VentureBeat

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.

Featured companies: Apex Radiology, Arcxis Biotechnologies, EKR Therapeutics, Franklin & Seidelmann, Michelson Diagnostics, SensiGen, Vascular Closure Systems

UPDATED: Expanded items on Arcxis, Vascular Closure and Archemix.

Arcxis pulls in $2M for DNA tools — Arcxis Biotechnologies, a Pleasanton, Calif., biotech tool maker focused on analysis of DNA and proteins in biological samples, raised $2 million in a follow-on to its first funding round, VentureWire reports (subscription required). Investors included Kaiser Permanente Ventures and Claremont Creek Ventures.

Arcxis released its first product, a kit for anthrax detection, earlier this year. The company is in the process of raising a second round, which it hopes to complete by February. Arcxis previously raised $2.3 million from Claremont Creek in 2006.

Vascular Closure raises seed funding to close femoral-artery punctures — Palo Alto, Calif.-based Vascular Closure Systems, a medical-device maker focused on ways to close up the surgical punctures caused by minimally invasive heart procedures, raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding. The company didn’t disclose its investors.

Vascular’s technology, which the company doesn’t describe in detail, aims to make blood-vessel punctures more cost effective as well as easier for surgeons to learn and use. The device apparently comes in bioabsorbable, removable, and permanent-sealing designs. Such punctures are often used in heart procedures such as inserting stents to prop open blocked vessels; those devices are frequently put in place using a catheter that is threaded up through the femoral artery.

Aptamer-drug maker Archemix sets IPO range, aims for $72.5M take — Cambridge, Mass.-based Archemix, a developer of drugs based on nucleic-acid fragments called aptamers, raised its IPO sites and now plans to raise as much as $72.5 million. Archemix had previously outlined a $69 million IPO in July; our coverage is here.

The company now plans to offer up to 5.2 million shares at $12 to $14 apiece. The offering could value Archemix at as much as $261.2 million, which PE Hub notes is “virtually identical” to the company’s valuation at the end of its last VC round.

OTHER HEADLINES OF NOTE:

• Michelson Diagnostics gets £600K for tumor imaging (VentureWire)
• Franklin & Seidelmann acquires Apex Radiology, expands into full-service teleradiology(release)
• Specialty pharma EKR Therapeutics arranged debt facility (release)
• SensiGen draws $300K for molecular diagnostics (release)