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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
(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
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
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
(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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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