VentureBeat

TODAY’S HEADLINES:

• Adnavance pulls in C$3.7M for molecular diagnostics, names new CEO (release)
• “Personalized medicine” co. Proprius sells to Cypress Bio for up to $75M (release)
• Vaccinex raises $25M in wake of GSK deal for antibody drugs (VentureWire)
• Cianna Medical receives $9M for breast-cancer radiation treatment (release)
• Electron-microscope image provider NanoImaging takes in $1.5M (release)
• CrystalGenomics, ProQuest Investments create JV co. Palkion (release)
• Portico Systems, software maker for insurance plans, raises $7.7M (release)
• Stealthy biotech Affomic takes in $7M (peHUB)

Adnavance pulls in C$3.7M for molecular diagnostics, names new CEO – This item is now a standalone post here.

“Personalized medicine” co. Proprius sells to Cypress Bio for up to $75M – Proprius Pharmaceuticals, a San Diego diagnostics maker, sold itself to publicly traded Cypress Bioscience for up to $75 million in cash. The company’s release is here.

Cypress will pay $37.5 million up front, and another $37.5 million to Proprius shareholders as milestone payments. Proprius licenses and develops drugs and diagnostics for various forms or arthritis. Its most immediate product candidates include tests that aim to predict whether certain individuals will develop rheumatoid arthritis and that monitor patients’ response to methotrexate, a common treatment for RA.

Vaccinex raises $25M in wake of GSK deal for antibody drugs – Rochester, N.Y.-based Vaccinex, a developer of antibody drugs, raised $25 million in an add-on to its second funding round, VentureWire reports. Investors included Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Pan Atlantic Bank and Trust and individual investors.

Earlier this month, Vaccinex and its partner EUSA Pharma licensed a Vaccinex antibody to GlaxoSmithKline for up to $44 million plus royalties. Vaccinex and EUSA will split any profits from GSK’s potential sales of the drug.

Cianna Medical receives $9M for breast-cancer radiation treatment – Cianna Medical, an Alisa Viejo, Calif., developer of devices for delivering local radiation in breast cancer, raised $9 million in a first funding round. Fog City Fund, Windamere Venture Partners and several private individuals provided the cash.

Cianna, which was spun out of BioLucent when it was acquired by Hologic last year, is working on new devices for brachytherapy, the general term for temporarily implanting radioactive material at the site of a tumor in order to provide localized radiation treatment. The Cianna device is designed to improve upon existing brachytherapy techniques in breast cancer.

Electron-microscope image provider NanoImaging takes in $1.5M – San Diego’s NanoImaging Services, a provider of imaging services involving transmission electron microscopy, raised $1.5 million in a funding round. Merck Capital Ventures led the round. The company specializes in the characterization of large biological molecules such as proteins, which are used in a variety of products such as vaccines and drugs.

CrystalGenomics, ProQuest Investments create new JV, Palkion – Today’s award for most baffling announcement comes courtesy of CrystalGenomics, an Emeryville, Calif.-based U.S. unit of the Korean drug-discovery company CG Pharmaceuticals, and ProQuest Investments, a New Jersey VC firm, who together have formed a joint venture they’re calling Palkion. Their release is here.

What is Palkion going to do? Beats me. Here’s what the release says:

Under this agreement, CrystalGenomics will receive up to $6 million in upfront and initial research funding from Palkion, in addition to development and sales milestone payments of potentially more than $200 million. CrystalGenomics will also initially own 50% of Palkion, Inc. ProQuest will capitalize Palkion with a Series A investment and also provide the management personnel for Palkion. CG will use its unique structure-based drug design capabilities to identify drug candidates while Palkion will oversee the clinical development of novel drug candidates.

So, let’s get this straight. CrystalGenomics and ProQuest form Palkion, in which they’ll hold equal stakes despite the fact that ProQuest seems to be putting all the capital and personnel into the venture. Palkion will then start handing the money to CrystalGenomics, which will continue trying to discover drugs while Palkion “oversees” the process of testing those drugs in people. All clear?

The best I can figure is that this is a roundabout way of putting a more “American” face on a basically Korean startup that — to judge from its Web site and, in fact, this press release — seems to have a certain amount of difficulty communicating clearly with a U.S. audience. That could certainly be a problem if its drugs make it into clinical trials, given how dialogue with the FDA becomes rather crucial at that stage. But that’s just my guess at this point.

Stealthy biotech Affomic takes in $7M – Affomic, a New Haven, Conn., biotech startup so stealthy that it can announce a funding without giving anyone a clue as to what it’s doing, raised $7 million in a first financing round, peHUB reports. Investors included Connecticut Innovations, Elm Street Ventures, and Four Seasons Ventures. It goes without saying that Affomic doesn’t have a Web site — in fact, the startup doesn’t even exist so far as Google is concerned.

Featured companies: Change:healthcare, Gemin X Biotechnologies, Ipsogen, the Practice

Change:healthcare raises $1M for health 2.0 sites — Nashville, Tenn.-based change:healthcare, a provider of Web-based health information, raised $1 million in a first funding round. The investment firm Solidus, also based in Nashville, provided the cash. There’s no release, but the Nashville Business Journal did run this story.

Change:healthcare operates two “health 2.0″ Web sites designed to empower individuals by helping them better navigate the healthcare system. FindYourDoc.com offers a searchable database of doctors and hospitals, while MedBillManager is a fee-based service for helping individuals and families manage a confusing welter of medical bills and insurance statements.

Cancer-drug developer Gemin X garners $72.6M — Montreal’s Gemin X Biotechnologies, a biotech developing a variety of cancer drugs, has raised $72.6 million of a planned $114.7 million third funding round, VentureWire reports (subscription required).

The wire service cited a regulatory filing for its report. No investors were reported on that filing, although the company did just appoint Eric Roberts, a managing director of Caxton Advantage, to its board. Understandably enough, such appointments usually reflect the desire of a VC or, in this case, a hedge-fund affiliate, to keep a close eye on a significant investment.

Gemin X develops cancer drugs that, for the most part, interfere or promote the process of programmed cell death, or apoptosis.

Physician-office manager The Practice raises £1.4M — The Practice, a U.K. firm that manages doctors’ offices, raised £1.4 million ($2.9 million). MMC Ventures provided the funding. The proceeds will allow the company to expand its operations.

Ipsogen draws in $3.4M for diagnostic tests — Ipsogen, a Marseille, France, biotech focused on cancer diagnostics, raised $3.4 million, VentureWire reports. Investors included Matignon Technologies, Societe Generale Asset Management, Sofipaca and Connecticut Innovations, which provided $680,000 to help the company’s U.S. subsidiary expand its headquarters in New Haven, Conn. Connecticut Innovations is a quasi-public economic-development agency. The company’s lead product is a diagnostic for leukemia.

Featured companies: AstraZeneca, Atlantis Components, Cara Therapeutics, CardioMems, Corium International, New Ortho Polymers, Osprey Pharmaceuticals, Othera Pharmaceuticals, StrataGent Life Sciences

Corium acquires Stratagent, raises $25.1M for “transdermal” drugs — Corium International, a Menlo Park, Calif., biotech focused on drugs that can be delivered through the skin, said it will acquire StrataGent Life Sciences of San Jose, Calif., for an undisclosed sum. At the same time, Corium raised $25.1 million in a third funding round, and said it has commitments for another $15.2 million within the next 24 months.

StrataGent, whose origins lie in work performed at Stanford, has focused on “needle-free” drug delivery using a microjet system in a microprocessor-controlled device resembling an electronic patch. (See our previous coverage here.) The company raised a $16 million round in May, although the company never received more than $6.7 million of that. Corium has a much broader focus that incorporates a variety of technologies for delivering drugs via the skin or mucosal surfaces such as the nasal passages or mouth.

Although ostensibly a straightforward merger, StrataGent CEO Robert Thomas will run the merged company, while Ron Eastman of Essex Woodlands Health Ventures — a previous StrataGent investor — will assume the job of chairman. StrataGent will relocate to Corium’s Menlo Park address. Investors in the latest round include Essex, Quantum Technology Partners, Aphelion Capital and an unnamed “strategic investor.”

CardioMems raises $23.3M for implantable heart sensors — Atlanta’s CardioMems, a medical-device company at work on a new generation of implantable heart sensors, raised $23.3 million in a still-open fifth funding round, VentureWire reports (subscription required). Investors in the round included “most” of the participants in the company’s previous round, a group that includes Arcapita Ventures, Easton Capital Partners, Boston Millennia Partners, Foundation Medical Partners, Medtronic Inc. and Johnson & Johnson Development Corp.

CardioMems is still looking for new investors. Its first product is a wireless sensor that can measure the pressure inside an aneurysm — a weakened section of an arterial wall that’s susceptible to rupture — during surgery intended to repair it.

Othera Pharma arranges $7M debt facility for an eye treatment — Exton, Pa.-based Othera Pharmaceuticals, a specialty pharmaceutical company at work on a new treatments for glaucoma and macular degeneration, arranged a $7 million debt facility with Oxford Financial, a subsidiary of Japan’s Sumitomo. The funding will help Othera advance its lead drug candidate in exsting mid-stage clinical trials.

Cara Thera receives $4M, moves to Connecticut from New York — Cara Therapeutics, a biotech formerly based in Tarrytown, N.Y., has received $4 million in facilities funding from Connecticut Innovations to help fund its move to Shelton, Conn. Cara, which is developing new pain and inflammation treatments, plans to use the money to build laboratory space in its new headquarters.

Connecticut Innovations is a quasi-public economic development agency. In a separate investment, the agency provided $250,000 in seed funding to New Ortho Polymers, a maker of orthodontic appliances.

EffRx raises convertible debt for osteoporosis — EffRx, a Tequesta, Fla., company that repackages old drugs in new formulations, raised an undisclosed some from a convertible debt offering, VentureWire reports. The funding will allow the company to push an “effervescent” version — think of Alka-Seltzer — of the osteoporosis drug Fosamax to the market. The investors weren’t disclosed.

Osprey Pharmaceuticals names new CEO — Osprey Pharmaceuticals, a Montreal biotech that’s consolidating its headquarters operations in San Francisco, named Jack Anthony as CEO. Anthony, currently an Osprey vice president, will remain in San Francisco. Osprey is developing new drugs for kidney disease.

AstraZeneca unit buys dental-implant maker for $71M — AstraZeneca’s medical-technology subsidiary, Astra Tech, agreed to acquire Cambridge, Mass.-based Atlantis Components for $71 million. Atlantis makes customized “abutments,” which are tiny components designed to stabilize dental implants. The company had previously raised about $26.3 million in four funding rounds, VentureWire reports.