Aerovance inhales $38M for asthma drugs

Aerovance, developer of asthma medications, just brought in $38 million in a post-recapitalized third round of funding to push its lead drug candidate through a second phase of clinical trials. The company has already received $20 million, with the option of claiming the remaining $18 million as necessary.

Based in Berkeley, Calif., the company has already seen its drug, Aerovant, through the first part of second-phase trials. The company will use the new money to complete… Continue Reading

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, looks for $5M (VentureWire)
Satiogen takes in $700K for obesity treatment (VentureWire)
Dilon Tech appoints Robert Moussa as CEO (release)

Aptamer-drug maker Archemix withdraws its $72.5 million IPO – I’ve expanded this news into… Continue Reading

Life sciences briefing: Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2007

Life sciences briefing: Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2007

Featured companies: Alpex Pharma, Applied Computational Technologies, Separation Design Group, ThermalTherapeutics Systems

Switzerland’s Alpex Pharma raises $9M for plop, plop, fizz, fizz drugs– Alpex Pharma, a Mezzovico, Switzerland drug-formulation company, raised $9 million (CHF 10.9 million) in a second round of funding. Investors included BB Biotech Ventures and Signet Healthcare Partners.

The company essentially reformulates pharmaceuticals for other companies with technologies that make pills melt quickly, allowing them to be taken without water, or to “effervesce” — that… Continue Reading

Life sciences briefing: Wednesday, Aug. 15, 2007

Life sciences briefing: Wednesday, Aug. 15, 2007

(UPDATED at 5:55pm PT: See below.)

Featured companies: Sierra Surgical Technologies, HerbalScience Nutraceuticals, Topigen Pharmaceuticals, EKR Therapeutics, Molecular Partners, Celsense, Glucose Sensing Technologies, Falcon Genomics, Waters, Calorimetry Sciences, Parion Sciences, Gilead Sciences, Isto Technologies, Fluidnet, NABsys

Sierra Surgical raises $7.1M — Palo Alto, Calif.-based Sierra Surgical Technologies, a developer of female sterilization technology, raised $7.1 million in a first funding round, PE Hub reports, citing a regulatory filing. Alta Partners and De Novo Ventures provided the funding.

Singapore’s HerbalScience raises… Continue Reading