Life sciences briefing: Friday, Dec. 21, 2007
TODAY’S HEADLINES:
- Cogentus Pharma raises $63M for blood thinners (release)
- Corthera draws $23M for heart-failure drug (release)
- Nanolymf seeks $2M for drug-delivery tech (release)
- LineaGen pulls in $5.6M for molecular diagnostics (release)
Cogentus Pharma raises $63M for blood thinners — Menlo Park, Calif.-based Cogentus Pharmaceuticals, a specialty pharma developing combined formulations of existing drugs, raised $62.5 million in a third funding round. Investors included Keffi Group, Prospect Venture Partners, Ridgeback Capital, Apothecary Capital and Pinnacle Ventures.
Cogentus aims to combine existing drugs in fixed doses in order to reduce side effects. The company’s lead candidate, CGT-2168, combines the blood thinner clopidogrel with omeprazol, a treatment that reduces gastrointestinal side effects. Cogentus is one of several specialty pharmaceutical companies pursuing this strategy, which does have the potential drawback that doctors may simply prescribe the drugs separately instead of paying extra for the combined formulation. We covered Horizon Therapeutics, which is doing the same thing with pain drugs, here.
Corthera draws $23M for heart-failure drug — San Mateo-based Corthera, a biotech developing a heart drug based on the hormone relaxin, raised $23 million in a third funding round. Investors included Caxton Advantage Life Sciences Fund, Domain Associates and Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers.
Corthera, formerly known as BAS Medical, hopes to use synthetic relaxin to treat acute heart failure and preeclampsia, a complication of pregnancy. We previously covered the company here.
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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.