VentureBeat

Featured companies: Asteres, HemaQuest Pharmaceuticals, Nanosphere, Novalar Pharmaceuticals, Tranzyme Pharma

(UPDATED: Expanded items for Nanosphere, HemaQuest and Transzyme. Moved Novalar to a separate item here.)

Diagnostic maker Nanosphere prices IPO at low end of range, raises up to $113M — Nanosphere, a Northbrook, Ill., biotech focused on nanotech-derived diagnostics, priced its IPO at $14 a share, at the low end of its estimated range. The company, which could sell as many as eight million shares, stands to raise up to $112.7 million in the offering, which values the company at as much as $309.4 million.

Nanosphere is focused on molecular diagnostics that gauge the likelihood of problems such as blood clots or a patient’s likely response to a particular medication. Our previous coverage of the company is here and here.

HemaQuest draws $20M to fight blood disease — Newton, Mass.-based HemaQuest Pharmaceuticals (no Web site), a biotech focused on new drugs for blood disorders such as sickle-cell anemia, raised $20 million in a first funding round. Investors included De Novo Ventures, Forward Ventures and Lilly Ventures.

The company said the funds will support clinical trials of its first drug candidate, an oral treatment for sickle-cell anemia and beta thalassemia. Both diseases involve disorders of hemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying molecule found in red blood cells. HemaQuest said it intends to submit plans for a human test of its drug candidate, which it didn’t identify, by the end of this year.

Novalar raises $30M for dental-numbness reverser — See the full story here.

Tranzyme Pharma pulls in $20M for GI drugs — Tranzyme Pharma, a Research Triangle Park, N.C., biotech developing new drugs for gastrointestinal and metabolic disorders, raised $20 million in a third funding round. Investors included H.I.G. Ventures, Thomas, McNerney & Partners, Quaker BioVentures, and BDC Venture Capital.

Tranzyme’s lead drug candidate aims to treat severe gastroparesis, a condition in which food stops moving through the stomach, and ileus, a form of obstruction in the bowel. That drug, designated TZP-101, recently began mid-stage human trials in both conditions.

OTHER HEADLINES OF NOTE:

• Self-dispensing drug machine maker Asteres pulls in $8M (VentureWire, sub req’d)

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: American Oriental Bioengineering, Guangxi Boke, Inspired Technologies, Nanosphere, Patton Medical Devices

UPDATED: Expanded items on Nanosphere and Patton Medical Devices.

Molecular-diagnostics firm Nanosphere sets IPO range, now expects $129M — Northbrook, Ill.-based Nanosphere, a maker of nanotech-derived molecular diagnostics, now expects to raise up to $129 million by selling as many as eight million shares in an initial offering. The company’s latest SEC filing is here. Nanosphere intends to price its shares between $14 and $16 apiece.

The latest IPO terms represent a significant step up from Nanotech’s initial plan to raise $100 million in the offering, which we wrote about here (seventh item). Either way, it’s still a fairly princely sum, particularly given that only two U.S. pharma/biotechs — the specialty pharmas Jazz Pharmaceuticals (covered here) and Eurand — have managed to pull in more than $100 million with IPOs this year. Of course, none of these companies holds a candle to Talecris Biotherapeutics, which apparently still thinks it can raise $1 billion in an initial offering.

Nanosphere manufactures a molecular-diagnostics system, called Verigene, which runs sophisticated protein and nucleic-acid detection tests for personalized medicine and other uses. Its first two tests were approved within the past month — one tests for specific gene variants that affect how quickly a patient metabolizes a clot-prevention drug (see our discussion of this sort of test), while the other identifies gene mutations linked to a higher risk of blood clots. Nanosphere is also developing tests for cancer and heart disease applications.

This sort of genomics-related diagnostics is certainly hot right now, which may explain the company’s confidence in its IPO chances. On the other hand, if investors are merely embracing biotech diagnostics at the expense of biotech therapies — perhaps under the assumption that diagnostic tests are less risky and complex than biotech drugs — then chances are good that they’ll end up disappointed.

IPOHome notes that Nanosphere is expected to hit the market in the week of Oct. 29. Keep an eye out for it.

Patton Medical raises $15M for insulin ports — Austin, Tex.-based Patton Medical Devices, a medical-device company focused on diabtes care, raised $15 million from private investors. The company is developing a surgical “port” through with diabetics can inject insulin without further piercing the skin.

HEADLINES OF NOTE:

• Inspired Technologies takes in funds for lung treatment (release)
• American Oriental acquires Guangxi Boke for $36.5M (release)
• SpineOvations, maker of injectable spine-stabilization products, names new CEO (release)

(UPDATED: See below.)

Featured companies: FoldRx Pharmaceuticals, Ophthotech, Pevion Biotech, Restoration Robotics, Glide Pharma, Reliant Pharmaceuticals, Nanosphere, SurModics, BioFX Laboratories

FoldRx Pharma to receive $22M against cystic fibrosis — Cambridge, Mass.-based FoldRx Pharmaceuticals, a biotech focused on diseases that result from misfolded proteins, will get $22 million over the next five years from an affiliate of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation to further its work against the genetic lung disease. The money will be paid as FoldRx meets various developmental milestones, including pushing two experimental drugs into early-stage human trials. The company’s current drug candidates, however, don’t target cystic fibrosis, and instead aim to take on a particular class of diseases known as amyloidosis and Parkinson’s disease.

The Boston Globe and the WSJ Health Blog have more.

Newly formed Ophthotech raises $36M against eye disease — Ophthotech, a newly formed Princeton, N.J., biotech with a focus on eye disease, raised a whopping $36 million in a first funding round. The company, founded by a bevy of former Eyetech Pharmaceuticals officials, is going to follow directly in the former company’s footsteps by taking aim at age-related macular degeneration with aptamers licensed from Archemix (which we wrote about here).

Investors in the round included SV Life Sciences, HBM BioVentures and Novo A/S. (See update below.)

Pevion Biotech gets $29M for vaccines — Pevion Biotech, a Bern, Switzerland-based vaccine developer, raised $29 million (CHF35 million) in a first funding round. Investors included BZ Bank Aktiengesellschaft, BB Biotech Ventures II, CC Private Equity Partners and Bachem Holding. The company is conducting clinical trials of vaccines against malaria, breast cancer and hepatitis C.

Hair-transplant automator Restoration Robotics raises $25M — Restoration Robotics, a Mountain View, Calif., developer of robotic surgery systems for hair transplants, raised $25 million in a second round of funding, PE Hub reports. The company’s Web site is a stub and the linked article doesn’t contain much information, but an April VentureWire store republished at Alta Partners’ site gets to the root of the matter:

Sutter Hill Ventures and Alloy Ventures, for example, have invested in the first and second rounds raised in 2005 and 2006, respectively, by Restoration Robotics Inc., which is testing a robotic device that performs hair transplants. Transplant-surgery outcomes vary according to the surgeon’s skill. Restoration’s robot — which is surgeon-controlled — produces uniform results in half the time, says CEO Jim McCollum. Investors hope this pushes hair transplants into the mainstream. Today, “people think of late-night commercials when they think of hair restoration,” says Sutter Hill Managing Director Jeffrey W. Bird.

Investors in the round include InterWest Partners, Alloy Ventures and Sutter Hill Ventures.

Glide Pharma raises $4.6M for needle-free drugs — U.K. specialty pharma Glide Pharma raised $4.6 million (£2.3 million). Investors included Oxford Technology 4 VCT and Oxford Capital Partners. The company is developing drugs that can be delivered via its own needle-free injection system. We’ve written about other startups pursuing similar technology, including StrataGent Life Sciences and Macroflux.

Reliant Pharma refiles for a $400M IPO — Reliant Pharmaceuticals, a Liberty Corner, N.J., specialty pharma that withdrew a planned $300 million IPO in 2005, is going to try again, only with more at stake. The company filed to raise as much as $400 million in an offering, despite the fact that it is on track to lose more than $100 million this year, which would be the third time in four years it has done so.

In the first six months of this year, Reliant reported a net loss to common shareholders of $56.4 million on revenue of $230 million. That net loss would have been only $21.8 million but for preferred-share dividends of $34.6 million in the half. Reliant sells a variety of unrelated second-hand drugs for cardiovascular problems.

Interestingly enough, Reliant made its last charge at the public markets with the famed Ernest Mario at the helm. Mario jumped from Reliant just last week, and is now CEO of the little-known Capnia (see our coverage here).

Nanosphere aims for outsized $100M IPO — Nanosphere, a Northbrook, Ill., developer of nucleic-acid and protein detection and diagnostic systems, filed to raise as much as $100 million in an IPO. As of March 31, the company had an accumulated deficit of $112.6 million. Earlier this year, it submitted its Verigene molecular-diagnostic system to the FDA for approval; Nanosphere intends to market the device to hospital laboratories that currently aren’t equipped to perform such tests in-house.

SurModics snaps up diagnostic-supply company BioFX for up to $22.7M — SurModics, an Eden Prairie, Minn., developer of drug formulations and other biological supplies, agreed to acquire BioFX Laboratories of Owings Mills, Md., for $11.3 million in cash and milestone payments worth up to $11.4 million. The release is here. The acquisition is the second for SurModics this month; it bought out Brookwood Laboraties on Aug. 2 (our coverage is here).

UPDATE (2:37pm PT): Added items on Glide Pharma, Reliant Pharmaceuticals, Nanosphere, and SurModics/BioFX Laboratories.

UPDATE REDUX: Over at Pharma’s Cutting Edge, Fred Cohen notes what I didn’t have time to, which is that Ophthotech essentially amounts to a do-over for the architects of Eyetech’s failure. Check it out.