InVivo Therapeutics gets $2m loan from MassDevelopment

By Chris Reidy, Globe Staff

MassDevelopment, the Commonwealth’s finance and development agency, has granted a $2 million loan to InVivo Therapeutics Holdings Corp., MassDevelopment and InVivo said in a press release Tuesday.

InVivo, which looks to use polymers as a platform technology to develop treatments to improve function in individuals paralyzed as a result of traumatic spinal cord injury, plans to use part of proceeds to purchase equipment for the expansion of manufacturing and research capabilities at its new facility in Cambridge.

As InVivo’s business grows, the company expects to substantially increase employment in manufacturing, sales, marketing, clinical, and regulatory positions over the next two years.

In a statement, InVivo chief executive Frank Reynolds noted that the company now exceeds 30 employees in its new Kendall Square facility.

In a statement of his own, Greg Bialecki, the Secretary of Housing and Economic Development, suggested that the loan to InVivo should be viewed in the context of Governor Deval Patrick’s 10-year, $1 billion Life Sciences Initiative.

Nurturing the life sciences industry in Massachusetts is a “key part of our economic recovery,” Bialecki said.