VentureBeat

TODAY’S HEADLINES:

• CyberHeart pumps in $9M for cardiac-arrhythmia treatment (release)
• Incubator ForSight launches third device company with $6M funding (release)
• Primera Biosystems raises $21M for molecular diagnostics (release)
• Biogen Idec, PDL BioPharma take stakes in Ophthotech (release)
• Technitrol acquires medical-device component maker Sonion for $385M (release)
• DLJ Merchant Banking takes control of dentristy-product maker Den-Mat (release)
• SV Life Sciences appoints Hamish Cameron as venture partner (release)

CyberHeart pumps in $9M for cardiac-arrhythmia treatment – CyberHeart, a Menlo Park, Calif., startup developing a non-invasive treatment for heart arrhythmias, raised $9 million in a first funding round. Investors included Emergent Medical Ventures, United Investments, Venture Select and Mitsubishi.

Arrythmias, which are irregular heartbeats often caused by a malfunction in the heart’s electrical-signaling system, are often treated via a catheter-based procedure that burns away tissue where the unusual rhythms originate. CyberHeart is working on hardware and software modifications for the CyberKnife system, a robotic radiosurgery device produced by Accuray, in order to extend its use in heart applications. In other words, CyberHeart’s adaptations will, if all goes well, allow doctors to perform the same sort of procedure non-invasively with the CyberKnife, an external radiation device that is supposed to deliver high-energy beams with submillimeter accuracy.

Incubator ForSight launches third device company with $6M funding – ForSight Labs, a medical-device incubator in Menlo Park, Calif., founded its third company, ForSight VISION3 and announced that it had raised $6 million in a first funding round. Investors included Morgenthaler Ventures, Split Rock Partners and Versant Ventures — all of whom, coincidentally, back ForSight as well.

ForSight hasn’t disclosed anything about the technology or approach that the new company will take, and in fact often remains secretive about its incubated companies for quite some time. In fact, the incubator sold its second company to QLT for $42 million plus milestone payments last October — a time the startup was known only as ForSight NewCo II.

Primera Biosystems raises $21M for molecular diagnostics – Mansfield, Mass.-based Primera Biosystems, a biotech developing molecular diagnostics, raised $21 million in a second funding round. Investors included Abingworth, Interwest Partners, Malaysian Technology Development Corporation, MPM Capital, Burrill & Co. and the Invus Group.

Primera’s gene-analysis system, which it calls STAR (short for “scalable transcription analysis routine”), is designed to read the activity of up to 100 genes at once with much greater sensitivity and precision than existing microarray technologies permit. The company plans to use the funding to complete development of its system, design future diagnostic tests in cancer and infectious disease, and produce test kits for clinical research.