Insights

Boston – February 17, 2026: Crowell & Moring represented GelMEDIX, Inc., a biotechnology company focused on regenerative therapies for vision restoration, in the closing of its $13 million seed financing. The round was led by Safar Partners, with participation from HTL Biotechnology, Beacon Angels, TiE Boston Angels, Boston Harbor Angels, and additional investors. Alongside the financing, Crowell also advised on GelMEDIX’s first strategic collaboration with a global pharmaceutical company. Under the terms of the agreement, GelMEDIX will provide its hydrogel scaffold technology, which the partner will use in combination with several of its own cell lines to develop stem cell derived cell therapies.

On December 17, 2025, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a request for information (RFI) on a proposal designed to help the FDA engage more directly with innovative, venture-backed companies focused on biotechnology, medical devices, AI, and regulatory technology.[i]The RFI includes 19 questions, with responses due by 2:00 p.m. ET on January 18, 2026.

Commencing October 29, 2025, Massachusetts will join 14 other U.S. states in requiring certain employers to disclose wage pay ranges both in their public job postings and internally to employees who request the information. The requirement is mandated by the Massachusetts law entitled “An Act Relative to Salary Range Transparency” which aims to increase pay transparency and equity in the Commonwealth.

On July 4, 2025, President Trump signed into law the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (the “Act”), after it was passed by Congress on July 3, 2025. Notably, the Act made significant and welcome changes from the perspective of startup company stockholders and venture capital investors to the qualified small business stock (“QSBS”) rules set forth in Internal Revenue Code (“Code”) Section 1202. In a nutshell, the changes modernize (by adjusting for inflation) and expand the already favorable tax treatment for QSBS under Code Section 1202. The Act also permanently reinstates elective expensing for qualifying domestic research and experimental expenditures that will likely help more startups in research and capital intensive sectors qualify for favorable QSBS treatment.