Life sciences briefing: Monday, Dec. 3, 2007
Featured companies: CoMentis, ForHealth Technologies, Merrimack Pharmaceuticals, QuantomiX, Progenitor Cell Therapy, River Diagnostics, Topaz Pharmaceuticals
UPDATED: Expanded items on CoMentis, Topaz and ForHealth.
CoMentis gets $12M for eye, Alzheimer’s treatments — South San Francisco’s CoMentis, a biotech pursuing treatments for Alzheimer’s disease and macular degeneration, raised $12 million in a third funding round, VentureWire reports (subscription required). Wellington Management provided the funding.
The company’s lead drug candidate, ATG003, is an eye drop designed to treat age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a… Continue Reading
Brownian motion: Personnel moves within the life sciences
Nile Therapeutics, a Berkeley, Calif., biotech hired Peter Strumph, formerly chief of operations for struggling heart-drug maker CV Therapeutics, as CEO. Nile is currently developing a second-generation natriuretic peptide, CD-NP, for the treatment of heart failure. Here’s hoping it fares better than the first-generation version of this drug, J&J’s Natrecor. The company’s release is here.
Macroflux, a Mountain View, Calif., spinoff from Alza, hired M. Cory Zwerling as CEO. The company is developing “needle-free” delivery of… Continue Reading