fare difference if a passenger has to take a more expensive flight to accommodate their wheelchair. United said it expects to make the changes by early next year. The settlement, dated Wednesday, followed a complaint filed by Engracia Figueroa, who said her custom-made wheelchair was damaged on a United flight in 2021. — ASSOCIATED PRESS

ENERGY

Aramaco to buy piece of LNG company

Saudi Aramco agreed to buy a stake in MidOcean Energy for $500 million, its first investment in liquefied natural gas as the company seeks to diversify beyond its core oil business. Aramco is bringing its financial heft to LNG at a time when global demand for the fuel has surged, particularly in Europe which is replacing reduced pipeline supplies from Russia. — BLOOMBERG NEWS

ATHLETIC GEAR

Peloton and Lululemon team up

Peloton shares rose more than 5 percent Thursday after agreeing to a deal with Lululemon to tap its online workouts and team up on apparel. As part of the accord, announced Wednesday, Lululemon will make co-branded clothing that Peloton will sell on its website and at retail stores. Peloton’s fitness content, meanwhile, will be offered to users of the Lululemon Studio Mirror, a $995 device that lets people work out in front of a 43-inch screen, and the apparel maker’s free digital app. — BLOOMBERG NEWS

TOBACCO

Philip Morris chief revises timeline for relying only on smoke-free products

Philip Morris International chief executive Jacek Olczak said the Marlboro maker’s target to get most of its revenue from smoke-free products by 2025 is probably out of reach after growth has been dented in Russia and Ukraine, two of its key markets. The CEO said PMI will probably need a few more quarters to reach the goal of 50 percent, speaking on an investor webcast Thursday. — BLOOMBERG NEWS

LEGAL

Yelp sues Texas AG over crisis pregnancy center notices

Yelp preemptively sued Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in an effort to maintain notices for users of the online forum that say crisis pregnancy centers don’t provide abortion services. Paxton sent Yelp a letter Sept. 22 claiming the company violated the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act with the notices and he was authorized to file a suit within seven days, according to the complaint filed in San Francisco federal court Wednesday. “This threat targets truthful speech fully protected by the First Amendment,” Yelp said in the complaint in which it seeks an injunction to stop Paxton from taking any action to prosecute, fine, or penalize the company. “The attorney general may not punish Yelp for publishing truthful information.” — BLOOMBERG NEWS

VIDEOS

End of an era for Netflix

The curtain is finally coming down on Netflix’s once-iconic DVD-by-mail service, a quarter century after two Silicon Valley entrepreneurs came up with a concept that obliterated Blockbuster video stores while providing a springboard into video streaming that has transformed entertainment. The DVD service that has been steadily shrinking in the shadow of Netflix’s video streaming service will shut down after its five remaining distribution centers in California, Texas, Georgia, and New Jersey mail out their final discs Friday. The fewer than 1 million recipients who still subscribe to the DVD service will be able to keep the final discs that land in their mailboxes. — ASSOCIATED PRESS