VentureBeat

TODAY’S HEADLINES:

• Mirna Thera spins out of Asuragen with $3M (release)
• Stroke-therapy startup CoAxia raises $12M (release)
• Stealthy device maker Synvascular gets $6.5M (peHUB)
• AndroScience seeks $3.5M for anti-testosterone drugs (VentureWire)
• Austria’s ProtAffin takes in €1.1M grant (release)
• Singapore’s Moleac receives $3.5M for Chinese medicine (release)
• Alethia Bio gets C$2.4M for antibody drugs (release)
• Alba Thera names Bruce Peacock as CEO (release)
• SkinMedica names Mary Fisher as CEO (release)
  

Mirna Thera spins out of Asuragen with $3M – Mirna Therapeutics, a newly minted Austin, Tex., startup focused on “microRNA” (miRNA) drugs, spun out from its parent Asuragen with $3 million in seed capital. The new company is taking Asuragen’s miRNA intellectual property with it.

MicroRNAs, like small interfering RNAs (siRNAs, for those into the acronym soup here), are short stretches of nucleic acid that can silence the activity of particular genes. These miRNAs, however, are encoded in the human genome and appear to affect multiple genes at once by interfering with “master” regulatory genes. Several miRNAs have been linked to cancer, suggesting that measuring levels of miRNAs might yield early detection of tumors.

Asuragen will continue to explore miRNAs as possible diagnostic tools, while Mirna will look into developing particular miRNA molecules as cancer drugs. Mirna initially plans to target lung cancer, prostate cancer and acute myeloid leukemia. None of its drug candidates are ready for testing in humans yet.

Stroke-therapy startup CoAxia raises $12M –  Maple Grove, Minn.-based CoAxia, a device startup focused on treatment for clot-related strokes, raised $11.5 million as an extension of its third funding round. Its backers included existing investors Canaan Partners, Prism Venture Partners, Baird Venture Partners, Affinity Capital Management, Johnson and Johnson Development and SVB Capital Partners.

CoAxia is developing a catheter designed to increase the flow of oxygenated blood in the brains of stroke patients by restricting its flow to the lower extremities, thereby shunting additional blood into brain vessels that haven’t been blocked by a clot. The minimally invasive device is threaded into a central artery near the kidneys, where a doctor can inflate two balloons designed to block roughly 70 percent of the blood flow to the lower body. The device is currently in a late-stage clinical trial.

Pegasus Biologics, an Irvine, Calif., maker of flexible-but-strong tissue substitutes designed to speed muscle-tendon repair or wound healing, raised $20 million in a third round of funding.

Despite the word “biologics” in its name — a term that is often synonymous with protein-based biotechnology drugs — Pegasus isn’t a drug company. Nor is it strictly a medical-device maker. Instead, the company has devised “bioimplants” made from equine pericardium — horse heart, in other words — that surgeons can use to help stitch together damaged tendons or other wounds. (Technically speaking, a “biologic” is any product derived from living organisms, and so covers everything from protein drugs pumped out by genetically engineered bacteria to actual human or animal tissue. It’s just that you don’t tend to see as much of the latter as the former.)

Currently, Pegasus sells one type of bioimplant for tendon and ligament repair, and a second for use in wound healing, particularly in diabetic ulcers. Each consists of a cell-free collagen matrix intended to provide a “scaffold” for the regrowth of surrounding tissues. The company is also currently developing a bioimplant for repair of the dura mater, the outermost membrane surrounding the brain and spinal cord, and another intended for use in reconstruction of the anterior cruciate ligament, or ACL, an easily injured ligament in the knee. Generally speaking, Pegasus considers its bioimplants an attractive alternative to other animal-derived biologic tissue or to human tissues, whether patient-derived or procured from cadavers.

Onset Ventures led the funding round, joined by fellow new investor Affinity Capital Management and existing investors Three Arch Partners and Frazier Healthcare Ventures. Pegasus previously raised $10 million in a mid-2005 second round.

Leslie Bottorff, an Onset general partner, will join the Pegasus board, as will Gary Restani, president of medical-robotics company Hansen Medical. Onset normally invests in earlier-stage companies, but Bottorff told me that Pegasus was attractive because it was sitting on a “largely untapped” market for surgical-repair bioimplants. Bottorff said that competing animal-tissue products are generally stiffer and more difficult for surgeons to work with, and that human tissue always carries the risk of transmitting disease or producing an inflammatory immune reaction.

Bottorff said the current financing should carry Pegasus to profitability, after which it might be a good candidate for an initial offering or potential acquisition.