Life sciences briefing: Monday, Oct. 15, 2007

Featured companies: Biolipox, Cellpoint Diagnostics, Corum Medical, MediKeeper, Mendel Biotechnology, NanoMed, Orexo, Rules-Based Medicine, Tengion

UPDATED: Expanded the Tengion item, and that’s about it.

Tengion raises $33M for bladder regrowth — Tengion, a Norriton, Pa., biotech focused on regenerating diseased or damaged organs, raised $33 million in a third funding round. Investors included Deerfield Partners, Bain Capital, Johnson & Johnson Development, HealthCap, Quaker BioVentures, Oak Investment Partners, L Capital Partners, Horizon Technology Finance and Oxford Finance.

Tengion is working on growing new bladders for adults and children with spinal bifida or spinal-cord injuries based on cells biopsied from the patients’ own bladders. We mentioned the company briefly here.

OTHER HEADLINES OF NOTE:

• Biomarker lab Rules-Based Medicine gets $25M from private equity (release)
• Cancer-diagnostics firm CellPoint Diagnostics pulls in $11.2M (VentureWire, sub req’d)
• Swedish specialty pharma Orexo to acquire Biolipox for $133M (release)
• Cancer drug, diagnostic maker NanoMed gets $1.5M (VentureWire)
• Biocontrol raises £500 against antibiotic-resistant infections (release>
• Satoris reports potential blood test for Alzheimer’s disease (release)
• Corum Medical raises $225K, seeks $3.5M for anemia test (VentureWire)
• Mendel Biotech completes financing round (release)
• Health, wellness Web-tool developer MediKeeper raises funds (release)

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