You may soon be able to own a piece of the firm with the fast-tracked radiation sickness treatment that the Innovation Trail's Daniel Robison told you about last year. Cleveland BioLabs is set to make a $22 million stock sale, reports David Robinson at the Buffalo News:
The stock sale, which is expected to close on Wednesday, will give the company additional funding for its efforts to develop drugs to treat radiation sickness and cancer. “We believe, with this funding, that we can support our existing programs and facilitate them over the next 24 to 36 months,” said Michael Fonstein, Cleveland BioLabs’ chief executive officer. Raising additional funding is important for development-stage companies, like Cleveland BioLabs, because their products have not advanced to the point where they are generating commercial sales. Cleveland Bio- Labs lost $5.5 million during the first quarter.
Charting Destiny
What's up with Syracuse's long-delayed Destiny USA retail project? The Innovation Trail's Emma Jacobs is working on an explainer with some folks from the Post-Standard to bring you up to speed. But in the meantime, join up with Bob Niedt at the Post-Standard at noon for a live chat about what stores you'd like to see in the million-square-foot space.
Immigration to Albany
Chris Churchill reports at the Times Union that the Capitol Region's immigrants aren't your typical poor, tired and huddled masses. Instead about 40 percent of them have at least one college degree, according to new data from the Brookings Institution:
The trend toward a more educated immigrant workforce reflects a fundamental change in the national and regional economies -- and the role immigrants play within them. It also suggests that the common perception of immigrants is outdated. "The immigrant that people tend to talk about is the low-skilled illegal immigrant," said Matthew Hall, a University of Illinois sociology professor and the author of the Brookings report. "What we tried to show is that the immigrant population is more diverse than that." In the Capital Region, the immigrant workforce is still relatively small, despite recent migrations that have boosted the area's ethnic diversity. Brookings found that there are about 59,000 foreign-born residents in the area, accounting for 6.9 percent of the overall population.
Quickly
- Women and minorities are getting a hand up through Buffalo's union apprentice training program, reports Deidre Williams at the Buffalo News.
- GE has reached a deal with its unions reports AP, giving workers "better wages" and more "income security." The plan applies to Massachusetts, Erie, and Schenectady workers, among others, reports the Times Union.
- The legalization of gay marriage in New York could be an economic booster, reports Eric Anderson at the Times Union, if the experience in Massachusetts holds here.
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