VentureBeat

Featured companies: Acceleron Pharma, Bledsoe Brace Systems, Eurobiobiz, Genoptix, Harmony Information Systems, ImmuneWorks, Pasteuria Bioscience, Renal CarePartners, Quantum Genomics, Synergy Software, Vitreo Retinal Technology

UPDATED: Expanded items on Genoptix and Acceleron Pharma.

Diagnostics biotech Genoptix prices IPO above range, raises up to $98M — Genoptix became one of the first biotechs in a long time to demonstrate some oomph with an IPO, pricing its shares above its expected range and then soaring nearly 50 percent in its first day of trading. Genoptix priced its shares at $17 apiece, above its expected range of $14 to $16, netting itself as much as $97.8 million in the process. (Actually, existing shareholders sold close to three-quarters of a million shares in the IPO, so the proceeds to Genoptix are more like $85.6 million.)

At the very least, the positive reception appears to support the notion that biotech investors are currently more interested in reliable service businesses such as Genoptix’s diagnostics work than they are in traditional biotech moon shots, since they offer lower risk even at the cost of slower growth. Perhaps there’s hope for Talecris Biotherapeutics after all.

We’ve covered the company here and here. The offering initially valued Genoptix at $265.2 million, although today’s share run-up to $25.35 now values the company at $395.5 million. Genoptix provides diagnostic services to cancer and blood-disease specialists in order to help with diagnosing and selecting appropriate treatments for various cancers.

Acceleron Pharma draws in $31M for tissue-regeneration drugs — Cambridge, Mass.-based Acceleron Pharma, a biotech focused on “regenerative” drugs that target a family of growth and development proteins, raised $31 million in a third funding round. Investors included Bessemer Venture Partners, MPM BioEquities, QVT Financial, Advanced Technology Ventures, Flagship Ventures, OrbiMed Advisors, Polaris Ventures, Sutter Hill Ventures and Venrock.

The company’s lead drug candidate, ACE-011, aims to stimulate bone regrowth in cancer patients. That drug should move into mid-stage clinical trials in the first quarter of next year. The company intends to begin early human tests of two other drugs — one designed to increase muscle mass and strength, the other an “anti-angiogenesis” cancer drug — next year.

OTHER HEADLINES OF NOTE:

• Medical-IT co. Harmony Info raises $28M, acquires Synergy Software (release)
• Vitreo Retinal Tech adds $3M to round for eye drugs (PE Hub)
• ImmuneWorks gets $300K for lung-disease drugs (release)
• Bledsoe Brace sells majority stake to Essex Woodlands (PE Hub)
• Quantum Genomics acquires Eurobiobiz (release)
• Renal CarePartners acquires two dialysis providers (VentureWire, sub req’d)
• Pasteuria Bioscience names David Duncan new CEO (release)

Bioheart’s IPO-related chest pains continue — The week of Oct. 22 has come and gone, and there’s no sign of the scheduled — and already battered — IPO of Bioheart, the Florida company that hopes to treat damaged hearts with patients’ own muscle stem cells. IPO Home now lists the IPO as scheduled on a “day-to-day” basis.

So the jury is still out as to whether the company’s recent halving of its IPO terms will still get it out the gate, but the signs aren’t good. By the way, my last piece on the company — which, admittedly, was a tad on the snide side — drew a critical comment from someone identifying themselves as “Peggy Farley.” According to Bioheart’s latest SEC filing, Peggy Farley is a Bioheart board member, the CEO of Ascent Capital Management and the beneficial owner of 494,410 Bioheart shares. I don’t have any independent confirmation that the commenter and the Bioheart director are one and the same — among other things, the commenter used a Hotmail account — but it’s interesting nonetheless.

Bioheart isn’t the only life-sciences startup in this pickle. Merrion Pharmaceuticals, an Irish company that rejiggers existing drugs, was scheduled to go out last week and is now also scheduled on a “day-to-day” basis. (Our coverage of the company is here.) Of course, even Merrion’s situation looks good compared to Cumberland Pharmaceuticals, which is still listed as “day-to-day” and has been since mid-August (see, for instance, a mention in the Zars item here).

Reliant vs. Reliant — One of the oddest doppelganger acts in the life-sciences financing world has hit the road. Back in August, I thought it odd when Reliant Technologies — a Mountain View, Calif., medical-laser startup — filed for an IPO just three days after New Jersey-based specialty pharma Reliant Pharmaceuticals had done so. That apparently wasn’t enough, though, as this week both companies set their IPO terms back to back. The companies’ latest SEC filings are here (Reliant Pharma) and here (Reliant Tech).

Can investors keep these road-tripping twinsies straight? Let’s take a look:

Specialty
Reliant Pharma: Cardiovascular disease
Reliant Tech: Skin “rejuvenation”

Maximum IPO take
Reliant Pharma: $364 million
Reliant Tech: $86 million

Proposed ticker symbol
Reliant Pharma: RRX
Reliant Tech: RLNT

Potential Market Capitalization
Reliant Pharma: $1.4 billion
Reliant Tech: $236.6 million

Good luck, investors. We’ll be thinking of you.

Life-sciences IPOs scheduled this week:

• Akela Pharma
• Genoptix (our coverage)
• Nanosphere (our coverage)

Featured companies: AngioScore, Forsight Labs, Genoptix, Metastatix, Optherion, QLT

UPDATED: See below.

Artery opener AngioScore pulls in $30M — AngioScore, a Fremont, Calif., maker of balloon catheters used to open up clogged arteries, raised $30 million in a fifth funding round. Investors included Telegraph Hill Partners, Psilos Group Management, QuestMark Partners, L.P., UV Partners, California Technology Ventures and Innomed Ventures.

AngioScore’s balloon catheters, which inflate inside blocked blood vessels to restore blood flow, are designed to overcome problems that sometimes occur during traditional angioplasty procedures. Conventional angioplasty can lead to tears and splits in the plaque that lines blocked arteries and can damage arterial walls as well. AngioScore claims its new catheter overcomes this problem by making precise cuts, or “scores,” in the plaque, thereby reducing the chance that it will crack and split unpredictably.

Optherion raises $37M for macular degeneration — New Haven, Conn.-based Optherion, a biotech focused on new treatments for forms of the eye condition macular degeneration, raised $37 million in a first funding round. Investors included Quaker BioVentures, Domain Associates, Johnson & Johnson Development, Purdue Pharmaceutical Products, Pappas Ventures, Biogen Idec New Ventures and GE Healthcare Financial Services.

Optherion is developing drugs that affect the “alternative complement pathway,” an arm of the immune system that may be implicated in two forms of macular degeneration, an eye condition that can lead to partial blindness, and possibly other autoimmune disorders as well. The company was founded in 2005 following discoveries that linked the alternative-complement system to macular degeneration.

Metastatix draws $35M for low-side-effect drugs — Atlanta’s Metastatix, a biotech working on drugs for AIDS, cancer and inflammatory disease, raised $35 million in a second financing round. Investors included Frazier Healthcare, H.I.G. Ventures, the Aurora Funds, CM Capital, SR One, MedImmune Ventures, Georgia Venture Partners, Centrosome Ventures and the State of Georgia.

Metastatix is developing drugs that block a cellular receptor called CXCR4, which is best known as one of the two ways HIV can enter and infect cells. CXCR4 may also be involved in cancer and inflammation. Metastatix says it is particularly focused on drug candidates with the “fewest possible side effects.”

Optical-device incubator Forsight Labs sells unnamed “newco” to QLT for $42M+ — Forsight Labs, an incubator for optical-device companies backed by Morgenthaler Ventures, Split Rock Partners and Versant Ventures, agreed to sell its second, unnamed startup to QLT for $42 million plus milestone payments that could be worth $25 million or more. The startup, known only as ForSight NewCo II, has developed a new type of ocular drug-delivery system that could potentially be used to treat a variety of conditions including glaucoma. The release describing the deal is here.

Diagnostic-services company Genoptix sets IPO terms, aims for $92M — The Carlsbad, Calif., provider of cancer and blood-disease diagnostic services, said it plans to sell up to 5.75 million shares at a price of $14 to $16 apiece, for a maximum possible take of $92 million. The company’s SEC filing is here. We covered the company in some detail at the time of its IPO filing here.

UPDATE: Added items on Metastatix and Optherion.

Genoptix, a Carlsbad, Calif., provider of diagnostic services to cancer and blood-disease specialists, filed to raise as much as $86.25 million in an intial offering. The company specializes in genetic and other testing of blood and bone-marrow samples in order to diagnose various cancers and to determine appropriate treatments.

Genoptix, it turns out, is another biotech chameleon. Until late 2004, the company was focused on developing laser and optical tools for cellular analysis. Then Genoptix switched gears to diagnostic services, a field in which it finally swung to a profit of $1.3 million on revenue of $10.7 million in the first quarter of 2007. The company still has accumulated losses of $54 million.

The terms of the IPO have yet to be established, of course, so it’s impossible to know whether $86 million is a rich IPO price or not. Service businesses do tend to grow more slowly than successful drug-developing biotechs, although Genoptix ramped up its revenues fairly quickly — the company claims a 48 percent compounded quarterly growth rate over the past nine quarters. Although it’s also possible that Genoptix — and, perhaps Talecris, which I wrote about here — might actually serve as interesting test cases as to whether IPO investors these days are more interested in the traditional biotech model of lottery tickets promising instant wealth, or slow-and-steady cash-generating businesses that just happen to have their roots in biotechnology.

One other interesting note about Genoptix — its CEO, Tina Nova, serves on the Independent Citizens’ Advisory Committee, the powerful oversight board that oversees California’s $3 billion stem-cell program, as well as three ICOC subcommittees. Those memberships aren’t exactly ceremonial, as they each involve regular meetings — generally monthly, and usually lengthy — in various locations across California. Just one other factor would-be IPO investors might want to consider, although it doesn’t seem to have slowed the company down significantly so far.