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 funding for, well, glucose monitoring (release)
Germany’s InflaRx gets seed funding for sepsis work (release)
Cell imager Amnis pulls in $3.5M (VentureWire)
Korea Bone Bank gets funding for bone transplants (release)
Luminous Medical raises… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Monday, Sept. 10, 2007
Featured companies: BioVascular, Carefx, ClinResearch, Healthcare Management Directions, NanoCor, OxyPlus, Revitus, Spotlight Surgical, United BioSource
UPDATED: See below.
Healthcare IT provider Carefx pulls in $17.9M — Carefx, a Scottsdale, Ariz., provider of hardware and software that “aggregates” patient records, has raised $17.85 million in a third funding round, Private Equity Hub reports, citing a regulatory filing. Investors included Carlyle Venture Partners and UV Partners.
Carefx’s pitch is basically the same as that from any system integrator — a term guaranteed… Continue Reading
Ceregene: Catching an updraft in gene therapy
(UPDATED: See below.)
Ceregene, a San Diego biotech at work on a gene therapy for Parkinson’s disease, has so far raised $28 million in a third funding round and last week struck a development partnership with Genzyme that resulted in a $25 million up-front payment and potential payments of another $125 million plus royalties.
Those are some surprisingly large numbers for gene therapy, the experimental practice of inserting new genes into the human body in hopes that their… Continue Reading
Applied Genetic Technologies gets $2M for gene therapy
Applied Genetic Technologies, an Alachua, Fla., gene-therapy developer, received a $2 million milestone payment from Genzyme.
The two companies are jointly developing a gene therapy for treating a form of blindness called age-related macular degeneration. The treatment uses an adeno-associated virus designed to deliver a gene to eye cells that, when activated, will disrupt a protein called VEGF that stimulates the growth of leaky blood vessels that contribute directly to blindness.
The milestone payment covered the… Continue Reading
Intrexon picks up $25M for gene therapy
Intrexon, a Blackburg, Va., developer of engineered gene therapies it calls “transcriptional therapeutics,” raised $25 million in a third round of financing provided by Third Security. Earlier funding rounds were provided by Third Security and NewVa Capital Partners.
Intrexon is at work on drugs based on stretches of DNA that can integrate themselves into the genomes of individual cells and begin to function like native genes. These newly installed genes could be turned on or off… Continue Reading