diaDexus lands $9.2M for cardiovascular diagnostics
South San Francisco, Calif. biotech firm diaDexus just raised $9.2 million in sixth-round funding from Scale Venture Partners, GlaxoSithKline and Baker Brothers Advisors, according to peHUB. The company’s first and only product, the PLAC Test, is used to detect early indicators of risk for heart… Continue Reading
Cancer drug developer ChemoCentryx cancels IPO
Mountain View, Calif.-based biotech firm ChemoCentryx announced that it withdrew its filing to go public, citing (as per usual) unfavorable market conditions. The company, which develops drugs to treat cancer and autoimmune ailments like Crohn’s disease, raked in $50 million from its partner GlaxoSmithKline just… Continue Reading
ChemoCentryx raises $50M, eyes bleak IPO landscape for biotech
ChemoCentryx Inc., a biotech company that develops drugs to treat immune system ailments, got a $50 million payday from partner and major shareholder GlaxoSmithKline PLC in August. The plan last November was to raise $57.5 million through an IPO, but with only four VC-funded health… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2008
TODAY’S HEADLINES:
Amira Pharma strikes GSK partnership on lung, heart drugs worth up to $425M (release)
Wolters Kluwer Health takes stake in Logical Images (release)
Gentiva Health acquires Home Health Care Affiliates for $55M (release)
Compuware buys Hilgraeve to upgrade healthcare IT (release)
Touchstone Health appoints Michael Muchnicki CEO (release)
Australia’s… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2007
TODAY’S HEADLINES:
Cancer stem-cell co. OncoMed strikes GSK partnership worth up to $1.4B (release)
Kosmix pulls in $10M for health, lifestyle search (release)
CDI Bioscience pulls in $3M for protein-production improvements (release)
UroMedica takes in $7M for incontinence devices (VentureWire, sub req’d)
Draths raises $2.5M for flu drugs (PE Hub)
Cancer… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Wednesday, Nov. 21, 2007
Featured companies: Cerus, LabNow, Reliant Pharmaceuticals
UPDATED: Expanded items on Reliant Pharmaceuticals and Cerus.
GSK acquires Reliant Pharma for $1.65 billion — And then there were none. Reliant Pharmaceuticals, a Liberty Corner, N.J., specialty pharma that filed for an initial offering back in August, has instead decided to sell… Continue Reading
A biotech flu vaccine and the seduction of hype
(UPDATED: See below.)
Vaccine developer Protein Sciences is all over the blogosphere today (see, for instance, items on Pharmalot and the WSJ health blog), thanks to a breathless Bloomberg piece on the little Meriden, Conn., biotech. According to Bloomberg reporter John Lauerman’s article, Protein Sciences is poised… Continue Reading
Roundup: Guilt-free stem cells, the trials of Avandia, sponsor research bias, news from ASCO, and more
Flip switch for stem cells – Three research teams reported a technique for “reprogramming” skin cells into embryonic stem cells, those primordial bits of protoplasm that can propagate themselves indefinitely and, under the right conditions, transform themselves into any type of cell in the body. Deriving… Continue Reading
Roundup: Genetic links to breast cancer, Avandia under attack, death and the drug official, and more
More genetic links for breast cancer – Whole-genome association studies that tease out links between minute genetic variations and the likelihood of disease are definitely building momentum. Over the last several days, researchers reported six new variations that increase the risk of breast cancer for women… Continue Reading
Roundup: No-nukes cancer treatment, E. coli vaccines, ovarian-tissue banking, more
No nukes in lymphoma treatment – Two innovative biotech drugs that target tumor cells for destruction by tiny radioactive particles are struggling in the marketplace, in part because cancer doctors are simply too specialized to make proper use of them. The drugs — Zevalin (pictured at… Continue Reading
AstraZeneca ups the biotech ante
Now that AstraZeneca has made the bold — or impulsive — decision to snap up MedImmune for $15.6 billion in cash, one big question is whether the U.K. pharmaceutical giant has kicked Big Pharma’s appetite for biotech acquisitions into high gear.
The green-eyeshade types are generally… Continue Reading
Biotech Roundup: Heart-disease biomarkers, drugs that go too far, “non-profit” drugs
(Note: This item has been copied over to the Life Sciences page from its original location on the VentureBeat main page. To view it in its original context, with comments, click here.)
Cautionary tales: An occasional look at events with potential long-term impact for biotechnology
Personalized medicine… Continue Reading