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Apprion, a Moffet Field, Calif. company that makes wireless integration systems for harsh environments like industrial plants, has raised a new round of funding led by a strategic investment from cellular giant Motorola.

Plants are a little different from your standard wireless environment — temperature extremes, toxic chemicals and dangerous equipment are all par for the course, and the average worker isn’t exactly lugging around a laptop. That being the case, the requirements for networking are a bit different. Sensors, cameras, RFID tags and walkie-talkies all need to mesh together, which can be difficult if they’re all made by different companies.

Like a Cisco for the manufacturing world, Apprion does the work of integrating different wireless applications together and providing centralized controls and visualization, providing a brain for the growing nervous systems of sensors and monitors scattered around modern foundries, pharmaceutical plants, refineries and other facilities.

The opportunity to become the go-to company for Apprion’s kind of product isn’t small, according to CEO Mike Bradley. He says there are about 76,000 plants with 100 or more employees, the size at which they are likely to want networks in place. Systems for each of those plants range from $100,000 to $1 million dollars.

A number of other companies are working on wireless equipment and sensors to go into industry, hospitals, businesses and even the growing, green sort of plants. Motorola itself makes communication equipment for construction and industry workers, including cell phones and walkie-talkies. However, there are relatively few companies working on tying all those pieces of equipment, including RFID sensors, together in a software interface.

The exact size of the investment wasn’t disclosed, but Apprion raised $12 million in its first round, and has now taken a total of $23.5 million. Motorola led, and was joined by existing investors Chevron Technology Ventures, Anvil Investment Associates, Advanced Technology Ventures and Allegis Capital.

TODAY’S HEADLINES:

• Aperio Tech raises $20M for digital pathology (release)
• TissueLink changes name, files for $86M IPO (Edgar)
• Specialty pharma Cydex files to raise $50M in IPO (Edgar)
• Hydra Biosciences takes in $34M for pain drugs (VentureWire)
• AVI BioPharma acquires Ercole Biotech for $9M (release)
• Juvaris Bio names Grant Pickering as CEO (release)
  

Aperio Tech raises $20M for digital pathology – Aperio Technologies, a Vista, Calif., developer of systems for digitizing and analyzing medical images, raised $20 million in a third funding round. With the new investment, Aperio has now raised a total of $53 million, including $11 million it pulled in from existing investors last May.

Investors in the latest round included HLM Venture Partners, Galen Partners, Advanced Technology Ventures, Acadia Woods Partners and BlackRock Alternative Advisors. The startup’s tools allow pathologists to scan microscope slides of biopsied tissue or other biomedical samples at high resolution, then view and analyze them for signs of disease.

Over the past six months, Aperio’s tools have received FDA approval for use in manual and automated analysis of tumor-biopsy samples intended to determine whether a patient should receive the breast cancer drug Herceptin.

TissueLink changes name, files for $86M IPO – The medical-device startup formerly known as TissueLink Medical, now renamed Salient Surgical Technologies, filed to raise $86.3 million in an IPO. That makes Salient either the sixth or seventh life-science company to brave the IPO waters this year — a number that’s now maintaining parity with the number of IPOs that have collapsed.

Salient makes surgical tools that use radio-frequency energy to seal up surgical cuts. Although it launched those devices roughly two years ago, the company’s losses have widened since then. Last year, Salient reported a net loss of $14.7 million on sales of $29.5 million.

We previously wrote about TissueLink’s last round of funding.

TODAY’S HEADLINES:

• PolyRemedy, developer of robotic wound care, takes in $25M (release)
• Bacchus Vascular gets $15M for clot-busting device (VentureWire)
• Protein-evolution company Modular Genetics gets $1.2M (VentureWire)
• PharmatrophiX gets $300K for Alzheimer’s disease prevention drugs (release)
• Light Sciences Oncology withdraws IPO (Edgar)
• Arizona’s Translational Accelerator launches $20M life-sciences fund (bizjournals.com)
• Cornea-reshaper Avedro gets $7M (VentureWire)
• Gastrotech Pharma gets $6M in wake of Lilly deal (VentureWire)
• Biomaterials maker MiMedx goes public via reverse merger (release)
• Acrongenomics to complete acquisition of Molecular Vision by the end of Q1 (release)

PolyRemedy, developer of robotic wound care, takes in $25M – Mountain View, Calif.-based PolyRemedy, a developer of systems that robotically manufacture wound dressings for patients, raised $25 million in a second funding round. Investors included Advanced Technology Ventures, IDG Ventures Boston, MedVenture Associates and Harris & Harris Group.

PolyRemedy has been keeping quiet about its work until now, but the company’s release lays out its strategy, which is to fabricate customized wound dressings at the “point of care” — here, apparently, doctors’ offices and home-care situations. The goal is to provide better treatment for chronic wounds such as diabetic ulcers, a common complication of diabetes that can manifest in the feet and other extremities as a result of nerve damage and poor blood circulation. The company claims its technology has been proven in clinical trials, but hasn’t provided any details.

Bacchus Vascular gets $15M for clot-busting device – Bacchus Vascular, a Santa Clara, Calif., developer of devices for local drug treatment of blood clots, raised $15 million in an extension of a recent recapitalization round, VentureWire reports. Investors included Vertical Group, Warburg Pincus, Kaiser Permanente Venture Development and Bacchus founder Thomas J. Fogarty.

Bacchus makes and markets a system it calls Trellis, which is a minimally invasive, catheter-based device consisting of two inflatable balloons and a “dispersion wire.” Physicians thread the catheter through the clot and inflate balloons at each end of it, then infuse a clot-busting drug directly into the clot. The dispersion wire then mechanically helps break up the clot, whose remains are then sucked out through the catheter. Bacchus is currently focused on deep-vein thrombosis, which are large clots usually located in the legs. Its device was approved in 2005, and the company intends to use the new funds to expand its marketing efforts.

Bacchus restarted with a $7.6 million recapitalization in June 2006 after apparently exhausting the patience of two initial investors, Three Arch Partners and De Novo Ventures, who haven’t participated in subsequent fundings. Prior to the recapitalization, Bacchus had raised $40 million, according to VentureWire.

Protein-evolution company Modular Genetics gets $1.2M – Modular Genetics, a Cambridge, Mass., biotech that engineers new proteins with enhanced function, raised $1.2 million toward an expected $5 million fourth funding round, VentureWire reports. Individual investors provided the funding.

Modular makes a gene-engineering system it calls the CombiGenex that can shuffle and recombine genes in order to make modified or novel proteins. By making thousands of slightly different molecules and then screening for the ones with improved functions, Modular aims to “evolve” new proteins for therapeutic uses.

PharmatrophiX gets $300K for Alzheimer’s disease prevention drugs – San Francisco’s PharmatrophiX (no Web site), a biotech working on drugs that prevent neurodegenerative disease, received a $300,000 grant from the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation. Founded by Stanford researcher Frank Longo, PharmatrophiX is developing a class of drugs that mimic the activity of proteins called neurotrophins, which aid in the development, health and survival of neurons.

Light Sciences Oncology withdraws IPO – Bellevue, Wash.-based Light Sciences Oncology, a developer of light-activated chemotherapy, withdrew its $96.6 million IPO, citing “unfavorable market conditions.” Light Sciences becomes the seventh life-science startup to yank an IPO filing this year.

Light Sciences has kept hope alive for an awfully long time. The company originally filed its registration statement in April 2006, but hasn’t amended it since September of that year. Light Sciences raised $30 million in a second funding round last July, despite its still-active IPO registration.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this item misstated PolyRemedy’s systems as “robotically apply[ing] wound dressings.” I’ve restated that to match the description in the second paragraph, which accurately describes the systems.

American automakers have finally learned that fuel efficiency and environmental friendliness count, turning the yearly Detroit Auto Show, which started Sunday, into a lineup of cleantech exhibitions.

Among big-company prototypes like the Chevy Volt and Cadillac Provoq are a handful of smaller firms making significant headway. Following is a brief lineup of the ones we thought were most interesting:

Coskata
A mere two years old, ethanol producer Coskata has managed to attract an investment from General Motors, which it announced at the event.

This isn’t your run-of-the-mill ethanol company. Like cellulosic ethanol companies, Coskata can convert wood and random organic debris into fuel. However, it uses its own proprietary gasification technology to turn this raw material into a synthesis gas, which is then cooled for “fermentation,” during which microorganisms convert the gas to ethanol.

The company says it can run this process very cheaply — for less than a dollar per gallon. The materials it can use include both regular biomass (such as wood chips) and municipal waste streams. To prove the concept, Coskata will initially build a 40,000 gallon per year pilot plant.

The specific amount of GM’s investment was not disclosed. Coskata’s previous investors include Khosla Ventures, GreatPoint Ventures, and Advanced Technology Ventures, who put $17 million into the company. It’s based in Warrenville, Illinois.

EcoMotors
A team with engineering experience at European automakers Volkswagen and Audi is working on a diesel engine that could be efficient enough to be competitive, on a miles-per-gallon basis, with plug-in hybrid technologies.

EcoMotors says its engines, due on the market in 2011, will get about 100 miles per gallon on fuel alone. It’s also planning its own hybrid adaptations that will be even more fuel-efficient.

Diesel engines are often overlooked in the clean-fuel furor. However, they deserve more attention: Not only are they used in virtually all trucks, they’ve also been growing in popularity in consumer vehicles over the last few years.

As with Coskata, Khosla Ventures is an investor in this company, which is based in Menlo Park, Calif. As it happens, Khosla is also an investor in another diesel-cleantech company we recently reported on, called Nanostellar.

Fisker Automotive
When we recently mentioned Fisker Automotive, we had no idea that star VC firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers had plowed more than $10 million into the company, an investment just disclosed at the auto show. The exact amount wasn’t revealed. Palo Alto Ventures has also invested in the company.

Fisker plans to significantly undercut potential rival Tesla Motors’ $98,000 all-electric Roadster by charging only $80,000 for its luxury plug-in hybrid. (For the overly rich: That’s sarcasm. $80,000 is a lot of money.)

The remaining details: A 0-60 mph acceleration time of 5.8 seconds (slow for an electric vehicle, but comparable to most combustion-engine sports cars), a sustainable speed of 125 miles per hour, and a 50-mile range if using only battery power. Perhaps most importantly, the car is gorgeous, as seen below.

Unfortunately, the car won’t be available until late in 2009. Fisker, which is based in Irvine, Calif., plans on manufacturing about 15,000 a year.

TODAY’S HEADLINES:

• PowerVision pulls in $20M for intraocular lenses (VentureWire)
• Heart device maker Mitralign raises $24M (release)
• LifeOnKey, electronic medical-record IT firm, draws $5M of $10M round (Globes)
• Merrion Pharma withdraws IPO filing (Edgar)
• Hi-Tech Pharmacal acquires Midlothian Labs for $5M (release)
• Anti-infective developer Calixa receives $15M (VW)

PowerVision pulls in $20M for intraocular lenses — Belmont, Calif.-based PowerVision, a device company developing implantable intraocular lenses, raised $20 million in a second funding round, VentureWire reports. Investors included Advanced Technology Ventures, Frazier Healthcare Ventures and J.P. Morgan Partners.

Although PowerVision’s Web site seems to be offline, the VW report says the company is working on fluid-controlled lenses designed to treat presbyopia, an age-related far-sightedness in which the eye loses its ability to focus on nearby objects. The PowerVision lenses apparently respond to natural muscular forces in the eye, which presumably squish around liquid in the lens to alter its shape and thereby change focus.

The new funding should carry PowerVision a third of the way through its clinical trials, which it expects to begin in late 2008 or early 2009. The company previously raised $9 million in late 2004.

Heart device maker Mitralign raises $24M — Mitralign, a Tewksbury, Mass., developer of minimally invasive methods for repairing the heart’s mitral valve, raised $24 million in a third funding round. Investors included Medtronic, Johnson and Johnson Development Corp., Oakwood Medical, Palisades Capital, Accelerated Technology Partners, Forbion, Giza, Oxford Biosciences and Triathlon Medical Venture Partners.

Mitralign is yet another device startup hoping to treat heart failure by repairing the mitral valve, which regulates the flow of blood through the heart’s left chambers. The company doesn’t seem to have divulged much about its particular technological approach yet, but we previously covered two other startups with similar aims, eValve and Cardiosolutions, here and here.

LifeOnKey, electronic medical-record IT firm, draws $5M of $10M round — LifeOnKey, a Baltimore, Md., startup offering technology to support electronic medical records, raised $5 million as part of an expected $10 million financing round. Medica Venture Partners provided the funding.

Formerly known as Global Medical Networks, LifeOnKey offers individual patients an electronic medical record that integrates their health information and access it via the Internet or mobile devices such as cellphones. The company claims to have a million subscribers in Israel and Europe, and plans to quintuple that number in 2008.

Unlike Microsoft’s HealthVault, which we reviewed here and here, LifeOnKey charges individuals to store their medical info. A basic plan starts at $50 a year, plus a $5 registration fee and another one-time $20 fee to activate a USB key-based security system. Premium plans that regularly collect, scan and incorporate paper-based medical info, among other things, cost an unspecified additional amount.

I haven’t had a chance to see what the service itself looks like, but I hope to take a closer look before long. In the meantime, there’s another major difference with the similar Microsoft service — LifeOnKey pledges to adhere to the privacy protections laid out by the federal healthcare law known as HIPAA.

Featured companies: Acceleron Pharma, Bledsoe Brace Systems, Eurobiobiz, Genoptix, Harmony Information Systems, ImmuneWorks, Pasteuria Bioscience, Renal CarePartners, Quantum Genomics, Synergy Software, Vitreo Retinal Technology

UPDATED: Expanded items on Genoptix and Acceleron Pharma.

Diagnostics biotech Genoptix prices IPO above range, raises up to $98M — Genoptix became one of the first biotechs in a long time to demonstrate some oomph with an IPO, pricing its shares above its expected range and then soaring nearly 50 percent in its first day of trading. Genoptix priced its shares at $17 apiece, above its expected range of $14 to $16, netting itself as much as $97.8 million in the process. (Actually, existing shareholders sold close to three-quarters of a million shares in the IPO, so the proceeds to Genoptix are more like $85.6 million.)

At the very least, the positive reception appears to support the notion that biotech investors are currently more interested in reliable service businesses such as Genoptix’s diagnostics work than they are in traditional biotech moon shots, since they offer lower risk even at the cost of slower growth. Perhaps there’s hope for Talecris Biotherapeutics after all.

We’ve covered the company here and here. The offering initially valued Genoptix at $265.2 million, although today’s share run-up to $25.35 now values the company at $395.5 million. Genoptix provides diagnostic services to cancer and blood-disease specialists in order to help with diagnosing and selecting appropriate treatments for various cancers.

Acceleron Pharma draws in $31M for tissue-regeneration drugs — Cambridge, Mass.-based Acceleron Pharma, a biotech focused on “regenerative” drugs that target a family of growth and development proteins, raised $31 million in a third funding round. Investors included Bessemer Venture Partners, MPM BioEquities, QVT Financial, Advanced Technology Ventures, Flagship Ventures, OrbiMed Advisors, Polaris Ventures, Sutter Hill Ventures and Venrock.

The company’s lead drug candidate, ACE-011, aims to stimulate bone regrowth in cancer patients. That drug should move into mid-stage clinical trials in the first quarter of next year. The company intends to begin early human tests of two other drugs — one designed to increase muscle mass and strength, the other an “anti-angiogenesis” cancer drug — next year.

OTHER HEADLINES OF NOTE:

• Medical-IT co. Harmony Info raises $28M, acquires Synergy Software (release)
• Vitreo Retinal Tech adds $3M to round for eye drugs (PE Hub)
• ImmuneWorks gets $300K for lung-disease drugs (release)
• Bledsoe Brace sells majority stake to Essex Woodlands (PE Hub)
• Quantum Genomics acquires Eurobiobiz (release)
• Renal CarePartners acquires two dialysis providers (VentureWire, sub req’d)
• Pasteuria Bioscience names David Duncan new CEO (release)

Featured companies: Azaya Therapeutics, Global Care Solutions, Oxford Immunotec, RealSelf.com, Sequoia Pharmaceuticals, Tactile Systems Technology, WellGen, Zeltiq Aesthetics

UPDATED: Expanded items on Oxford Immunotec, Zeltiq, Tactile Systems, RealSelf.com and Global Care.

Oxford Immunotec pulls in $40M for TB tests — Oxford Immunotec, a U.K. biotech focused on new diagnostic tests for infectious disease, raised $40 million in a third financing round. The company’s release is here (PDF). Investors included Clarus Ventures, Wellington Partners, Kuwait-based National Technology Enterprises Company, the Prelude Trust, Quester and the Dow Chemical Company.

The company’s diagnostic tests identify and measure the activity of immune-system “effector T cells,” whose levels generally correspond to the severity of infection. Oxford Immunotec’s first product is a new diagnostic for tuberculosis designed to replace a century-old skin test. The company says its test has been approved in Europe, Canada and more than 40 other countries. The latest funds will support the U.S. launch of the product.

Zeltiq raises $20.3M for fat reduction — Pleasanton, Calif.-based Zeltiq Aesthetics, a stealthy cosmetic-procedures device maker, raised $20.3 million in a second funding round, VentureWire reports (subscription required), citing a regulatory filing. The company was formerly known as Juniper Medical.

Zeltiq is apparently focused on “new technologies for fat layer reduction” that require “little or no recovery time.” The company’s investors include Advanced Technology Ventures, Frazier Healthcare Ventures and family trusts associated with officers of the medical-device incubator The Foundry, including Hank Plain, Hanson Gifford and Mark Deem.

Tactile Systems Tech receives $11.8M for lymphadema treatment — Minneapolis-based Tactile Systems Technology, a maker of computer-controlled pressure garments designed to treat fluid-related swelling known as edema, raised $11.8 million. The private-equity firm Galen Partners led the round.

Cosmetic-procedure review site RealSelf.com takes sub-$1M seed funding — RealSelf.com, a Seattle-based Web site that hosts reviews of various cosmetic procedures, raised a seed round of funding last July and formally launched its service last Friday. The company’s release is here. Investors in the seed round included Zillow CEO Rich Barton, Revenue Science CEO Bill Gossman and Nick Hanauer, a partner at Second Avenue Partners.

For some reason, RealSelf insists on billing itself as a site for discussion of “anti-aging” products, but its focus appears to lie pretty squarely in the realm of what used to be called “plastic surgery” and now is sometimes prettied up with the term “medical aesthetics.” For the record, there is a actual anti-aging movement filled with people obsessing over ways to slow or reverse the hands of time via supplements, hormones and God knows what else. Although many of its practitioners are somewhat nutty, as a movement it has virtually nothing to do with cosmetic procedures such as teeth whitening, laser hair removal and wrinkle fillers, which are topic A at RealSelf.

In an interesting case of cross-item entanglement, though, there seems little doubt that Zeltiq Aesthetics (see two items up) will eventually figure in RealSelf discussions.

Microsoft acquires Thai healthcare IT provider Global Care Solutions — Microsoft, aiming to deepen its hold on healthcare-IT technology, acquired Bangkok-based Global Care Solutions for undisclosed terms. (The release is here.) Global Care’s primary accomplishment seems to have been building a digital patient-management system for Bumrungrad International Hospital in Bangkok, which is best known as a center for “medical tourists” seeking care at low prices. The WSJ health blog has a good rundown on the deal.

OTHER HEADLINES OF NOTE:

• Specialty pharma Ventaira closes down, Battelle reabsorbs assets (release)
• Nutrigenomics firm WellGen gets $9.5M for anti-obesity ingredient (release)
• Azaya draws $4.1M for reformulated drugs (VW)
• Sequoia Pharma appoints Steven Skolsky as new CEO(release)

GreatPoint Energy, a company developing a way to turn polluting coal into less-dirty natural gas, has raised a whopping $100 million third round of financing.

The company will use the money to finish proving its technology works in large-scale production which, if successful, will be a significant step toward reducing the release of carbon emissions.

The new lead investors in the Cambridge, Mass. company are Citi Sustainable Development Investments and Dow Chemical, who were joined by AES Corp. and Suncor Energy. Chief Financial Officer Dan Goldman said the investors were chosen because they are leaders in the field can help bring GreatPoint to market. That should happen around 2011 or 2012.

The company previously raised $37 million from well-regarded Silicon Valley venture firms such as Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Khosla Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Advanced Technology Ventures.

For GreatPoint, the technology is no longer in question. The various components of the coal gassification process are known, but the company is trying to make the process more affordable by speeding it up. Goldman said the main risk to the company is the tightness in the labor market for engineers and construction. Significant refining and power plant construction in China and India are sucking up much of the supply of skilled gas plant engineers.

Another venture-backed company treating coal is CoalTek, but it is focused on making coal cleaner, not turning it into gas.

Rather, GreatPoint’s competitors are conventional energy giants such as GE, Conoco Phillips and Shell. Those other companies also have gassification technologies to produces methane. However, their processes take several steps to get from an initial stage of Syngas (CO and Hydrogen) to methane, whereras GreatPoint has created a single-step conversion process. It can gassify a variety of materials, from coal to biomass.

Integrated Media Measurement, a start-up in San Mateo, Calif., wants to make advertising on broadcast media more efficient, by following you around, tracking everything you listen to every day.

Integrated Media, also known as IMMI, recruits people to carry a special cellphone at all times for two years, according to a NYT piece about the company. In exchange, it pays all their cellphone costs. The phone captures 10 seconds of audio from its surroundings every half-minute, detecting what people are listening too, whether it is a TV program, radio, digital video recorder or even a sporting event or concert. IMMI then uses acoustic matching technology to filter through these snippets comparing them with samples of the media being measured.

IMMI says this is enough to measure the number of participants who have heard an advertisement. IMMI also says it can track whether people make retail purchases after viewing or hearing an ad.

This is a somewhat spooky approach to advertising measurement, but then existing technology isn’t that effective, and large advertising agencies and broadcasters are looking for something more. IMMI’s approach is much more detailed than Nielsen Media Research, the dominant company providing such measurement, and which relies on household surveys.

It’s not clear how effective IMMI’s cellphones recordings are, however, because reception can be patchy, as can audio detection in many situations.

Steve Jurvetson, a venture capitalist at the firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson, was the primary investor in IMMI. His firm and Advanced Technology Ventures invested $14 million in the company. The Times suggests the four-year old company is making headway, having signed up ten clients.

Tom Zito, IMMI’s chief executive, has a track-record. He launched four other companies, including Axlon, a robotic-toy company that went public, and online record label Garageband.

(UPDATED at 3:10pm PT: See below.)

Featured companies: Agendia, EndoGastric Solutions, FlowCo, Gentris, MedManage Systems, ParagonDx, Presidio Pharmaceuticals, Xoova

Presidio Pharma raises $26M for viral treatments — San Francisco’s Presidio Pharmaceuticals, a biotech developing new antiviral drugs, raised $26 million in a second funding round. Investors included Panorama Capital, Baker Brothers Investments, Bay City Capital, Ventures West Capital, Nexus Medical Partners, Sagamore Bioventures, George Rathmann Fund and Peninsula Overview Partners.

Presidio’s lead drug candidates take aim at HIV, hepatitis C and other viral infections. None of its drugs have entered human tests yet.

EndoGastric Solutions pulls in $30M for “transoral” surgeries — Redmond, Wash.-based EndoGastric Solutions, a medical-device maker developing products for incision-free gastrointestinal surgery, raised $30 million in a fourth funding round. Investors included DeNovo Ventures, Chicago Growth Partners, MPM Capital, Advanced Technology Ventures, Foundation Medical Partners, and Oakwood Medical Investors.

In March, EndoGastric received FDA clearance for a device it calls the StomaphyX, a disposable surgical instrument that can be passed into the stomach or the intestines via a patient’s mouth. Although EndoGastric isn’t too clear on exactly what the StomaphyX is for — the company says it’s for use in “endoluminal transoral tissue approximation and ligation” — the device appears to be a sort of staple gun that can fasten together parts of the stomach or intestines. EndoGastric says the device can be used to treat gastroesophageal reflux disease, and its Web site appears to suggest that it can also perform bariatric surgery from inside the stomach as a treatment for obesity.

Agendia gets $34M for gene-based diagnostics — Amsterdam-based Agendia, a developer of gene-based diagnostic tests for cancer, raised $34 million (€25 million) in a fourth funding round. Investors included ING, Van Herk Biotech, Gilde Healthcare Partners and Global Life Science Ventures.

Agendia, founded in 2003, sells diagnostic tests that assess the “activity level” of various genes in tumor tissue, a technique that allows it to predict whether, for instance, a woman has a high or a low risk of seeing her breast cancer return. That test, sold under the brand name MammaPrint, was approved in the U.S. in February. Agendia has developed similar tests for identifying unknown cancers and for assessing the prognosis of colon cancer.

MedManage Systems, a drug-sampling service provider, receives $5M — MedManage Systems, a Bothell, Wash., company that helps drug manufacturers push free samples into the hands of doctors in order to “build brands,” raised $5 million of a planned $10 million financing, PE Hub reports, citing a regulatory filing. Investors include Lilly Ventures, Prism VentureWorks, QuestMark Partners and Versant Ventures.

At heart, MedManage’s business seems to be a consulting service that uses a mix of technology, data analysis and old-fashioned legwork make it easy for physicians to hand out free drug samples, which the MedManage site calls “a proven marketing strategy” for “influenc[ing] physician prescribing behavior.”

The company’s Web site is larded up with all manner of marketing buzzwords, but it’s actually fascinating to read through. That’s because most folks in the pharmaceutical industry would never admit that drug samples are part of a sophisticated marketing program aimed at getting doctors used to particular brands and patients to request them by name. (Large drug companies would prefer you to believe that they give away free drugs out of the kindness of their heart and sympathy for the people who can’t afford their products.) MedManage, however, makes no bones about using samples to push particular drugs. So for a peek behind the curtain, check out MedManage’s description of what it calls its “OmniSample Solution” — it’s very illuminating.

Xoova raises $2.5M for medical social-networking — Santa Monica, Calif.-based Xoova, a social network for doctors and patients, has raised $2.5 million in a first funding round last year, VentureWire reports (subscription required). Spark Capital Partners provided the funding.

Xoova allows physicians to post profiles of themselves online, much the way Facebook and similar services do for the general population. Xoova CEO Tommy McGloin estimates that 20,000 doctors have already done so, a number he hopes will grow to 100,000 by the time he begins raising an expected $5 million round next year.

Consumers can search the doctor profiles and, in some cases, can make appointments online if the doctor has signed up for a free Xoova service. McGloin said the company intends to roll out new features in coming months, although the one cited by VentureWire — allowing patients to both book and cancel appointments online — sounds awfully mundane.

Cardiac-device maker FlowCo raises $250K — FlowCo, an Indianapolis medical-device developer, raised $250,000 in a seed financing. BioCrossroads provided the funding. FlowCo, which doesn’t have a Web site, is working on a new catheter for deploying arterial stents, the wire-mesh devices that prop open clogged arteries, more accurately.

ParagonDx acquires Gentris unit for early diagnostics — ParagonDx, apparently a newly formed Morrisville, N.C., biotech firm focused on molecular diagnostics, said it acquired the Gentris Diagnostics unit of Gentris, a pharmacogenomics firm also based in Morrisville. Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.

It’s not immediately clear exactly what this transaction means — I’m assuming ParagonDx was essentially spun out of Gentris, but the release isn’t terribly clear on that point. There are also some other oddities, such as the fact that as of this moment, the ParagonDx URL redirects to the Gentris site. It’s entirely possible that they’re just working out merger-day glitches, but it’s also possible something else weird is going on.

UPDATE (3:10pm PT): Added items on MedManage Systems, Xoova, FlowCo and ParagonDx/Gentris.

Aperio, a Vista, Calif., maker of systems that digitize medical images for use in the diagnosis of disease, raised $10.6 million from existing investors. It last raised $17 million in a second round of funding in Nov. 2005, and has now garnered a total of $33 million in equity capital. The company’s release is here.

Aperio makes systems that digitally scan microscope slides of tissue samples in high resolution and then allow diagnostic specialists, or pathologists, to view and analyze them in detail. The systems are currently offered for research purposes only, as they have not been cleared or approved by the FDA for patient care.

The round was led by Galen Partners and Advanced Technology Ventures, with participation by other existing investors.

(CORRECTED: See below.)

Seattle-based NeuroVista, a developer of devices for the treatment of epilepsy, raised $33.8 million in a second-round funding and left behind its former name, BioNeuronics.

The company, founded in 2002 by whiz kid Daniel DiLorenzo, has been quiet about its technology and commercial direction. In April, however, DiLorenzo received a patent for a “neurological control system” using “closed-loop intracranial stimulation” for the “optimal control of neurological disease.” In other words, given NeuroVista’s public interest in epilepsy, it sounds very much like it’s working on implantable neuromodulation devices that could monitor and perhaps counteract the early signs of an oncoming seizure. (Hat tips: VentureWire and Neurotech Business Report).

VentureWire also reports that one other venture-backed company, NeuroPace, and two established device makers, Medtronic and Houston-based Cyberonics, may also be researching epilepsy devices.

Here’s NeuroVista’s vaguely worded announcement. The round was led by Advanced Technology Partners and Delphi Ventures, who were joined by Three Arch Partners, Sprout Group and Foundation Medical Partners.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this item stated that Dan DiLorenzo “co-founded” NeuroVista. He’s informed us that he was the sole founder, and I’ve corrected the item to reflect that.

Portola Pharmaceuticals, a South San Francisco, Calif., biotech aiming to develop treatments for blood clots and other heart-related problems, raised $70 million in a third round of financing dominated by late-stage and public-market investors.

Among new investors in the round were Brookside Capital; AllianceBernstein; Teachers’ Private Capital, the private investment arm of Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan; Goldman Sachs, T. Rowe Price, IBTM and CIDC. They were joined by existing investors Abingworth, Alta Partners, Advanced Technology Ventures, Frazier
Healthcare Ventures, MPM Capital, Prospect Ventures and Sutter Hill Ventures.

Portola plans to use the funding for additional clinical trials of its two leading drug candidates, both experimental blood thinners targeting different blood proteins that promote coagulation. PRT054021, an oral molecule that inhibits Factor Xa, showed promising signs in a recent mid-stage human test, and will advance into further clinical trials. Meanwhile, PRT060128, which prevents blood platelets from aggregating, has completed early trials and should move into mid-stage testing by the second half of 2007. Should they receive regulatory approval, both compounds would compete with blood thinners already on the market.

Portola aims to go public and may do so as early as next year, the company’s chief financial officer, Mardi Dier, told VentureWire (subscription required).