Life sciences briefing: Friday, Nov. 16, 2007
Featured companies: ActiViews, ChemShop, Freedom-2
ActiViews raises $5M for medical-imaging systems — Israel’s ActiViews, a developer of technology for enhancing MRI and PET scans, raised $5 million in a first funding round. Investors included Ofer Hi Tech and Evergreen Venture Partners.
ActiView’s system provides real-time analysis of medical images used to guide invasive surgical procedures. Current practice often requires multiple scans, which are expensive and involve radiation exposure that can cause further harm. ActiView’s technology is designed to reduce the number of scans required to locate tumors for biopsy or removal.
Cambridge Major Laboratories acquires ChemShop — Cambridge Major Laboratories, a Germantown, Wisc., provider of outsourced chemistry services to the pharmaceutical industry, acquired ChemShop of the Netherlands. The release is here.
The companies didn’t disclose terms of the deal. The combined company will have 140 employees at three sites in the U.S. and Europe.
Freedom-2 raises $5.4M for removable-tattoo inks — Freedom-2, a Cherry Hill, N.J., developer of permanent but easily removable tattoo inks, pulled in $5.4 million in a second round of funding raised by its holding company, Freedom-2 Holdings. Independent investors provided the funding.
The company’s Infinitek ink system uses bioabsorbable pigments that are encapsulated in microscopic polymer beads. Tattoos inked with the system are permanent, but easily removable by laser treatment htat breaks the beads, allowing the body to reabsorb the pigment.
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About the Author, David P. Hamilton
David Hamilton has been writing for VentureBeat LifeScience since April 2007. He formerly spent 14 years as a reporter for the Wall Street Journal in its San Francisco and Tokyo bureaus. Prior to that, he spent several years as a reporter at Science Magazine and as a reporter/researcher for the New Republic, both in Washington.