Chester County Briefs are short summaries of what’s happening around Chester County.

“Ugly Sweater Bar Crawl” Coming to Phoenixville

For a celebratory day of the year, carefully forgotten holiday sweaters will get a chance to leave the darkest corners of closets around Chester County and shine. Phoenixville is holding an “Ugly Sweater Bar Crawl” on December 11th, and inviting everyone to don their least attractive sweaters and join in the fun.

The procession of colorful holiday sweaters will make stops at six of Phoenixville’s favorite watering holes, including the Great American Pub and Hotel on Bridge. Each of the six bars will have a designated time for ugly sweater competitions, with prizes being handed out for the ugliest sweater on display. The festive spirit will be enhanced by $3 Samuel Adams and Angry Orchard pints and crowd giveaways.

The full list of times and places of each competition can be found here.

Chris Bastian Named Chief Technology Officer of SCTE

The Society of Cable Television Engineers has named Chris Bastian its new Senior Vice President and Chief Technical Officer, a position he will officially take over on December 14th.

In his new duties, Bastian will be working out of SCTE’s headquarters in Exton and will be responsible for all areas of technology and engineering. His role is to make sure that SCTE and its global brand preserves its strong place in standardizing and operationalizing advanced technology, which includes the SCTE Standards Program and SCTE Engineering Committee.

Bastian joins SCTE along with several other senior level executives that SCTE has added recently. Before joining SCTE, he worked at Comcast for over 10 years in positions that included Executive Director for Comcast’s Xfinity Wi-Fi network and the Executive Director of Network Architecture for the Comcast Technology and Product Group. Prior to that, his experience includes engineering positions with RCN, Comcast Cellular Communications and the NSA.

Velicept Therapeutic Raises $21 Million in Private Stock Sale

Velicept Therapeutic, the Malvern based biopharmaceutical company focused on finding a new way to treat overactive bladders, has raised $21 million in a private stock sale.

The company intends to use the funds from the series B financing, which was led by CAM Capital and Longitude Capital, to further mid-stage testing of its lead new drug candidate, Solabegron.

Solabegron was first discovered and developed by GlaxoSmithKline, which was acquired by AltheRx, which then later merged with Velicept, to continue developing a therapy for overactive bladders which affects around 33 million Americans. The new drug is designed to stimulate beta 3-adrenoceptors, which relaxes the bladder.

“Solabegron is a novel, differentiated compound that has shown significant improvement in the first Phase II study for the treatment of OAB, a large and growing global market,” said Velicept’s president and CEO, Dr. James Walker.

Robert A. Mascioli Joins Saul Ewing’s Chesterbrook Office

Saul Ewing LLP has announced the addition of Robert A. Mascioli to its Chesterbrook office. Mascioli joins the law firm as a partner in the Private Equity/Venture Capital and Mergers and Acquisitions practices.

Mascioli has been counseling entrepreneurs, family businesses and middle-market companies on a wide variety of business matters for over 20 years, providing business and transactional representation to a variety of clients in industries ranging from technology and information technology to health care.

“Bob effectively acts as an outside general counsel to his clients,” stated Deborah L. Spranger, a Partner and Chair of the firm’s Business and Finance Practice. “He strives to learn the background, operations and strategies of his clients so he can seek to align his legal advice with their goals to operate efficiently and effectively. This approach makes him an excellent fit with our transactional team at Saul Ewing.”