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Just over six weeks ago, we broke the news that 5AM Ventures had plunked $3.3 million into a stealthy biotech it was calling ImmunoNewco, and a few weeks later speculated further that the startup might be engaged in a pharmacogenomic “rescue” of immune-modulating drugs acquired from the low-profile Danish biotech Borean Pharma.

Well, I was largely right — but still partly wrong — about the goings-on at ImmunoNewco. I recently spoke with the company’s new CEO, Kathy Bowdish, in order to get the real scoop.

First, what I got wrong: ImmunoNewco — a placeholder name — isn’t about pharmacogenomics at all. (Brief recap: Because public filings named former Perlegen Sciences executive Phyllis Whiteley as the startup’s president, I suspected that it might be planning to use genetic profiling to identify the patients most likely to respond to an otherwise disappointing drug.) Instead, ImmunoNewco essentially is Borean Pharma, as the startup basically acquired the Danish concern a short while back.

Bowdish says 5AM, which recently brought on respected Scripps Institute immunologist Richard Ulevitch as a venture partner, wanted to expand its presence in immune-related disorders — a vast array of disease encompassing everything from type 2 diabetes, multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis to, potentially, heart disease and even cancer. Whiteley, who has a long history of arranging drug-licensing deals at Roche and Perlegen as well as a background in immunology, came aboard to locate drug candidates that could be used to jump-start a startup, so to speak.

Ulevitch and Whiteley “scoured the world,” Bowdish told me, and eventually determined that Borean Pharma would be a “perfect fit.” Once the acquisition was underway, Bowdish joined to oversee the transfer of Borean’s programs to the new company, which will be based in San Diego. (Presumably the enigmatic Mikkel Holmen Andersen is involved as well.)

Borean’s approach to drug discovery begins with existing human proteins with important biological properties that for one reason or another aren’t suitable as drugs by themselves. (The company has so far focused on human tetranectin, a fairly recently discovered blood protein that may play a role in various autoimmune diseases and cancer.) Borean’s insight was to bind additional proteins to tetranectin in order to enhance its stability and effectiveness as a drug.

I’d point to Borean’s site for more details, but it’s reverted to a stub pending the launch of ImmunoNewco, and tetranectin seems to be an awfully complicated and not particularly well-understood protein. BioPortfolio does have a brief summary of Borean’s work to date.

None of Borean’s drugs have entered human testing yet, and Bowdish declined to say what diseases the company hopes to target. She does sat, however, that the Borean technology “has an unlimited potential for next-generation immunology.” We’ll have to wait to learn more.

(UPDATED: See below.)

A few weeks ago, we broke the news that 5AM Ventures is nurturing a stealthy startup called — for now — ImmunoNewco. The trail led back to the Danish biotech Borean Pharma, which is developing protein-based drugs against autoimmune conditions, and which may be in the process of transferring some or all of its programs to ImmunoNewco.

5AM partners stopped responding to calls and email when I asked them about Borean — information that emerged thanks to the incautious LinkedIn profile, since edited, of a former Borean employee — and that naturally just sparked my curiosity. Now, with the assistance of a very useful database at the California Department of Corporations, I’ve managed to dig up some additional details.

According to this ImmunoNewco filing (PDF link) with the department, it appears that the startup is headed by Phyllis Whiteley, formerly VP of business development and licensing at Perlegen Sciences and now an entrepreneur-in-residence at 5AM. Perlegen, which spun out of gene-chip maker Affymetrix, has long been focused on personalizing medical treatments to an individual’s genetic profile. In particular, Perlegen wants to salvage failed or otherwise unsuccessful drugs by using genetic scans to determine which patients are most likely to benefit or avoid side effects — a concept known formally as “pharmacogenomics.”

Whiteley, who’s named as president of ImmunoNewco in the company’s California filings, appears to have worked at Perlegen for about three years — she was hired in late 2004 and apparently left sometime last year (her signature is on an ImmunoNewco filing from last October, although her replacements at Perlegen weren’t named until two weeks ago). She has a long history of negotiating drug-licensing deals and gave an interesting interview on Perlegen’s strategy to Pharmacogenomics Reporter in 2005.

It’s entirely possible that Whiteley is involved strictly because of her business skill at acquiring drug cast-offs from other companies. But if all these pieces really fit together — and I have to stress that this is only speculation at this point — it’s beginning to look as though one or more of Borean’s drugs didn’t work out, but that the folks behind ImmunoNewco think they can be salvaged via pharmacogenomics. I tried to reach Whiteley, but she’s not listed in 5AM’s voicemail directory and their operator seems to have taken the afternoon off.

What does all this amount to? At this point, frankly, not a whole lot beyond a stealthy company that’s fun to noodle with. I happen to agree with Seth Levine’s partners that stealth is overrated as a business strategy, although of course VC firms like 5AM are well within their rights to keep whatever secrets they want to keep. But we’re also within our rights as journalists to pull on threads and see where they lead. Puzzles are fun, dammit.

UPDATE: Puzzles are also extremely satisfying when they start to come together. Borean’s Web site has been replaced with a blank page referring inquiries to “Katherine Bowdish, PhD.” in San Diego. I called Bowdish, who declined to speak on the record but hinted that there may be new developments shortly, so stay tuned.

Bowdish co-founded Prolifaron, a San Diego biotech focused on — guess what? — antibody engineering technology. That company was acquired by Alexion in 2000, where Bowdish eventually became a senior VP in charge of antibody technology. You can read her capsule biography here.

(UPDATED: See below.)

5AM Ventures has invested $3.3 million in an immunology startup so far known only as ImmunoNewco. Andy Schwab, a co-founder of 5AM, confirmed the investment but declined to provide further details, saying only that “we’re still putting ImmunoNewco together.”

ImmunoNewco — a name that will change once the startup takes shape — is currently based in Menlo Park, Calif., which also happens to be where 5AM is located. The company will focus on immunology and research into immune-based diseases, according to our information. Schwab said 5AM is the sole investor in the new company.

There are interesting clues that ImmunoNewco may be using technology developed by Borean Pharma, a Danish biotech that’s working on protein-based drugs against autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn’s disease. According to this LinkedIn profile, Borean’s director of protein chemistry started a new job with ImmunoNewco in December, where he holds the same position and is heading up “technology transfer of all projects in Borean Pharma ApS to american investor, CA.”

I haven’t been able to reach the profile’s owner to verify this information — I’m working on that — but it’s certainly intriguing, as all the pieces seem to fit. Borean hasn’t put out a press release since last October, and there’s no indication on their site that they’re undergoing a change of ownership or selling off assets, so take this for what it’s worth at the moment. I’ve emailed the Borean CEO as well.

UPDATE: The mysterious Mikkel Andersen, author of the LinkedIn profile in question,  remains reclusive; he declined an InMail (through LinkedIn) seeking comment, and I just noticed that he’s finally edited his LinkedIn page to eliminate the above-quoted reference to his current work for ImmunoNewco. Good thing, then, that I snapped a screenshot of his page before he changed it; see below. I should also note that 5AM’s Andy Schwab didn’t reply to an email asking specifically about Mikkel Andersen and Borean Pharma, although he had answered other queries prior to that one. The current CEO of Borean, Johanna Holldack, also didn’t reply to an email seeking comment.

Here’s Andersen’s old LinkedIn page. Click the image to see a full-sized version:

TODAY’S HEADLINES:

• 5AM Ventures puts $3.3M into stealthy ImmunoNewco (VBLS exclusive)
• NewLink Genetics raises $17M for cancer vaccine, immune drugs (VBLS exclusive)
• Biochip, stem-cell biotech Minerva Bio ousts CEO Jim Czirr and sues (release)
• Sonexa Therapeutics takes $30M for Alzheimer’s treatment (release)
• Tissue regenerator Healionics pulls in $1.7M (release)
• EGeen, clinical research organization, receives $245K (VentureWire)
• Barnvet Labs, HeMemics Bio get $75K apiece from Maryland gov’t (release)

5AM Ventures puts $3.3M into new immune-related startup – I’ve moved this item to a standalone post here.

NewLink Genetics raises $17M for cancer vaccine, immune drugs – I’ve moved the item to a standalone post here.

Biochip, stem-cell biotech Minerva Bio ousts CEO Jim Czirr and sues – This item is now a standalone post here.

Sonexa Therapeutics takes $30M for Alzheimer’s treatment – San Diego’s Sonexa Therapeutics (no Web site), a specialty pharma, raised $30 million in a first funding round. The proceeds will go toward licensing a so-far undisclosed compound from a Japanese pharmaceutical company that Solexa says is “being tested as a therapeutic to treat Alzheimer’s disease.”

Solexa will have worldwide rights to the experimental drug, excepting Japan and certain Asian countries. Investors in the round included Domain Associates, Scale Venture Partners, Alta Partners, AgeChem Venture Fund and MC Life Science Ventures.

Tissue regenerator Healionics pulls in $1.7M – Redmond, Wash.-based Healionics, a device company focused on tissue regeneration and biomaterials, raised $1.7 million in a first funding round. Individual investors, including Carl Lombardi, the former CEO of SpaceLabs Medical, and Sam Naficy, the medical director of the Naficy Plastic Surgery & Rejuvenation Center, provided the funding.

Healionics is focused on a new class of biomaterials it calls STAR, for sphere-templated angiogenic regeneration. These STAR materials are designed for insertable or implantable medical devices that need to integrate smoothly with and promote healing of the body’s tissues. In particular, Healionics claims that the materials are specifically engineered with “tightly controlled pore geometry” that maximizes the growth of blood vessels and tissue entry while minimizing the body’s tendency to “wall off” implants with scar tissue.

The company, founded last March, says it has established “multiple partnerships” for advancing the development of its materials. Possible applications include diabetes, wound care and infusion therapy.

EGeen, clinical research organization, receives $245K –EGeen, a contract research organization in Mountain View, Calif., raised $245,433 to expand its global operations, VentureWire reports. Ambient Sound Investments provided the funding.

EGeen conducts clinical trials for pharma and biotech companies in Estonia and other Eastern European nations. It has recently established a presence in the Ukraine and Romania. The company has previously raised $4.8 million in two funding rounds.