Life-science briefing: Monday, April 7, 2008
TODAY’S HEADLINES:
Quark Pharma gets $27M for RNAi drugs (release)
TargetRx takes in $9.6M for physician-prescribing data (release)
D-Pharm raises more than $3M for fat-like drugs (release)
Vortex Medical raises $2.3M for medical devices (VentureWire)
Specialty pharma Ascio takes in $3M (VentureWire)
Keraderm gets $1.7M for antifungal drugs (VentureWire)
Contract researcher CTMG raises $500K toward $1M round (VentureWire)
Singapore’s Progeniq raises seed funding for life-science computing (release)
Acrongenomics scuttles Molecular Vision acquisition (peHUB)
Michael Gutch joins H.I.G. Ventures (release)
Quark Pharma gets $27M for RNAi drugs – Fremont, Calif.-based Quark Pharmaceuticals,… Continue Reading
Quark Pharma: Not quite such a chameleon, after all
Last June, I posted about the long and winding history of Fremont, Calif.-based Quark Pharmaceuticals, a biotech developing drugs based on a new gene-silencing technology called RNA interference, or RNAi. At the time, I labeled the company a biotech chameleon — a term I used to describe biotechs that reinvent themselves, often abruptly and without looking back.
In that sense, Quark is still a chameleon, by which I don’t mean anything pejorative — biotechs turn on… Continue Reading
RNA-drug developer Quark aims for $30M after failed IPO
Fremont, Calif.-based Quark Pharmaceuticals, a biotech developing drugs based on a new technology called RNA interference, hopes to raise $30 million in an eighth funding round, VentureWire reports. Last year, Quark sought $80.5 million in an ultimately abortive IPO.
Quark apparently hopes to close the round within the next few weeks. The company hasn’t given up hope of going public, and now envisions re-filing its IPO in mid-2009. Quark, a biotech chameleon with a long and… Continue Reading
Quark Pharma IPO delayed
Quark Pharmaceuticals, the biotech chameleon I profiled here, delayed an IPO that the company expects to raise as much as $81 million, VentureWire reports (subscription required). The newswire said the Fremont, Calif., developer of RNA-interference drugs was slated to begin trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market today.
It’s hard to know what a postponement like this means, although I can’t help wondering if picky investors who have already turned up their noses at a number of… Continue Reading
Biotech chameleons: Quark Pharma aims for $81M IPO
(UPDATED: See below.)
For some reason, biotechnology is rife with chameleons — companies that suddenly and radically alter their scientific strategy, disease focus or business model, sometimes to recover from a major failure, and sometimes just to be whatever faddish investors want them to be.
Today, for instance, Quark Pharmaceuticals — now a Fremont, Calif., developer of drugs that work via a new mechanism known as “RNA interference” — said in an SEC filing that it now… Continue Reading