Life-science briefing: Tuesday, April 1, 2008
TODAY’S HEADLINES:
Oxford NanoLabs takes in £10M for sequencing tech (PDF release)
Alure Medical raises $4.5M for plastic-surgery implants (release)
Bone-disease biotech Therosteon spins out of research institute, raises funds (PDF release)
Genome-analysis toolmaker BioTrove files for $75M IPO (Edgar)
RNAi developer Tekmira acquires Protiva, ends litigation (release)
Oxford NanoLabs takes… 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: Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2008
TODAY’S HEADLINES:
Metabolic-disease biotech NGM Biopharma raises $25M (peHUB)
Heart, HIV drug maker Numerate acquires assets of Pharmix (release)
Next-gen sequencer VisiGen promises $1,000 genome by late 2009 (Genome Technology)
CalciMedica raises $5.5M for autoimmune drugs (VentureWire)
Cancer-drug e-marketplace OneOncology raises funds (release)
U.K. biotech Hunter-Fleming acquired by Newron for €8M… Continue Reading
Pacific Bio, yet another contender for the $1,000 genome
More than a half-dozen startups and established companies are in hot pursuit of the “$1,000 genome,” a Holy Grail for those who believe fast, cheap genome sequencing will revolutionize medicine. The latest is Pacific Biosciences, a formerly secretive Menlo Park, Calif., company that just spilled… Continue Reading
Pacific Bio lifts the veil on its high-speed genome-sequencing effort
Competition to analyze human genomes faster and cheaper — a subject I’ve discussed at length here and here — keeps heating up. The latest shot came yesterday, when Menlo Park, Calif.-based Pacific Biosciences granted the NYT an exclusive look at technology it says should eventually… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Monday, Jan. 21, 2008
TODAY’S HEADLINES:
Joint-implant maker Ascension Orthopedics raises $21M (release)
High-speed sequencer Genome Corp. draws another $250K (GenomeWeb News)
Bausch & Lomb acquires implantable lens maker Eyeonics (release)
Bederra buys up Houston’s Diagnos and its PET-scan diagnostics (release)
High-speed sequencer Genome Corp. draws another $250K — Genome Corp., a Providence, R.I.,… Continue Reading
Intelligent Bio-Systems stakes out new ground in the gene race — a $5,000 genome by late next year
The cost of sequencing human genomes is dropping steadily, from several hundred million dollars a decade ago to $100,000 or so today, thanks to a bevy of entrepreneurial companies that have attacked the problem of making the process faster and cheaper with gusto. We’ve looked… Continue Reading
Complete Genomics and BioNanomatrix rev up the fast, cheap and out-of-control genome race
Things are starting to get crowded in the race to sequence entire human genomes quickly and relatively cheaply — usually meaning somewhere in the territory of $1,000 per genome, compared to the $100,000+ it costs with current technology. At least four startups have taken on… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Friday, Sept. 21, 2007
Featured companies: CG Therapeutics, Complete Genomics, ConforMIS, Flexible Medical Systems, LeMaitre Vascular, MAP Pharmaceuticals, ParaPro, Vascular Architects, Zars Pharma
(UPDATED on 10/1/07: See below.)
[NOTE: Posting has been slow recently for personal reasons. I'll be doing my best to catch up today.]
Complete Genomics raises funding for high-speed sequencing —… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Wednesday, Aug. 15, 2007
(UPDATED at 5:55pm PT: See below.)
Featured companies: Sierra Surgical Technologies, HerbalScience Nutraceuticals, Topigen Pharmaceuticals, EKR Therapeutics, Molecular Partners, Celsense, Glucose Sensing Technologies, Falcon Genomics, Waters, Calorimetry Sciences, Parion Sciences, Gilead Sciences, Isto Technologies, Fluidnet, NABsys
Sierra Surgical raises $7.1M — Palo Alto, Calif.-based Sierra Surgical Technologies, a developer… Continue Reading
Helicos BioSciences lowers IPO price, raises $48.6M, then sags further
Helicos BioSciences, a Cambridge, Mass., maker of high-speed genome-sequencing equipment, raised $48.6 million in an IPO, well under the $81 million it had hoped to raise. My earlier item on the Helicos IPO is here.
Helicos is the latest biotechnology company to find itself at the… Continue Reading