Madison’s ProCertus BioPharm, Inc., an oncology-based pharmaceutical company, announced it has closed on an additional $2.1 million financing, led by Novartis Venture Fund and Venture investors LLC. The biotech firm is also enrolling patients in a clinical trial to determine if its product, DermX, helps prevent radiodermatitis, a side-effect of radiotherapy and chemotherapy. The trials are being conducted at the UW Paul P. Carbone Comprehensive Cancer Center.

The Southeast Wisconsin Gilda’s Club in Milwaukee was forced to shut down after a string of bad luck. The Club had been hurting for donations since the economy crashed. It tried to downsize to a different building, but was unable to sell its current location. Then sewer backups in July caused $75,000 in damage to the nonprofit’s lower level, and insurance would cover only $20,000 of the damage. The club had served over 2,500 members in 2009. Members are being redirected to other community agencies.

A survey by the Wisconsin Technology Council, WisBusiness.com and the Luminis Group has found tech execs to be pessimistic about the economy. Forty-one percent of execs surveyed feel the economy will improve this year, which is down from 56% in the first quarter of 2010. While 64% believe things will get better in the next year, that is a 4% decline from the responses received in first quarter, and down 7% from a year ago. Sixty-nine percent say the economy is “fair,” but just 12% claimed it was “poor.” Over a third believe things will stay the same over the next 12 months.

Quincy Bioscience received an undisclosed capital infusion from DaneVest Tech Fund I which will be used to further support national sales of its brain health product, Prevagen.

Will it or won’t it? The Edgewater Hotel project continues to hit roadblocks. The latest is news that TIF funding of $16 million is at risk because a vote to expand the size of the State Street TIF district is in jeopardy. The TIF Review Board, a five-member panel, must approve the expansion, but one member questions whether the hotel redevelopment would occur without the TIF money, and is not convinced the area includes the blighted properties required by state law. The current TIF is projected to close in 2015.

A Nebraska farmer is looking to invest $35 million east of Janesville with a new dairy farm. The Rock Prairie Dairy, on a 160-acre parcel in Rock County, would reportedly add 50 jobs to the area. It would have 5,300 animals, 4,600 of which would be milked three times daily. The farmer, Tod Tuls, is the largest farmer in the state of Nebraska, and said he fell in love with the state while working as a milk salesman and calling on a plant in Green County.