VentureBeat

ChemoCentryx files for $58M IPO to fund autoimmune, inflammation drug — Mountain View, Calif.-based ChemoCentryx, a biotech focused on new small-molecule drugs that affect a class of biochemical signals known as chemokines, filed to raise $57.5 million in an initial offering. The company’s SEC filing is here.

Founded in 1997, ChemoCentryx believes drugs that interfere with chemokine signaling may be able to defuse runaway immune-system reactions that give rise to various autoimmune conditions, inflammation and even certain cancers. Unlike other autoimmune treatments that tend to suppress significant parts of the immune system, thereby increasing the risk of infection, blocking certain chemokine signals may have much more limited consequences for health.

The company’s lead drug candidate, Traficet-EN, targets a chemokine receptor called CCR9 and is in late-stage human tests against the autoimmune gastrointestinal condition Crohn’s disease. Traficet-EN is also in mid-stage trials against celiac disease. The company also has five other drug candidates, one of which may enter human testing in the first quarter of next year.

ChemoCentryx has an accumulated net deficit of $71.1 million, and expects significant losses for the forseeable future. Its primary shareholders include Techne, Glaxo Group, OrbiMed Associates and affiliates, and HBM BioVentures.

Narcotics and vitamin maker Xanodyne Pharma files for $86M IPO — Newport, Ky.-based Xanodyne Pharmaceuticals, a specialty pharmaceutical firm that describes its focus as “women’s healthcare and pain management,” filed to raise $86.3 million in an initial offering. The company’s SEC filing is here.

We last covered Xanodyne in July when the company raised $25 million as part of a recapitalization — funds that it said it would use to prepare for an IPO. Xanodyne’s currently marketed products consist largely of several narcotic painkillers and lines of prenatal vitamins. The company is also developing two additional painkillers as well as a drug for menstrual blood-loss reduction.

There are a few other interesting details in the company’s S-1, perhaps most notably that Xanodyne’s management has had a lot of turnover recently. Four of the company’s top six officers in 2006 have since resigned, including former CEO William Nuerge, former chief medical officer Michael Giuliani, former marketing vice president Barry Brandstetter, and former chief operating officer Timothy Wright. Giuliani and Brandstetter, in fact, resigned just last month — odd timing for major changes just prior to an IPO filing.

Xanodyne’s S-1 filing is largely silent about this executive-suite turmoil outside a brief note buried in the boilerplate risk-factors disclosure regarding the risk of losing key executive personnel. The company notes that it doesn’t maintain “key person” insurance on any manager, and that its executives are free to resign with three months notice — at which point it specifically cites Giuliani’s resignation last month.

As an aside, Xanodyne seems eager to play down its Kentucky address. The company’s Web site prominently notes that it is a “Greater Cincinnati Based Company,” and it is in fact based just across the Ohio River from Cincinnati.

(UPDATED: See below.)

Featured companies: Anaptys Biosciences, Arterial Remodeling Technologies, Cambria Biosciences, CaseNet, ChemoCentryx, Ensemble Discovery, MediQuest, Piedmont Pharmaceuticals, Raven Biotechnologies, Sensys Medical, Verus Pharmaceuticals, Xanodyne Pharmaceuticals

UPDATED: Expanded items on Anaptys, Arterial Remodeling, Raven Biotech, Sensys and MediQuest. Moved ChemoCentryx and Xanodyne to a separate item.

Antibody-drug maker Raven Biotech merges with VaxGen — Raven Biotechnologies, a South San Francisco biotech developing antibody drugs, is merging with the troubled, publicly held vaccine maker VaxGen. The confusingly worded release is here.

Although the deal isn’t technically a reverse merger, Raven is effectively taking over the shell that VaxGen has become. VaxGen, once best known for its pioneering, but ultimately failed, attempt to produce an AIDS vaccine, next set its hopes on producing anthrax vaccine for the U.S. government. But the company lost that contract in 2006. VaxGen had been delisted from the Nasdaq two years earlier. Since then, VaxGen has been looking to sell itself or to find some other combination with which it could make use of its cash ($56.5 million as of Sept. 30) and existing investment in biotech production facilities. [UPDATE: VaxGen's CFO wrote in to point out that the company also holds $20.7 million in "investment securities."]

Although Vaxgen will be the surviving company, Raven CEO George Schreiner will run the combined entity, most of whose business will consist of Raven’s antibody-drug development programs. The company’s lead candidate, RAV12, is currently in early-to-mid stage tests against a type of cander called adenocarcinoma. According to VentureWire, Raven has raised $115 million in venture funding.

All of which makes the deal’s valuation a bit puzzling. As of Sept. 30, VaxGen had 33.1 million shares outstanding, giving the company a market capitalization of $36.7 million at its closing price of $1.11 on the Pink Sheets. VaxGen will issue another 32 million shares and will end up with 51 percent of the combined company. Near as I can tell, that seems to value Raven at somewhere around $33 million, although I wouldn’t take that figure to the bank.

Before the deal can close, VaxGen needs to relist its stock on a national exchange. The two companies will undergo restructuring to save cash, and once combined will use Raven’s headquarters in South San Francisco.

Antibody-drug maker Anaptys raises $34M — Anaptys Biosciences, a San Diego biotech developing new antibody-based drugs, raised $33.9 million in a second funding round. Investors included Novo A/S, Frazier Healthcare Ventures, Alloy Ventures, Avalon Ventures, Numenor Ventures, WS Investment and Anaptys board member Nick Lydon.

Anaptys relies on a technique for producing large quantities of varied antibodies in order to find ones with the best “drug-like” properties. We’ve written about other companies working on similar “diversity generation” techniques, most recently AvidBiotics, which we described here.

Arterial Remodeling Tech gets €5.5M for absorbable stents — Paris-based Arterial Remodeling Technologies (no Web site), a device maker developing “bioresorbable” artery-opening stents, raised €5.5 million ($7.8 million). Investors included Matignon Technologies and SGAM Alternative Investments.

Stents are the meshlike tubes used to prop open blocked arteries following a heart attack. Existing stents can lead to side effects such as scarring and potentially dangerous blood clots, so companies such as ART are developing stents that slowly dissolve into harmless components such as carbon dioxide and water. Although ART doesn’t describe its technology in detail, see this 2004 press release about Guidant’s acquisition of a bioresorbable-stent startup and this article for a look at how these absorbable stents might work.

Glucose-meter maker Sensys Medical pulls in $3.8M — Chandler, Ariz.-based Sensys Medical, a device maker developing a non-invasive glucose meter for diabetics, raised $3.8 million of $4.5 million in bridge funding, VentureWire reports (subscription required). Investors included Adams Street Partners, Alliance Technology Ventures and Pappas Ventures.

MediQuest seeks $20M to $40M against Raynaud’s disease — Bothell, Wash.-based MediQuest, a biotech developing new treatments against Raynaud’s disease, aims to raise up to $40 million in a second funding round, VentureWire reports. The company recently reported positive late-stage data of its drug for Raynaud’s disease, a condition involving reduced blood flow to the extremities.

OTHER HEADLINES OF NOTE:

• Ensemble Discovery gathers $15M for DNA-based drugs (PE Hub)
• Piedmont Pharma draws $8.5M for parasitology drugs (release)
• CaseNet raises $7.5M for healthcare-management software (release)
• Cambria Biosciences pulls in $5M to fight neurodegenerative disease (release)
• Verus Pharma names Robert Keith as CEO (release)