VentureBeat

TODAY’S HEADLINES:

• Antibody-discovery startup Adimab raises new funding (release)
• Lung-device maker Spiration gets $19M (release)
• Sample-prep startup Protein Discovery pulls in $10M (release)
• Inogen takes in $13M for portable oxygen device (VentureWire)
• Healthcare IT concern Medaptus raises $11M for expansion (VentureWire)
• Contract lab Synexis raises $14M (peHUB)
• Medical-device VC firm BioStar Ventures takes in $24M of $80M fund (peHUB)
• Halsa Pharma gets $250K for “natural” obesity-control treatment (release)
• Diagnostics provider Lab21 acquires NPTech (peHUB)
• Galil Medical names Martin Emerson CEO (release)

Antibody-discovery startup Adimab raises new funding – Lebanon, N.H.-based Adimab, a biotech working on new ways to discover antibody drugs, has raised a second round of funding. The company didn’t disclose the size of the round.

Adimab, which raised $6 million last July, is one of several startups looking to design new antibody drugs in bioengineered yeast cells, as we wrote at the time. (Alder Biopharmaceuticals, which raised $40 million in January, is another.) The technique promises to be much faster — and freer of patent restrictions — than current methods. When Adimab completes its current manufacturing facility in the second quarter, it claims it will be able to produce a panel of human antibodies against a particular target in just 90 days, instead of the year or more traditional methods can require.

Investors included Polaris Venture Partners and SV Life Sciences, who also invested in the company’s first round.

Lung-device maker Spiration gets $19M – Spiration, a Redmond, Wash., medical-device startup, raised $18.5 million in a seventh funding round. Investors included Versant Ventures, Olympus Medical Systems, New Enterprise Associates, New Leaf Venture Partners, InterWest Partners, Investor Growth Capital and Three Arch Partners.

Spiration has now raised a total of $97 million. It is developing a set of one-way valves for emphysema that can be implanted in the lung’s airways via a minimally invasive procedure. These valves are designed to shunt air away from diseased portions of the lung and redirect it to healthier areas. The company said the funding would support commercialization of its device in Europe and to complete studies for regulatory approval in the U.S.

Other startups working on similar technology include Emphasys Medical, Pulmonx and Broncus Technologies.

Sample-prep startup Protein Discovery pulls in $10M – Knoxville, Tenn.-based Protein Discovery, a biotech with new laboratory technology for protein identification, raised $10 million in a third funding round. Investors included Santé Ventures, Memphis Biomed Ventures, the Southern Appalachian Fund, and the Nashville Capital Network.

The startup is developing technology that aims to “simplify” the process of preparing biological samples for protein analysis. The details are probably too much for anyone who’s not a lab technician themselves, but feel free to check out the company’s explanation if you dare.)

Inogen takes in $13M for portable oxygen device – Inogen, a Goleta, Calif., medical-device maker, raised $12.6 million in its fifth funding round, VentureWire reports. Investors included Accuitive Medical Ventures, Arboretum Ventures, Avalon Ventures, Novo A/S, Numenor Ventures and Versant Ventures.

The company makes and sells portable oxygen-delivery systems for patients suffering from a lung problem called chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The product has been on the market for several years, and Inogen says it believes it might take several more before it’s in a position to be acquired or to go public.

TODAY’S HEADLINES:

• Arriva Pharma recaps with $6M for respiratory anti-inflammatory drugs (release)
• Genetic tester Sciona gets another $5.2M, distribution deal (VentureWire)
• Joint resurfacer Arthrosurface takes in $4M (release)
• Automated medication dispenser MDG Medical receives $14M in debt, equity (release)
• California Stem Cell raises funds for heart, neurodegenerative treatments (release)

Arriva Pharma recaps with $6M for respiratory anti-inflammatory drugs – Arriva Pharmaceuticals, an Alameda, Calif., drug developer focused on inflammatory respiratory disease, raised $6 million in a convertible-stock funding that recapitalized the company. Investors included Nordic Biotech and MPM BioVentures.

Arriva is working on a bioengineered form — that is, one that can be manufactured via biotech methods — of an enzyme called alpha-1 antitrypsin, which is currently derived from donated blood. Natural deficiencies of the enzyme are linked to lung disease, and Arriva hopes to use a manufactured version to treat hereditary emphysema.

The company has been locked in litigation over the rights to the enzyme with the Florida startup AlphaMed Pharmaceuticals (see our coverage here), and filed for bankruptcy protection last year, according to VentureWire. Now emerging from that process, Arriva is looking to start mid-stage, phase II trials of its recombinant enzyme. Arriva is a majority-owned unit of the Dutch firm Arriva Pharmaceuticals BV.

Genetic tester Sciona gets another $5.2M, distribution deal – Sciona, a Boulder, Colo., startup that offers genetic testing related to health and well-being, raised $5.2 million in a third funding round, VentureWire reports and the company confirms. Investors included Burrill & Co., BioVentures Investors, DSM Ventures, DFJ Esprit and BASF Venture Capital. The funding brings the company’s third round to a total of at least $15 million.

Sciona claims to combine nutrition and genetics in order to help individuals live healthier lifestyles. Its tests measure genetic predisposition to particular diseases and generates nutrition, exercise and lifestyle recommendations. You might think this sort of thing sounds like it runs way ahead of what science actually knows about genetic influence on our physical traits and disease susceptibility — and you’d almost certainly be right. The glitzy Web site for the company’s tests, which resembles a late-night TV infomercial, doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in the company’s scientific underpinnings, either.

On top of all that, Sciona just reached a distribution arrangement with Spa Team International that will provide the companies tests through a network of 1,000 spas nationwide.

MAP Pharmaceuticals, the Mountain View, Calif., specialty pharma, had a mixed reception to its IPO Friday. The company priced its shares at $12, below its anticipated range of $14 to $16, raising up to $69 million — substantially less than the $92 million it might have pulled in. Investors, however, reacted positively and pushed up the shares 11 percent to $13.35.

MAP reformulates existing drugs in order to deliver them via inhalers. Its leading product is a new version of the asthma drug budesonide, which is used to treat pediatric asthma. See our previous coverage of the company here (second item) and here.

Some other recent filings that slipped through the cracks:

Anti-infective developer Anacor Pharma looks for $58M IPO — Palo Alto, Calif.-based Anacor Pharmaceuticals, a biotech developing new antibiotics, anti-inflammatories and antifungal drugs, filed to raise up to $57.5 million in an IPO on Aug. 31. The company, which develops new drugs from a process focused on the chemistry of boron, is focused first on topical medications for fungal nail infections known as onychomycosis and the autoimmune skin condition psoriasis. See our previous coverage of the company here.

Emphasys Medical targets $86M IPO for lung devices — Redwood City, Calif.-based Emphasys Medical, a device maker focused on treatments for emphysema and similar lung diseases, filed on Sept. 21 to raise up to $86.3 million in an IPO. The company makes insertable one-way valves for the bronchial tubes that move air in and out of the lungs; these valves can “close off” diseased and overinflated parts of the lung in order to enable the remaining healthy areas to function normally.

As part of its SEC filing, Emphasys also disclosed the results of a pivotal trial of its device, known as the Emphasys Bronchial Valve, or EBV. In that randomized trial of 321 patients, those who received the EBV saw exhaled air volume — a sign of lung health — 6.4 percent greater than that of untreated patients. Patients treated with the device were also able to walk 5.6 percent farther in six minutes than the control group.

Drug formulator MonoSol Rx sets IPO price range, hopes for $83M — MonoSol Rx, a Warren, N.J., maker of drug formulations designed to mask the taste of particular medications, says it hopes to raise up to $82.8 million in an IPO. The company plans to sell up to 4.6 million shares at a price of $16 to $18 apiece, it said in a filing on Oct. 3. MonoSol Rx makes quick-dissolving “thin films” that can be used to repackage existing drugs into easy-to-swallow forms.

Irish reformulator Merrion Pharma hopes for $55M IPO — Dublin’s Merrion Pharmaceuticals, a developer of drug formulations that improve absorption within the gastrointestinal tract, aims to raise up to $55.2 million in an IPO. The company plans to offer four million shares as American Depositary Shares at a price of $10 to $12 apiece. Merrion’s technology is designed to reformulate drugs that can only be injected into pill or gel capsule forms.

Palo Alto, Calif.-based Pulmonx raised $20 million in a second-round funding, VentureWire reports (subscription required).

The startup is one of several device makers hoping to pioneer new medical techniques in the field of “interventional pulmonology.” Much like interventional cardiology, in which non-surgeons perform procedures such as angioplasty and stenting to open blocked arteries, interventional pulmonology aims to give lung specialists new tools to treat lung problems such as emphysema in their offices. Patients, of course, could benefit from quicker recovery times and avoiding hospitals as well, at least if the procedures are proven to be equal or superior to existing techniques.

According to VentureWire:

Richard M. Ferrari, managing director of De Novo, said that these companies, like Pulmonx, are looking to replace the current mode of treatment: lung volume reduction surgery. “It’s an incredibly invasive procedure,” he said. “So the concept of having an office-based procedure is irresistible.”

Pulmonx’s technology involves the insertion of a one-way valve, shutting off diseased portions of the lung. Ferrari said that the technique is part of a growing field of interventional pulmonology, which, like the more established field of interventional cardiology, uses catheter-based treatments for diseases.

Pulmonx has been in trials outside of the U.S., Ferrari said, and plans to begin human implantations in the U.S. later this year or early next year. “The $20 million will take them well into their clinical trials,” he said.

The round was led by De Novo Ventures. Others involved in the round include new investor Latterell Venture Partners and existing investors Montreux Equity Partners and MedVenture Associates.