Raven's better roost

MacroGenics Inc. hopes that its acquisition of Raven Biotechnologies Inc. will create a soup-to-nuts cancer antibody play. The deal, for an undisclosed amount of stock, combines MacroGenics' mAb engineering technologies with Raven's mAb generation platform.

MacroGenics provides a more obvious fit for Raven's technologies than did Raven's previous suitor, VaxGen Inc., which had been shopping around for technologies after the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services cancelled an $877.5 million contract for the company's rPA102 anthrax vaccine in 2006...