iScience sees $20.5M for eye surgery instruments

iScience Interventional, maker of surgical tools for eye operations, has closed a prolonged sixth round of funding at $20.5 million after facing a bit more of a challenge due to the economic climate. The money will be used to commercialize its line of micro-catheters used… Continue Reading

Cancer drug maker BiPar sells to Sanofi-aventis for $500M

Cancer drug maker BiPar sells to Sanofi-aventis for $500M

BiPar Sciences, maker of tumor-targeting cancer treatments, will be acquired by public global pharmaceutical company Sanofi-aventis. The two companies have signed a binding agreement that could deliver more than $500 million to BiPar, divided into varying milestone payments.

Based in Brisbane, Calif., BiPar creates therapies, primarily… Continue Reading

BiPar snags $20M for inhibitor-based cancer therapies

Pharmaceutical firm BiPar Sciences just brought in $20 million in private equity and venture debt to advance its lead therapy, targeting breast cancer, to phase-three clinical trials. The investment will double the Brisbane, Calif.-based company’s cash on hand, a huge vote of confidence for its… Continue Reading

Loomia raises $5M to make recommendations

Loomia, which tells users what web content is popular among their friends, has raised $5 million in a first round of funding.

The San Francisco-based startup launched in June 2005 (our coverage of its early features), but it only released its SeenThis? application in January of… Continue Reading

Novocell: With diabetes study pending, investors pony up another $25M

Novocell: With diabetes study pending, investors pony up another $25M

Novocell, a San Diego embryonic stem-cell company, raised $25 million in a third round of funding. That’s presumably a bit of a letdown for the company, which had previously hoped to pull in as much as $35 million in the round. I wrote earlier about… Continue Reading

Koronis: Mutating HIV into extinction

Koronis: Mutating HIV into extinction

(UPDATED: See below.)

Seattle’s Koronis Pharmaceuticals, a biotech focused on antiviral drugs that cleverly attempt to to drive viruses into extinction, got some serious validation yesterday when it raised $20 million to fund a mid-stage “proof of principle” trial for its leading AIDS drug.

Koronis, which was founded… Continue Reading

Coapt Systems, maker of aesthetic surgery implants, raises $22.6M more

Coapt Systems, a Palo Alto, Ca. maker of bioabsorbable implants for use in aesthetic surgery, has raised $22.6 million in a fifth funding.

The round, led by Global Life Science Ventures and Easton Capital, included existing investors Alta Partners, Asset Management Company, Canaan Partners, Boston… Continue Reading

BiPar Sciences raises $35M for cancer therapies

BiPar Sciences, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company developing cancer therapies, said it has raised $35 million in a second round of financing.

The round was led by Domain Associates. Existing investors participated, including Vulcan Capital, Canaan Partners, PolyTechnos Venture-Partners, Asset Management Company and Quantum Technology Partners.

BiPar… Continue Reading