VentureBeat

Featured companies: BioVex, FullTurn Media, Humanetics, N Spine, Novitas Capital, Reliant Technologies, Symbios, Vaxart, Virtual Radiologic, Winston Laboratories, Zosano Pharma

EXPANDING ITEMS: Stay tuned.

Vaxart receives $3.3M for oral vaccines — San Francisco’s Vaxart, a biotech developing novel adenovirus-based vaccines, raised $2.7 million in a first funding round. Vaxart also received a $600,000 small-business innovation grant from the NIH to assist in developing the company’s vaccine platform.

Vaxart’s vaccine technology involves a non-replicating adenovirus engineered to produce a particular bacterial or viral protein, or antigen, which stimulates an immune response. The vaccine, which consists of the adenovirus and an “adjuvant” designed to enhance the immune response, is packaged in a capsule that can be taken by mouth.

Vaccines that depend on viral “vectors” like adenovirus are promising because they can produce immunity without the need to rely on attenuated or killed disease virus. When injected, however, such vaccines frequently stimulate an immune reaction to the adenovirus itself, which can negate the effect of the vaccine or subsequent booster shots. Vaxart believes that oral delivery can sidestep that problem.

The company’s early candidates include vaccines against avian flu, seasonal flu, and biowarfare agents. Investors in the round included Quantum Technology Partners, Life Science Angels, Bay Partners and Sand Hill Angels.

Reliant Tech postpones IPO — Reliant Technologies, the Mountain View, Calif., maker of laser skin treatments, postponed its IPO indefinitely, PE Hub reports. The medical-device maker had previously filed to raise up to $86.5 million in an offer of 5.4 million shares.

Reliant Tech’s postponement comes just a day after EnteroMedics, a maker of obesity-control devices, almost halved its IPO pricing. Until recently, device makers had lived a charmed life where IPOs were concerned, but it’s beginning to look as though market turmoil may be taking its toll on this sector as well. Our previous coverage of the company is here and here.

On the other hand, at least IPO investors won’t get the company confused with Reliant Pharmaceuticals anymore.

N Spine acquired by Synthes for $30M — N Spine, a San Diego maker of spinal devices, was acquired by Switzerland’s Synthes for $30 million. The release is here. N Spine shareholders also stand to receive an additional $45 million in milestone payments if development of the company’s products proceeds as planned. Our previous coverage of N Spine’s fundraising is here.

Zosano Pharma raises $45M for needle-free drugs — Fremont, Calif.-based Zosano Pharma, a specialty pharma working on needle-free drug delivery, raised $45 million in the second half of its initial venture funding. The company said it has now raised a total of $90 million. Our previous coverage of the company, which used to be called Macroflux, is here (last item).

Investors included New Enterprise Associates, Nomura Phase4 Ventures, HBM BioVentures and ProQuest Investments. Zosano’s lead candidate is a patch for delivering the drug PTH through the skin to treat osteoporosis.

OTHER HEADLINES OF NOTE:

• Virtual Radiologic prices IPO mid-range, raises up to $78M (IPO Home)
• Cancer-drug maker BioVex closes $35M round (release)
• Humanetics gets $3.8M grant for radiation countermeasures (release)
• Symbios raises almost $2M for pain-drug delivery (VentureWire, sub req’d)
• FullTurn Media launches medical-education videos, seeks $5M (VW)
• PA Early Stage Partners changes name to Novitas Capital (release)
• Specialty pharma Winston Pharma goes public via reverse merger (release)

Featured companies: Abiant, CellXplore, Diffusion Pharmaceuticals, WMR Biomedical, Zosano Pharmaceuticals

Diffusion Pharma raises $4.5M for vascular-disease and brain-cancer drug — Charlottesville, Va.-based Diffusion Pharmaceuticals, a biotech focused on drugs that enhance oxygen diffusion, raised $4.5 million in a private placement. Angel investors provided the funding, which brings Diffusion’s take to $10.2 million in equity and $2.6 million in government R&D grants.

Diffusion’s lead drug candidate — trans sodium crocetinate, or TSC — is designed to increase oxygen levels in otherwise oxygen-starved tissues. The drug just completed an early-stage clinical trial for safety, and will move on to mid-stage trials in two conditions: peripheral vascular disease and brain cancer.

Abiant draws $600K for advanced bio-imaging — Chicago’s Abiant, a device company now developing image-processing methods and software to speed the process of drug development, raised $600,000 in a private placement. Heartland Angels, Kettering Medical Center, and other investors provided the funding.

CellXplore raises $500,000 for breast-cancer diagnostics — CellXplore, a New Brunswick, N.J., biotech working on blood proteins that indicate early signs of cancer, raised $500,000 in new funding. Foundation Venture Capital Group provided the cash. The company has identified several “biomarkers” found in blood that it believes may not only identify the disease, but help oncologists assess different types and stages of cancer.

Heart- and eye-device maker WMR Biomedical assembles $13.1M — Cambridge, Mass.-based WMR Biomedical (no Web site, apparently), a developer of medical devices for cardiology and ophthalmology, raised $13.1 million in a second funding round, PE Hub reports, citing a regulatory filing. Investors included Intersouth Partners, North Bridge Venture Partners and Polaris Venture Partners. Although WMR remains largely tight-lipped about its intentions, this page on the Massachusetts Biotechnology Industry Directory site suggests it has a pretty illustrious scientific pedigree, as its founders include Harvard chemist George Whitesides and MIT’s Bob Langer.

Macroflux changes name to Zosano Pharma — There isn’t a whole lot more to say about this, actually, although the company put out a full release about it. Zosano is based in Fremont, Calif., and develops needle-free “transdermal” patches that use drug-coated “microprojections” — each about 200 microns long — to penetrate the outer layer of skin. Since the main difference between a microprojection and a needle seems to be whether the pointy object actually injects a drug or not — something of an academic distinction to anyone on the receiving end, I suspect — it’s not entirely clear to me what sort of advantage this system may have over competing needle-free approaches, such as that of Stratagent, which recently merged with Corium (our coverage in the first item here).