Life-science briefing: Friday, April 11, 2008

Life-science briefing: Friday, April 11, 2008

TODAY’S HEADLINES:

Stent maker IDev Tech raises $25M (VentureWire)
Xytis gets $15M for brain-injury drugs (VentureWire)
Diagnostic maker Iris Biotech plans to go public, launch breast-cancer test (Edgar)
RiverVest Venture Partners raises $75M life-science fund (release)
Concentric Medical names Maria Sainz CEO (release)

[Note: I’m a little sad to announce that this will… Continue Reading

Life-science briefing: Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Life-science briefing: Tuesday, April 8, 2008

TODAY’S HEADLINES:

AGI Dermatics takes in $5M for skincare products (release)
Myconostica raises £3.9 for fungal diagnostics (GenomeWeb)

Germany’s Noxxon gets €1M grant for aptamer drugs (release)

AGI Dermatics takes in $5M for skincare products – Freeport, N.Y.-based AGI Dermatics, a startup concentrated on skincare products, raised $5 million in… Continue Reading

Life-science briefing: Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Life-science briefing: Wednesday, March 26, 2008

TODAY’S HEADLINES:

OptiMedica takes in $16M for eye-treatment lasers (release)
Genome analyzer BioNanomatrix raises $5M (release)
Heart diagnostic startup Aviir gets another $1.5M (VBLS exclusive)
Pharmaca, integrative-pharmacy chain, draws $20M (release)
LifeWatch, cardiac-monitoring device maker, withdraws IPO (IPOhome)
Jerry DeVries, Steven Whitlock join PTV Sciences as venture partners (VentureWire)

OptiMedica takes… Continue Reading

Life-science briefing: Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Life-science briefing: Wednesday, March 19, 2008

TODAY’S HEADLINES:

Paris-based Stentys takes $18M for “bifurcated” stents (release)
Blood analyzer IntelliDx raises $22M (PDF release)
Cancer-test biotech Calderome changes name to VeraCyte (VentureWire)
Predictive Biosciences names Peter Klemm as CEO (release)

Paris-based Stentys takes $18M for “bifurcated” stents – Stentys, a Paris-based medical device maker, raised $18 million in… Continue Reading

Life-science briefing: Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Life-science briefing: Tuesday, March 18, 2008

TODAY’S HEADLINES:

Luminous Medical raises $24M for automated glucose monitoring (release)
Alimera Sciences gets $30M for eye-disease drug (release)
Vaccine maker LigoCyte draws $28M (release)
Heartbeat tracker CardioNet trims IPO, aims for listing today (IPOhome)
Axial Biotech takes in $6M for spinal diagnostics (release)
Insulin bioengineer enGene receives $6.4M (release)
GlucoLight raises… Continue Reading

Life-science briefing: Friday, March 14, 2008

Life-science briefing: Friday, March 14, 2008

TODAY’S HEADLINES

Cantimer takes in $2M for dehydration diagnostics (VentureWire)
Recodagen launches, takes aim at cancer (release)
Juniper Diagnostics spins out of ChemSensing (VentureWire)

Cantimer takes in $2M for dehydration diagnostics –The mystery of Menlo Park, Calif.-based Cantimer has resolved a bit. We wrote about this stealthy company back… Continue Reading

Life-science briefing: Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Life-science briefing: Tuesday, March 11, 2008

TODAY’S HEADLINES:

Affinergy gets $3M in grants for biological “linkers” (release)
Specialty pharma EUSA raises $50M, spends $23M for public biotech Cytogen (release)
Calderome takes in $12M for cancer diagnostics (peHUB)
Pulse Health raises $2M for handheld free-radical device (release)

LifeMasters takes in $15M for wellness, disease-management programs (release)
Dubai Techno… Continue Reading

Life-science briefing: Friday, March 7, 2008

Life-science briefing: Friday, March 7, 2008

TODAY’S HEADLINES:

Allegro pulls in $4M for lung-cancer molecular diagnostics (release)
Ocular bandage developer I-Therapeutix raises $6M (Mass High Tech)
NanoBio gets last of $30M for skin-infection drugs (release)
Cayenne Medical raises $15M for sports medicine (release)
Aridis Pharma seeks $10M for oral-form drugs and vaccines (VentureWire)
Neurosurgical device maker Nfocus… Continue Reading

Precision Thera merger with “blank check” firm Oracle Healthcare collapses

Precision Thera merger with “blank check” firm Oracle Healthcare collapses

(UPDATED: See below.)

Another one bites the dust.

The saga of Precision Therapeutics, a Pittsburgh biotech developing what struck me last August as a particularly crude type of cancer-chemotherapy diagnostic, continues apace. In a tersely worded press release, the special-purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, Oracle Healthcare Acquisition said… Continue Reading

Life sciences briefing: Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Life sciences briefing: Wednesday, March 5, 2008

TODAY’S HEADLINES:

Precision Thera merger with “blank check” Oracle Healthcare collapses (release)
Sleep Solutions takes in $21M for sleep-apnea diagnostics (release)

Trevena takes in $24M for drugs targeting G-proteins (release)
“Specialty biotech” PanGenetics gets €23M for antibody drugs (release)
Cancer-drug maker Unibioscreen pulls in €5M (release)
Danish contract manufacturer CMC Biologics… Continue Reading

Life sciences briefing: Monday, March 3 ,2008

Life sciences briefing: Monday, March 3 ,2008

TODAY’S HEADLINES:

InfraReDx takes $17M for arterial-plaque detection (VentureWire)
Cancer-drug developer Serenex sells out to Pfizer for undisclosed sum (release)
Life-sciences fund Longitude Capital raises $95M (VentureWire)
Hospital consultant Intercede Health names Gray Miller as CEO (release)

InfraReDx takes $17M for arterial-plaque detection – InfraReDx, a Burlington, Mass., developer of diagnostic… Continue Reading

Adnavance: Better genetic diagnostics through electricity

Adnavance: Better genetic diagnostics through electricity

(NOTE: This item originally appeared in today’s daily briefing. It’s been expanded and rewritten here.)

DNA-based diagnostics face a fundamental, though hardly insuperable, obstacle: When you’re looking for a rare mutation or other identifying sequence of DNA “letters” (technically known as bases or nucleotides), there are rarely… Continue Reading

Life sciences briefing: Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2008

Life sciences briefing: Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2008

TODAY’S HEADLINES:

Adnavance pulls in C$3.7M for molecular diagnostics, names new CEO (release)
“Personalized medicine” co. Proprius sells to Cypress Bio for up to $75M (release)
Vaccinex raises $25M in wake of GSK deal for antibody drugs (VentureWire)
Cianna Medical receives $9M for breast-cancer radiation treatment (release)
Electron-microscope image provider… Continue Reading

Life sciences briefing: Monday, Feb. 25, 2008

Life sciences briefing: Monday, Feb. 25, 2008

TODAY’S HEADLINES:

Microsoft launches $3M fund to support online health-improvement tools (release)
Clarus Ventures raises $660M life-sciences fund (release)
Iverson Genetics raises $1.1M for blood-clotting tests, seeks $9.3M more (VentureWire)
Upstart Ventures aims for $30M fund to seed Utah life-science ventures (release)
CalHealth takes in $750K for blood-pressure monitoring (VW)
Regenerative… Continue Reading

Life sciences briefing: Thursday, Feb. 21, 2008

Life sciences briefing: Thursday, Feb. 21, 2008

TODAY’S HEADLINES:

Compact ultrasound maker Zonare Medical raises $30M (VentureWire)
TherOx raises $30M for hypersaturated-oxygen devices (peHUB)
Accumetrics, antiplatelet-drug diagnostic maker, raises $29M (release)
Population Genetics takes in £3.8M for massively parallel genome studies (GenomeWeb)
“Brain fitness” trainer Dakim raises $11M (release)
BioIQ, home-diagnostics maker, takes in $2.5M (release)
Hospital med-tracker Sabal… Continue Reading

Life sciences briefing: Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2008

Life sciences briefing: Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2008

TODAY’S HEADLINES:

Molecular-diagnostics maker Atlas Genetics gets £2.1M (MS Word release)
One-man shop Paloma Pharma takes in $5M for eye, cancer drugs (VentureWire)
Israel’s Optimata receives $1.5M for simulations to rescue failed drugs (release)
Centrose raises $1.3M for sugar-modified drugs (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)
Halyard buys healthcare-compliance adviser HCPro from Riverside (release)
RiverRock… Continue Reading

H-P’s “great-grandchild” gets $7.7M for portable diagnosis

H-P’s “great-grandchild” gets $7.7M for portable diagnosis

Third-generation spinout Alverix, a San Jose, Calif., maker of hand-held devices for medical diagnostic use, raised $7.7 million in a first funding round. Safeguard Scientifics and New Venture Partners provided the cash.

The startup, which just spun out of Avago Technologies — itself a twice-removed spinout… Continue Reading

Life sciences briefing: Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2008

Life sciences briefing: Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2008

TODAY’S HEADLINES:

Amira Pharma strikes GSK partnership on lung, heart drugs worth up to $425M (release)
Wolters Kluwer Health takes stake in Logical Images (release)
Gentiva Health acquires Home Health Care Affiliates for $55M (release)
Compuware buys Hilgraeve to upgrade healthcare IT (release)
Touchstone Health appoints Michael Muchnicki CEO (release)
Australia’s… Continue Reading

Life sciences briefing: Friday, Jan. 25, 2008

Life sciences briefing: Friday, Jan. 25, 2008

TODAY’S HEADLINES:

Health-info site HealthCentral Network pulls in $50M (paidContent)
BrightHeart Vet corrals $29M to acquire animal hospitals (release)
AviaraDx raises $8M for cancer diagnostics (peHUB)
Valor Medical aims for $15M for brain-aneurysm treatment (VentureWire)
IPC, inpatient-care provider, raises as much as $56M in IPO (IPO Home)
Phenomix, diabetes and hepatitis… Continue Reading

Satoris raises $5M, preps Alzheimer’s test for research use

Satoris raises $5M, preps Alzheimer’s test for research use

Redwood City, Calif.-based Satoris, a biotech developing a blood test for Alzheimer’s disease, raised $5 million in a second funding round, VentureWire reports. The deal values Satoris at $13.8 million after the financings. The company had previously raised $1 million from individuals, and said it… Continue Reading