Stealthy Mountain View, Calif.-based ExploraMed NC4 has raised $18.5 million of an expected $20 million first funding round, I’m told. The medical-device startup doesn’t have a Web site, and doesn’t even seem to have its own address yet.
Instead, ExploraMed NC4 — the name is a placeholder intended to obscure the startup’s strategy — is still housed at ExploraMed, a medical-device incubator backed by New Enterprise Associates, among others. ExploraMed was founded in 1995 by Joshua Makower, an NEA venture partner and a Stanford consulting professor who also co-directs the university’s Biomedical Technology Innovation Program.
Makower confirmed the fundraising, but declined to say what NC4 will be doing. “I love to talk about my companies, but I’ve found there’s virtue in keeping things secret as long as possible from competitors who are just dying to know what we’re up to,” he said. “I’ve learned from experience that if they can get a whiff of what we’re doing, they’ll just copy it.” Makower is not the startup’s CEO, and says ExploraMed will announce NC4’s leader “at the right time.”
Investors in the NC4 round include NEA, Morgenthaler Partners and the Makower Family Trust. Makower said the company is still corralling individual investors who’ve expressed interest in contributing the remaining $1.5 million for the round.
ExploraMed has so far launched five device makers, several of which we’ve covered here at VentureBeat LifeScience. Its most recent companies include Vibrynt, a stealthy device maker that raised $16 million in Aug. 2007, and NeoTract, a Pleasanton, Calif., developer of devices for non-cancerous prostate growths, which raised a total of $21.4 million in its first round.
TODAY’S HEADLINES:
- Stent maker IDev Tech raises $25M (VentureWire)
- Xytis gets $15M for brain-injury drugs (VentureWire)
- Diagnostic maker Iris Biotech plans to go public, launch breast-cancer test (Edgar)
- RiverVest Venture Partners raises $75M life-science fund (release)
- Concentric Medical names Maria Sainz CEO (release)
[Note: I'm a little sad to announce that this will be my last life-science briefing at VentureBeat, although with luck, it won't be the end of my time here. Starting Monday, I'll be blogging regularly on the drug industry and healthcare over at BNET Industries, a new CNET venture, so drop by if you can. (Preparing for that move is the main reason non-briefing posts have been scarce recently.) I still hope to post here occasionally as well, since covering below-the-radar startups has been a blast, and I'm not ready to give it up quite yet.
It's been a great year -- my first VentureBeat post was on April 3, 2007 -- and I want to thank Matt for the opportunity to join you here, and all our regular readers and commenters for your time and your insights. As journalists, we're only as good as our sources and readers, and you guys have helped in countless ways to make me look much smarter than I really am. --D.P.H.]
Stent maker IDev Tech raises $25M – IDev Technologies, a Houston medical-device startup, raised $25 million in a third funding round, VentureWire reports. The company is developing a new type of stent for use in propping open the liver’s bile ducts .
The company’s existing investors, a group that includes Bay City Capital, Heron Capital, PTB Sciences and RiverVest Venture Partners, provided the funding. IDev had previously raised $24 million, according to VW.
Xytis gets $15M for brain-injury drugs – Irvine, Calif.-based Xytis, a biotech focused on disorders of the central nervous system, raised $15 million in an extension of its second funding round, VentureWire reports. Its backers included Atlas Venture, CDC Innovation, Sanderling Ventures and Ventech.
The company says it was founded in 2005 from the merger of Xytis Pharmaceuticals and Remergent. (Sounds more to me like Xytis swallowed Remergent, but they’re free to describe it however they’d like.) Its lead drug candidate, XY2405, blocks a cellular protein called the Bradykinin B2 receptor, a signaling molecule thought to promote inflammation.
Xytis is testing the drug as a potential treatment for traumatic brain injury; the molecule is currently in mid-stage, phase II trials. The company is also testing an antidepressant in early-stage trials.
Xytis raised half the money last August, then received the second $7.5 million in April, the company told VentureWire. It has previously raised $24.5 million in its current incarnation, and its “predecessor companies” pulled in $6.5 million.
Diagnostic maker Iris Biotech plans to go public, launch breast-cancer test – Santa Clara, Calif.-based Iris Biotechnologies, a developer of molecular diagnostic tests, is preparing to go public, VentureWire reports. The company plans a small offering on the OTC Bulletin Board — if I’m reading its latest SEC filing correctly, its existing shareholders will raise about $1.1 million, with no proceeds headed to the company — and hopes to launch a breast-cancer test later this year.
Iris plans to use chips to measure gene activity in breast cancer, with the hope of predicting the odds that a surgically removed tumor will recur and, eventually, helping patients and doctors customize cancer treatment from an early stage. The company claims that it will be competitive with Genomic Health and Agendia, two companies with similar tests for predicting breast-cancer recurrence.
There’s something a little odd about Iris’ disclosures in the SEC forms, though. Iris doesn’t describe its technology, the genes it will test or how it settled on them in any detail, and spends almost as much time talking about its database of patient information and related computer technology as it does about its tests. While it may consider some or all of that information a trade secret — and disclosure requirements may well be looser for such a small offering — it’s still kind of unusual for a startup to ask outside investors to put up their money essentially on faith.
TODAY’S HEADLINES:
- HealthExtras buys venture-backed PBM HospiScript for $100M (release)
- Urological device-maker NeoTract adds $7.4M (VentureWire)
- RNAi-drug startup Intradigm seeks $35M (VentureWire)
- Israel’s Arbel Medical raises $3.5M for tumor cryotherapy (release)
HealthExtras buys venture-backed PBM HospiScript for $100M — HospiScript Services, a Montgomery, Ala., prescription-benefits manager, agreed to be acquired by HealthExtras of Rockville, Md. HealthExtras will pay $100 million in cash for the venture-backed firm, which services the hospice industry.
HospiScript had raised at least $4 million in funding, according to VentureWire. That amount represents a 2005 round that involved Advantage Capital Alabama and Waveland NCP Alabama Ventures. The company declined to say more about its funding history.
Both companies manage the use of prescription drugs — HealthExtras for corporate, government and nonprofit health plans, HospiScript for hospices — in ways that are intended to reduce costs. HealthExtras said the acquisition will help it expand in the fast-growing hospice space.
Urological device-maker NeoTract adds $7.4M – Pleasanton, Calif.,-based NeoTract (no Web site), a devicemaker focused on urological problems, added $7.4 million to its first round of financing, VentureWire reports. The new funding brings that round to a total of $21.4 million.
New Enterprise Associates provided the cash.
NeoTract is working on a device to treat benign prostate hyperplasia, which is a non-cancerous growth of the prostate. The company doesn’t describe its device, although it says the product should enter clinical trials next year.
TODAY’S HEADLINES:
- Stemline Therapeutics, cancer stem-cell startup, gets $13M (release)
- Eye-disease biotech Potentia Pharma raises $12M (release)
- Sample-prep toolmaker Arcxis aims for $8M to $10M (VentureWire)
- Synvascular names Drew Hoffman as CEO (VentureWire)
- ArtusLabs gets $2.6M for life-science software and services (release)
- Cancer-drug maker Inotek loses CEO, Genentech partnership (release)
- GTESS, health-plan IT startup, names James Bradley CEO (release)
- Antibiotic developer Tetraphase Pharma names Guy MacDonald CEO (release)
Stemline Therapeutics, cancer stem-cell startup, gets $13M – New York-based Stemline Therapeutics, a biotech focused on new cancer treatments, raised $12.5 million in a funding round. Healthcare funds managed by Pequot Capital Management provided the funding.
Stemline is one of several companies that hope to attack cancer by taking aim at cancer “stem cells,” which are thought to give rise to tumors the same way embryonic stem cells develop into the body’s 200+ types of tissue. One theory holds that conventional cancer chemotherapy often fails because while it can kill huge numbers of tumor cells, it tends to miss the stem cells that can migrate through the body and spark metastatic tumor growth.
Stemline already has one experimental drug against acute myeloid leukemia in early stage clinical trials, although it licensed that drug from the Texas A&M Health Science Center rather than discovering the molecule itself. The startup reports eight other drug candidates at an earlier stage of development.
Stemline has so far been overshadowed by the much flashier OncoMed, another cancer stem-cell startup that last December struck a partnership with GlaxoSmithKline potentially worth $1.4 billion. It’s not clear, though, whether OncoMed has actually begun clinical trials of its leading drug candidate yet.
Eye-disease biotech Potentia Pharma raises $12M – Potentia Pharmaceuticals, a Louisville, Ky., biotech focused on eye diseases of the elderly, raised $12 million in an unspecified funding round. Backers include HealthCare Ventures and MASA Life Science Ventures.
Potentia hopes to treat a blinding disorder known as age-related macular degeneration by reducing inflammation. Specifically, the startup’s lead drug candidate, POT-4, inhibits the complement system, an arm of the body’s immune defenses that may be responsible for much of the damage associated with AMD.
Sample-prep toolmaker Arcxis aims for $8M to $10M – Pleasanton, Calif.-based Arcxis Biotechnologies, a maker of systems that prepare biological samples for analysis, hopes to raise $8 million to $10 million in a second funding round, VentureWire reports. The company raised $6.5 million in its first funding round, which took place in three installments from August 2006 through February 2008.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this item incorrectly stated that Arcxis raised $11.1 million in February and wrongly attributed that fact to VentureWire. Arcxis CEO Howard Goldstein emailed me with the correct numbers.
TODAY’S HEADLINES:
- AGI Dermatics takes in $5M for skincare products (release)
- Myconostica raises £3.9 for fungal diagnostics (GenomeWeb)
- Germany’s Noxxon gets €1M grant for aptamer drugs (release)
AGI Dermatics takes in $5M for skincare products – Freeport, N.Y.-based AGI Dermatics, a startup concentrated on skincare products, raised $5 million in a new funding round. Investors included Trevi Health Ventures and Spring Mountain Capital.
AGI makes cosmetic ingredients and is working on developing topical pharmaceutical lotions as well. Its leading drug candidate is called T4N5 Liposome Lotion, which AGI says includes a DNA-repair enzyme intended to repair ultraviolet damage to the skin. The company is currently testing the product as a preventive treatment for skin cancer.
Germany’s Noxxon gets €1M grant for aptamer drugs — Noxxon, a German biotech aiming to make drugs from nucleic-acid snippets called aptamers, received a grant from Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The €1 million ($1.6 million) grant is intended to support Noxxon’s drug-discovery program, which we covered at greater length last May.
Myconostica raises £3.9M for fungal diagostics – Myconostica, a U.K. biotech that spun out of the University of Manchester, raised £3.9 million ($7.7 million) in a third funding round, GenomeWeb reports. Investors included Amphion Innovations, Nexus Medical Partners, and Innoven Partenaires.
The company is working on rapid diagnostic tests for life-threatening fungal infections. Its first product is a test for several types of fungal infection that is nearing approval in Europe, and which Myconostica thinks could receive U.S. approval by the fourth quarter.
TODAY’S HEADLINES:
- Quark Pharma gets $27M for RNAi drugs (release)
- TargetRx takes in $9.6M for physician-prescribing data (release)
- D-Pharm raises more than $3M for fat-like drugs (release)
- Vortex Medical raises $2.3M for medical devices (VentureWire)
- Specialty pharma Ascio takes in $3M (VentureWire)
- Keraderm gets $1.7M for antifungal drugs (VentureWire)
- Contract researcher CTMG raises $500K toward $1M round (VentureWire)
- Singapore’s Progeniq raises seed funding for life-science computing (release)
- Acrongenomics scuttles Molecular Vision acquisition (peHUB)
- Michael Gutch joins H.I.G. Ventures (release)
Quark Pharma gets $27M for RNAi drugs – Fremont, Calif.-based Quark Pharmaceuticals, a biotech startup working on “RNA interference” drugs, raised $27 million in an eighth funding round. The company’s fundraising follows a failed attempt to go public last year, and reflects a somewhat smaller haul than the $30 million it had hoped to raise.
The company’s backers include investment vehicles of SBI Asset Management and SBI Investment, both subsidiaries of Tokyo-based SBI Holding. The investment cements Quark’s deep relationship with Japan; its previous investors include two other Tokyo-based investment partnerships, the Trans-Science Global Bio-Technology Fund and Asuka DBJ Investment LPS, and the company has long worked with several Japanese pharmaceutical companies as well.
Quark’s work in RNAi — the use of short RNA molecules to “silence” disease-related genes — has already produced two drug candidates that are in clinical trials. One is being tested in the eye condition known as age-related macular degeneration by Pfizer; Quark is testing the other as a way to prevent acute kidney industry.
Danny Zurr, Quark’s CEO, said the startup will use the funding to greatly expand its clinical-trial program. By the second half of this year, the company plans to have its drug candidates in five different tests at Quark and Pfizer. We’ve written a fair bit about Quark and its colorful history over the past year or so.
TargetRx takes in $9.6M for physician-prescribing data – TargetRx, a Horsham, Pa., startup that analyzes physician-prescribing behavior for drug companies, raised $9.6 million in a new funding round. Its backers include Quaker BioVentures, New Enterprise Associates and Domain Associates.
Target bills itself as a company capable of providing “unparalled insights” into the way doctors prescribe drugs — always a subject of great interest to pharmas of all stripes. In practice, Target appears to get its information by paying doctors to participate in online marketing programs held in a closed forum on its Web site.
The company claims that its methods provide useful predictive information about physician behavior. In certain respects, its approach isn’t all that different from Sermo, which has begun selling access to its online doctor forum to investors and pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer.
TODAY’S HEADLINES:
- IlluminOss Medical gets $11M for bone-fracture devices (peHUB)
- Contract researcher Crown Bioscience takes in funding (release)
IlluminOss Medical gets $11M for bone-fracture devices — East Providence, R.I.-based IlluminOss Medical, a medical-device startup, raised $11 million in a second funding round, peHUB reports. Backers included New Leaf Ventures and Foundation Medical Partners.
The company’s Web site is barely more than a stub that describes IlluminOss as a device company “pioneering new frontiers in orthopedic surgery.” peHUB offers the further tidbit that the company is developing a minimally invasive system for treating bone fractures.
We’ve previously covered Sonoma Orthopedics Products, a California firm with what may be a similar technology for treating fractures with an implant that supposedly speeds healing from inside the bone.
Contract researcher Crown Bioscience takes in funding – Crown Bioscience, a biology-services startup in Santa Clara, Calif., raised an undisclosed sum in a second funding round. Chemizon, a division of Optomagic, provided the cash.
Crown offers a variety of biology-based services, including protein characterization, drug-candidate discovery and assessment of anticancer drugs. In other words, it’s a contract-research organization, although it seems to have a wider range of offerings that many CROs do.
TODAY’S HEADLINES:
- Mirna Thera spins out of Asuragen with $3M (release)
- Stroke-therapy startup CoAxia raises $12M (release)
- Stealthy device maker Synvascular gets $6.5M (peHUB)
- AndroScience seeks $3.5M for anti-testosterone drugs (VentureWire)
- Austria’s ProtAffin takes in €1.1M grant (release)
- Singapore’s Moleac receives $3.5M for Chinese medicine (release)
- Alethia Bio gets C$2.4M for antibody drugs (release)
- Alba Thera names Bruce Peacock as CEO (release)
- SkinMedica names Mary Fisher as CEO (release)
Mirna Thera spins out of Asuragen with $3M – Mirna Therapeutics, a newly minted Austin, Tex., startup focused on “microRNA” (miRNA) drugs, spun out from its parent Asuragen with $3 million in seed capital. The new company is taking Asuragen’s miRNA intellectual property with it.
MicroRNAs, like small interfering RNAs (siRNAs, for those into the acronym soup here), are short stretches of nucleic acid that can silence the activity of particular genes. These miRNAs, however, are encoded in the human genome and appear to affect multiple genes at once by interfering with “master” regulatory genes. Several miRNAs have been linked to cancer, suggesting that measuring levels of miRNAs might yield early detection of tumors.
Asuragen will continue to explore miRNAs as possible diagnostic tools, while Mirna will look into developing particular miRNA molecules as cancer drugs. Mirna initially plans to target lung cancer, prostate cancer and acute myeloid leukemia. None of its drug candidates are ready for testing in humans yet.
Stroke-therapy startup CoAxia raises $12M – Maple Grove, Minn.-based CoAxia, a device startup focused on treatment for clot-related strokes, raised $11.5 million as an extension of its third funding round. Its backers included existing investors Canaan Partners, Prism Venture Partners, Baird Venture Partners, Affinity Capital Management, Johnson and Johnson Development and SVB Capital Partners.
CoAxia is developing a catheter designed to increase the flow of oxygenated blood in the brains of stroke patients by restricting its flow to the lower extremities, thereby shunting additional blood into brain vessels that haven’t been blocked by a clot. The minimally invasive device is threaded into a central artery near the kidneys, where a doctor can inflate two balloons designed to block roughly 70 percent of the blood flow to the lower body. The device is currently in a late-stage clinical trial.
TODAY’S HEADLINES:
- ProGenTech takes in $21M for DNA purification systems (release)
- Diabetes-drug maker Phenomix raises $18M while seeking IPO (Edgar)
- Genome-tool maker BioTrove gets $23M in preparation for IPO (Edgar)
- Sweden’s DermaGen pulls in more than €1M for dermatitis (release)
- Digital health-record co. Medsphere receives $3M bridge (VentureWire)
- CareAnyware, healthcare IT provider, takes $2M in debt (release)
- Health B2B community CompareNetworks raises funding (release)
- ActivBiotics assets sold for $3.5M (release)
ProGenTech takes in $21M for DNA purification systems – ProGenTech, an “East-West” tool and equipment maker, raised $21 million in a third funding round. Investors included Bay City Capital of San Francisco and DT Capital of Shanghai.
ProGenTech makes purification systems that isolate DNA from blood or other biological samples for processing and analysis. The startup is based in Shanghai and Emeryville, Calif.
Diabetes-drug maker Phenomix raises $18M while seeking IPO – Phenomix, a San Diego biotech developing new diabetes drugs, raised a total of $73.3 million in its third funding round, according to a recent amendment to its IPO filing. VentureWire reports that the startup had raised $55 million as of March 2007, suggesting the company pulled in an additional $18.3 million since then.
Phenomix claims to be a “fast follower” in drug development, a company that aims to create better versions of drugs that take aim at biological mechanisms already proven to work by earlier drugs. Its leading drug candidate is an inhibitor of dipeptidyl peptidase-4, or DPP-4, an enzyme that plays a role in insulin production, for use in type 2 diabetes. The company is looking to raise $86.3 million in its IPO.
Genome-tool maker BioTrove gets $23M in preparation for IPO – BioTrove, a Woburn, Mass., biomedical equipment maker, raised $22.7 million in a third funding round just prior to filing for an IPO, according to its SEC registration statement. The funding was first reported by VentureWire.
The company makes tools and systems for DNA analysis and drug screening. It filed yesterday to raise $75 million in its initial offering. BioTrove’s backers in the latest fundraising included Catalyst Health and Technology Partners, CB Health Ventures, Vox Equity Partners, and Fletcher Spaght Ventures.
TODAY’S HEADLINES:
- Oxford NanoLabs takes in £10M for sequencing tech (PDF release)
- Alure Medical raises $4.5M for plastic-surgery implants (release)
- Bone-disease biotech Therosteon spins out of research institute, raises funds (PDF release)
- Genome-analysis toolmaker BioTrove files for $75M IPO (Edgar)
- RNAi developer Tekmira acquires Protiva, ends litigation (release)
Oxford NanoLabs takes in £10M for sequencing tech – U.K. based Oxford NanoLabs, yet another startup developing high-speed genome-sequencing technology, raised £10 million in a new funding round. The company said only that its backers included institutional and private investors.
Oxford is working on a so-called nanopore technique for DNA analysis, which typically involves chips laced with a lattice of tiny holes. The company says its process can identify the DNA “letters,” or bases, that compose the genetic code by passing DNA molecules through the pores. As each base slides past, it sticks temporarily to the side of the pore, interrupting electricity being conducted through the surface in a characteristic way that identifies whether the base is an A, C, G or T — the four letters of the DNA alphabet.
Of course, Oxford is entering a field crowded with established companies and other startups. In no particular order, we’ve recently covered fundraising and technology developments at BioNanomatrix, Intelligent Bio-Systems and Pacific Biosciences in recent months.
Alure Medical raises $4.5M for plastic-surgery implants – San Diego’s Alure Medical, a startup developing “soft-tissue” implants for cosmetic procedures, raised $4.5 million in a first funding round. Its backers include EDF Ventures and private investors.
The company is working on implants that lift sagging tissues in the breast, neck and elsewhere. Alure also named France Dixon Helfer, a former Medtronic executive and co-founder of Pegasus Biologics, as its new CEO.
TODAY’S HEADLINES:
- Boston Scientific spinout TriVascular2 takes in $65M (release)
- Inhaled-drug startup Transave raises $35M (release)
- Triage Wireless gets $20M for vital-signs monitors (release)
- Tryton Medical receives $14M for “bifurcation” stents (release)
- Synthetic bio startup Codon Devices adds $11M (release)
- Tracon Pharma takes in $4.5M against cancer and eye disease (VentureWire)
- Antibody maker f-star swaps in equity stake by TVM (PDF release)
- Drug packager MonoSol Rx withdraws IPO (IPOhome)
- GE Healthcare acquires portable-ventilator maker VersaMed (release)
Boston Scientific spinout TriVascular2 takes in $65M – In 2005, Boston Scientific acquired a Santa Rosa, Calif., medical-device startup called TriVascular. Today, it spun it out once again.
The newly private startup raised $65 million in a “first” funding round from the likes of MPM Capital, New Enterprise Associates, Delphi Ventures and Kearny Venture Partners. Thirty million dollars of that sum went straight to Boston Scientific, which also retains the right to take a minority stake in the company.
TriVascular’s original CEO, Michael Chobotov, will resume that position at the new company, joined by two other TriVascular founders. It’s not, however, entirely clear what TriVascular will be doing. The company was originally focused on repair of abdominal aortic aneurysms, which are unusual swellings of blood vessels that can rupture unexpectedly, often fatally. Boston Scientific, however, shut down its aneurysm-repair business in 2006, so it’s not immediately obvious that the reborn TriVascular will jump right back in.
Inhaled-drug startup Transave raises $35M – Transave, a Monmouth, N.J., biotech working on inhaled drugs for lung disease, raised $35 million in a fourth funding round. Investors included Quaker BioVentures, Bessemer Venture Partners, TVM Capital, Prospect Venture Partners, Fidelity Biosciences, Forbion Capital Partners and Easton Capital.
The startup is working on inhalable drugs for cystic fibrosis — in particular, a long-lasting form of the antibiotic amikacin, which is currently in mid-stage, phase II human testing. Transave had previously raised $58 million in venture capital, including a “recently completed” $40 million round.
Triage Wireless gets $20M for vital-signs monitors – Triage Wireless, a San Diego medical-device maker, raised $20.3 million in a second funding round. Investors included Qualcomm Ventures, Sanderling Ventures, 3i Group and Intel Capital.
Triage is developing wireless vital-signs monitors for long-term or continuous use. Its first product is a blood-pressure sensor that doesn’t require the old familiar inflated cuff.
TODAY’S HEADLINES:
- VaxGen, Raven Bio terminate merger agreement (release)
- Aerovance gets $20M in venture debt for respiratory disease (release)
- EKOS raises $5M for ultrasound catheters (peHUB)
- Intelligent Bio-Systems draws $353K for high-speed genome sequencing (peHUB)
- Quintessence Bio takes in $5M for cancer-directed proteins (VentureWire)
- 7 Health Ventures adds three members to investment team (release)
- Contract manufacturer Cytovance names Darren Head CEO (release)
VaxGen, Raven Bio terminate merger agreement – A weirdly structured, always hard-to-understand merger between the failed vaccine biotech VaxGen and startup Raven Biotechnologies has collapsed. The two companies called off the combination after it became clear that a majority of VaxGen shareholders would reject it.
The deal aimed to create a new company out of VaxGen’s cash holdings and biomanufacturing facilities and Raven’s antibody-drug program, which remains at an early stage of development. The merger would also have given Raven a quick route to public listing of its stock. Both companies are located in South San Francisco, Calif.
But many VaxGen shareholders — in particular, the investment firm MedCap Management & Research, which waged a sharp effort to derail the deal — believed the deal undervalued VaxGen, which they figured would yield a better return to investors through liquidation. VaxGen, a once pioneering maker of experimental vaccines against HIV and anthrax that is now little more than an empty shell, said it would immediately assess its strategic alternatives, including possible liquidation.
Aerovance gets $20M in venture debt for respiratory disease – Aerovance, a Berkeley, Calif., developer of asthma and eczema drugs, took on $20 million of venture debt. The startup drew down $10 million of that sum at closing; the rest will become available once it achieves unspecified milestones.
A syndicate of lenders provided the funding, including Oxford Finance Corporation, Silicon Valley Bank and Comerica Bank. Aerovance, which spun out of Bayer Pharmaceuticals in 2004, said the funding would enable it to continue looking for a drug-company partner for its asthma drug and to pursue other “strategic goals.”
EKOS raises $5M for ultrasound catheters – EKOS, a Bothell, Wash., maker of ultrasound-enhanced drug-delivery systems, raised $5 million in new equity funding, peHUB reports, citing a regulatory filing. No investors were disclosed. As we wrote last June when the company raised $10 million in venture debt, EKOS makes catheters that use both drugs and ultrasound to break up blood clots.
Intelligent Bio-Systems draws $353K for high-speed genome sequencing – Waltham, Mass.-based Intelligent Bio-Systems raised $353,000 in a first funding round, peHUB reports, citing a regulatory filing. The company is developing next-generation DNA analysis systems and promises to deliver technology that can sequence a full human genome for just $5,000 in about 24 hours, as we described earlier.
TODAY’S HEADLINES:
- Breathe Tech raises $15M for respiratory disease (release)
- Protein-drug maker Pieris takes in €25M (release)
- Apthera takes in $2.1M toward cancer vaccine (VentureWire)
Breathe Tech raises $15M for respiratory disease – Breathe Technologies, a Fremont, Calif., medical device maker, raised $15 million in a second round of funding. Investors included Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Synergy Partners International, Delphi Ventures and Life Science Angels.
Breathe is developing “compact” and “lightweight” respiratory systems for the hospital and home markets, and estimates that annual sales of the devices its equipment could enhance or replace amount to $2 billion. The Breathe ventilators could be used by patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cystic fibrosis, and other lung disorders.
Protein-drug maker Pieris takes in €25M – Pieris, a German biotech pursuing a new form of protein-based drug, raised €25 million ($38 million) in a second funding round. Investors included OrbiMed Advisors, Novo Nordisk, Global Life Science Ventures, Gilde Healthcare Partners and Forbion Capital Partners.
Pieris is the latest biotech to think it can improve on monoclonal antibodies as drug candidates by developing its own engineered protein structures. The startup calls its protein structures Anticalins — they’re derived from a class of human proteins called lipocalins — and says they’re smaller and simpler than monoclonals with similar power to selectively bind to particular molecular targets.
Pieris joins a number of other companies pursuing similar strategies, including Adnexus Therapeutics, which sold itself to Bristol-Myers Squibb for $430 million, and Molecular Partners, a Swiss biotech working on modular proteins it calls DARPins. Although these are all interesting ideas, none have yet proven themselves, and all have to address a potentially significant hurdle — the fact that none of these engineered proteins are likely to engage the immune system’s disease-fighting elements the way monoclonal antibodies often do.
Apthera takes in $2.1M toward cancer vaccine – Apthera, a Scottsdale, Ariz., biotech working on therapeutic cancer vaccines, raised $2.1 million of an expected $3.9 million second funding round, VentureWire reports. Investors included the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Blackmont Capital, Land Ventures and individuals.
Apthera is developing a vaccine intended to stimulate an immune response against breast-cancer cells. The startup plans to start a late-stage, phase III trial of the vaccine in the fourth quarter of this year, and hopes to raise another $10 million later this year to finance the test.
BioNanomatrix, a Philadelphia developer of genome-analysis systems, raised $5.1 million in a first funding round. Investors included Battelle Ventures, Innovation Valley Partners, KT Venture Group, Ben Franklin Technology Partners and21Ventures.
BioNanomatrix is developing a single-molecule imaging and analysis system that the startup says is ideal for reading DNA sequences. The startup still isn’t divulging many details about its system, although the Philadelphia Inquirer suggested that the company’s “nanofluidics” technology could potentially read all three billion bases from a single DNA molecule without chopping it up first — a common step in most sequencing setups these days, albeit one that also increases the complexity of reassembling the fragmented sequences into a coherent whole.
According to that article, in fact, BioNanomatrix has produced a nanofabricated chip with more than a mile of tiny channels that can accomodate the full DNA molecules from all 46 chromosomes of 200 people at a time. That’s pretty spectacular if true, although of course the challenge with this sort of technology is always proving that it does what the company says it should.
We previously covered BioNanomatrix last October, when the company formed a joint venture with Complete Genomics of Menlo Park, Calif. The two companies, which shared an $8.8 million grant from the National Institute of Standards and Technology last year, are aiming to sequence an entire human genome in eight hours for $100, although they haven’t set a date by which they hope to accomplish that feat. It’s a nice bragging point, since that’s about an order of magnitude faster and cheaper than anyone else is predicting at the moment, but it’s also little more than an unsubstantiated claim for the moment.
For more coverage of the high-speed genomics race, see my previous posts onPacific Biosciences and its nanowell technique, Intelligent Bio-Systems’ $5,000 genome challenge, and VisiGen’s promise of a $1,000 genome by the end of 2009. Don’t miss my Q&A with MDV’s Bill Ericson about the medical promise of fast, cheap genome scans.
TODAY’S HEADLINES:
- OptiMedica takes in $16M for eye-treatment lasers (release)
- Genome analyzer BioNanomatrix raises $5M (release)
- Heart diagnostic startup Aviir gets another $1.5M (VBLS exclusive)
- Pharmaca, integrative-pharmacy chain, draws $20M (release)
- LifeWatch, cardiac-monitoring device maker, withdraws IPO (IPOhome)
- Jerry DeVries, Steven Whitlock join PTV Sciences as venture partners (VentureWire)
OptiMedica takes in $16M for eye-treatment lasers – OptiMedica, a Santa Clara, Calif., medical-device maker, raised $16 million in a third funding round. Investors included Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Alloy Ventures and DAG Ventures.
The startup makes and sells an eye-treatment laser system called Pascal — the acronym stands for “pattern scan laser” — which is approved for treating of retinal diseases such as diabetic retinopathy and other conditions involving the abnormal growth of blood vessels that can leak and obscure vision. The laser works by “photocoagulation,” which simply means it burns and fuses tissue at the point of focus — sealing off blood vessels, for instance, healing tears in the retina or even reattaching a retina that’s come loose.
Genome analyzer BioNanomatrix raises $5M – This item is now a standalone post here.
Heart diagnostic startup Aviir gets another $1.5M – Palo Alto, Calif.-based Aviir, a biotech focused on heart diagnostics, raised an additional $1.5 million as a follow-on to its second funding round, the company’s chief operating officer, Avi Kulkarni, said. The money is an equity investment related to a still-undisclosed partnership with a large pharmaceutical company, he told me.
Aviir is still in stealth mode, as we noted last year when we first wrote about its use of Stanford technology for detection and monitoring of cardiovascular disease. Kulkarni did offer a few additional details, telling me, for instance, that the company’s name is actually an acronym that stands for “atherosclerotic venous inflammation and insulin resistance.”
That, plus the fact that Aviir is working on what Kulkarni said is a “multiple biomarker panel assay” for heart disease, suggests to me that the company plans on measuring the levels of various proteins, probably from blood, in order to get a more precise picture of stressors such as inflammation and insulin resistance that might lead to heart problems. (”Insulin resistance” is an interesting choice, since that’s the cause — or the effect, perhaps — of type 2 diabetes, which is also linked to heart trouble.)
Aviir raised $11.5 million of a planned $25 million round last September, it disclosed in an SEC form now available online (PDF link) via the California Department of Corporations. The remainder of that round will become available when the company hits unspecified milestones.
For a look at the sort of thing Aviir is probably working on, check out this 2007 paper from Physiological Genomics, in which a research team from Stanford and Aviir detail the use of inflammatory proteins known as chemokines to identify patients with atherosclerosis. On the more whimsical side, a self-described friend of the company’s founders describes what he knows about Aviir on his blog, and also posts a odd homemade video “commercial” that suggests the company will be predicting lifetime disease risks for infants.
TODAY’S HEADLINES:
- Antibody-discovery startup Adimab raises new funding (release)
- Lung-device maker Spiration gets $19M (release)
- Sample-prep startup Protein Discovery pulls in $10M (release)
- Inogen takes in $13M for portable oxygen device (VentureWire)
- Healthcare IT concern Medaptus raises $11M for expansion (VentureWire)
- Contract lab Synexis raises $14M (peHUB)
- Medical-device VC firm BioStar Ventures takes in $24M of $80M fund (peHUB)
- Halsa Pharma gets $250K for “natural” obesity-control treatment (release)
- Diagnostics provider Lab21 acquires NPTech (peHUB)
- Galil Medical names Martin Emerson CEO (release)
Antibody-discovery startup Adimab raises new funding – Lebanon, N.H.-based Adimab, a biotech working on new ways to discover antibody drugs, has raised a second round of funding. The company didn’t disclose the size of the round.
Adimab, which raised $6 million last July, is one of several startups looking to design new antibody drugs in bioengineered yeast cells, as we wrote at the time. (Alder Biopharmaceuticals, which raised $40 million in January, is another.) The technique promises to be much faster — and freer of patent restrictions — than current methods. When Adimab completes its current manufacturing facility in the second quarter, it claims it will be able to produce a panel of human antibodies against a particular target in just 90 days, instead of the year or more traditional methods can require.
Investors included Polaris Venture Partners and SV Life Sciences, who also invested in the company’s first round.
Lung-device maker Spiration gets $19M – Spiration, a Redmond, Wash., medical-device startup, raised $18.5 million in a seventh funding round. Investors included Versant Ventures, Olympus Medical Systems, New Enterprise Associates, New Leaf Venture Partners, InterWest Partners, Investor Growth Capital and Three Arch Partners.
Spiration has now raised a total of $97 million. It is developing a set of one-way valves for emphysema that can be implanted in the lung’s airways via a minimally invasive procedure. These valves are designed to shunt air away from diseased portions of the lung and redirect it to healthier areas. The company said the funding would support commercialization of its device in Europe and to complete studies for regulatory approval in the U.S.
Other startups working on similar technology include Emphasys Medical, Pulmonx and Broncus Technologies.
Sample-prep startup Protein Discovery pu