Life sciences briefing: Thursday, Feb. 7, 2008

Life sciences briefing: Thursday, Feb. 7, 2008

TODAY’S HEADLINES:

Aptamer-drug maker Archemix withdraws its $72.5 million IPO (Edgar)
OraMetrix raises $20M for robotic orthodontic systems (peHUB)
Microarray maker TeleChem goes public via reverse merger (release)
BioVascular pulls in $11M for platelet-disease treatments (release)
Cequent Pharma adds $4.5M for for RNAi drugs (VentureWire)
CareSeek, online medical-rating service, gets $575K,… Continue Reading

FirstRain raises $13.6M for investment research

FirstRain is a Foster City, Calif. company that provides investment professionals with search-based research tools.

The company’s search engine pulls from a pool of 30,000 sources covering everything from blog posts to SEC filings.

The $13.58 million funding was provided by Oak Investment Partners, Diamondhead Ventures and… Continue Reading

Life sciences briefing: Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2007

Life sciences briefing: Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2007

Featured companies: American Aerogel, Clinicient, Frazier Healthcare Ventures, Genome Diagnostics, RadPharm, RainDance Technologies, Vivacta

UPDATED: Expanded items on Vitae, RadPharm, Vivacta and Genome Diagnostics. Intelligent Bio-Systems is now covered in a standalone item here.

Vitae Pharma takes in $15M for blood pressure, diabetes drugs — Vitae Pharmaceuticals, a Fort… Continue Reading

Life sciences briefing: Tuesday, Aug. 7, 2007

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

Talecris, a ludicrously large IPO, and the beginning of the end for private equity?

Talecris, a ludicrously large IPO, and the beginning of the end for private equity?

(UPDATED: See below.) Is the air starting to hiss out of the private-equity bubbble? Looking at Talecris Biotherapeutics, a stodgy biotech controlled by private-equity firms Cerberus Capital Management and Ampersand Ventures that filed to raise as much as $1 billion in an initial offering last Friday, you’d… Continue Reading

Cequent Pharma raises $9 million for RNAi

Cequent Pharmaceuticals, a Cambridge, Mass., developer of drugs based on a new gene-silencing technology, raised $9 million in a first-round funding. The round was led by the Novartis Option Fund, joined by Ampersand Ventures, Nexus Medical Partners, and Pappas Ventures.

Cequent is developing new treatments based… Continue Reading