Life sciences briefing: Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2008
TODAY’S HEADLINES:
San Diego’s Ocera raises $36M for gastrointestinal treatments (release)
Antibody-drug maker Affimed pulls in €20M (release)
GraftCath, venous catheter developer, gets $12M (VentureWire)
Ranier Tech takes in £8M for spinal-disc replacements (release)
NeuWave Medical pulls in $4.5M for microwave cancer treatment (Milwaukee J-S)
Avalon Ventures closes $150M fund for biotech, wireless and Web media (release)
Heptares Thera raises more seed funds for nervous-system disease (VentureWire)
Essex Woodlands gets $800M for new life-science fund, aims for $1B (VentureWire)
5AM Ventures names Richard Ulevitch… Continue Reading
IPOs: Biotech ChemoCentryx and specialty-pharma Xanodyne head for the public market
ChemoCentryx files for $58M IPO to fund autoimmune, inflammation drug — Mountain View, Calif.-based ChemoCentryx, a biotech focused on new small-molecule drugs that affect a class of biochemical signals known as chemokines, filed to raise $57.5 million in an initial offering. The company’s SEC filing is here.
Founded in 1997, ChemoCentryx believes drugs that interfere with chemokine signaling may be able to defuse runaway immune-system reactions that give rise to various autoimmune conditions, inflammation and even… Continue Reading