Compendia Bioscience, cancer-genomics data miner, leverages the Web for biodata analysis
A number of startups are starting to bring the power of the Web to bear on complex masses of biological data. One of the latest is Compendia Bioscience, an Ann Arbor, Mich., computational biotech that’s focused on mining cancer-genomics data. The company just received a… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Friday, Oct. 5, 2007
Featured companies: Gilde Healthcare Partners, Konanda Pharma Partners, Healthvision, OrbiMed, Quovadx, Serentis, Surface, Visiopharm
Danish microscopy company Visiopharm gets funding — Copenhagen’s Visiopharm, a developer of image-analysis hardware and software for microscopy, raised an undisclosed sum from Northcap Partners. The company was founded in 2001.
Konanda Pharma Partners… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Tuesday, Oct. 2, 2007
Featured companies: Change:healthcare, Gemin X Biotechnologies, Ipsogen, the Practice
Change:healthcare raises $1M for health 2.0 sites — Nashville, Tenn.-based change:healthcare, a provider of Web-based health information, raised $1 million in a first funding round. The investment firm Solidus, also based in Nashville, provided the cash. There’s no… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Thursday, Sept. 20, 2007
Featured companies: Allergan, Athenahealth, Atria Genetics, Celera, Esprit Pharmaceuticals, Vida Diagnostics
(NOTE: This item was posted on Friday, 9/21/07. I’ve backdated its timestamp to preserve the chronological order of the briefings.)
Celera buys Atria Genetics for $33M — Rockville, Md.-based Celera, the onetime genomics pioneer still working to… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2007
Featured companies: BioMicro Systems, Diasome Pharmaceuticals, FitLinxx, FitSense, Novartis, Radius Health
[NOTE: This is a catchup briefing, posted on 9/29/07. I’ve adjusted the item’s timestamp to keep the briefings in chronological order. Good news is that this should be the last one. –D.P.H.]
Diasome names new CEO, aims… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Monday, Sept. 17, 2007
Featured companies: Bioptigen, Echo Therapeutics, Forest Laboratories, Intrinsic Therapeutics, Microbia, Phreesia, Sontra Medical, TransMedics, Xanthus Pharmaceuticals
[NOTE: This is a catchup briefing, posted on 9/28/07. I've adjusted the item's timestamp to keep the briefings in chronological order. --D.P.H.]
Patient-info digitizer Phreesia takes in $10.3M — Phreesia, a New York… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Friday, Sept. 14, 2007
Featured companies: Accenx, Chlorogen, Third Rock Ventures
Ex-Millennium execs found new life-sciences venture fund, raise $378M — Several former executives of Millennium Pharmaceuticals have founded a new Boston-based venture firm called Third Rock Ventures and raised $378 million for early-stage investments.
The Millennium connection runs so deep… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2007
Featured companies: Mawell, OpGen, Vital Therapeutics
Optical genome-mapper OpGen raises $23.6M in a restart — OpGen, a Madison, Wisc., biotech developing a genomic test for identifying disease-causing microbes, raised $23.6 million in what the company is billing as a first funding round. In fact, however, the funding… 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… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Thursday, Sept. 6, 2007
Featured companies: Cyntellect, Lectus Therapeutics, NeoMatrix, Nexstim, Pearl Therapeutics, Proteon Therapeutics, SupplyScape
(UPDATED at 10am PT: See below.)
Airway-disease specialist Pearl Therapeutics raises $15.5M — Redwood City, Calif.-based Pearl Therapeutics, a drug-formulation company focused on respiratory disease, raised $15.5 million in a first funding round. Investors included New Leaf… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Monday, Aug. 27, 2007
Featured companies: Bravo Health, InfraReDx, MedAssets, Prestwick Pharmaceuticals
Prestwick Pharma raises $20M for neuro drugs — Specialty pharma Prestwick Pharmaceuticals, a Washington, D.C., firm that acquires cast-off drug candidates to treat neurological conditions, raised $20 million from existing investors, VentureWire reports (subscription required). Among those participating in… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Tuesday, Aug. 7, 2007
(UPDATED at 12:30pm PT — see below.)
Featured companies: Capnia, AutekBio, Novacta Biosystems, XLHealth, Leprechaun, Agility Healthcare Solutions, AM Pharma, Milestone Pharmaceuticals, ChanTest
Capnia names former Alza head as CEO – The tiny Palo Alto, Calif., biotech Capnia hired Ernest Mario, a storied figure in the pharma/biotech world, as its… Continue Reading
MediTract, healthcare-contract manager, recapitalizes
MediTract, a Saddlebrook, N.J., IT-based manager of hospital contracts, raised an undisclosed amount of funds in order to recapitalize itself. Tudor Ventures and GE Healthcare Financial Services particpated in the transaction.
MediTract helps hospitals and other healthcare facilities manage their vendor contracts by scanning and maintaining… Continue Reading
Healthcare software firm Picis raises $155M, acquires Lynx Medical Systems
Picis, a privately held Wakefield, Mass., maker of healthcare-software systems, raised a whopping $155 million in a private placement of convertible preferred stock and debt to Goldman Sachs & Co. and then used a portion of the funds to acquire a similar company, Lynx Medical… Continue Reading
McKesson acquires health-IT firm Awarix
Awarix, a Birmingham, Ala., developer of patient-care IT systems, agreed to sell itself to healthcare-system giant McKesson for an undisclosed amount. Awarix develops “patient-care visibility systems,” which track the location and status of hospital patients via ultrasound and RFID tags. The company raised $3 million… Continue Reading
Roundup: Biogenerics bill in limbo, clashing data on health IT benefits, the RNAi boom, and more
House-Senate confrontation set over biogenerics – Late last month, a key group of senators reached agreement on legislative provisions that would authorize copycat versions of biotech drugs, which are typically complex proteins manufactured by genetically engineered cells (see details here and here). These provisions would finally… Continue Reading
Meredith acquires health-info search engine Healia
Publisher and television broadcaster Meredith agreed to acquire Healia, a consumer-oriented search engine focused on health information. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. Healia will remain based in Seattle.
From Meredith’s release:
In the coming months, the Healia technology will be integrated into Meredith’s existing Web sites…. Continue Reading
Hicks Holdings takes 40 percent stake in SafeMed, maker of Web-based diagnostic systems
SafeMed, a San Diego provider of Web-based diagnostic services, sold a 40 percent stake to Hicks Holdings, a private investment vehicle for the Hicks family. Financial terms weren’t disclosed.
SafeMed, founded in 2000, is developing Web services that can help doctors identify and order appropriate diagnostic… Continue Reading
Ringing in the healthcare-reform debate
(UPDATED: See below.) Ever since the Clinton health plan went down in flames 13 years ago, discussion of significant reforms to the U.S. healthcare system has been largely academic. Until now.
Suddenly, serious talk about the ills of U.S. healthcare — and what to do about them… Continue Reading