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… 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… 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… 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… 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… Continue Reading