Sanarus raises $3M to battle breast cancer

Sanarus Medical, maker of a device used to diagnose and treat breast cancer, brought in $3 million in convertible note funding from existing investors, reports VentureWire. It’s currently working on a product that uses ultrasound technology to detect the early stages of the disease.

The Pleasanton,… Continue Reading

Life-science briefing: Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Life-science briefing: Tuesday, March 18, 2008

TODAY’S HEADLINES:

Luminous Medical raises $24M for automated glucose monitoring (release)
Alimera Sciences gets $30M for eye-disease drug (release)
Vaccine maker LigoCyte draws $28M (release)
Heartbeat tracker CardioNet trims IPO, aims for listing today (IPOhome)
Axial Biotech takes in $6M for spinal diagnostics (release)
Insulin bioengineer enGene receives $6.4M (release)
GlucoLight raises… Continue Reading

Life sciences briefing: Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2007

Life sciences briefing: Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2007

Featured companies: Advanced Bio-Surfaces, Ambit Biosciences, EnteroMedics, Molecular Vision, Skyline Ventures

UPDATED: Expanded items on Skyline Ventures, Ambit, and Molecular Vision, and moved EnteroMedics to a new item here.

Skyline Ventures raises $350M life-sciences fund — Skyline Ventures, a Palo Alto, Calif., VC firm, closed a $350 million fund… Continue Reading

Life sciences briefing: Thursday, Nov. 1, 2007

Life sciences briefing: Thursday, Nov. 1, 2007

Featured companies: Asteres, HemaQuest Pharmaceuticals, Nanosphere, Novalar Pharmaceuticals, Tranzyme Pharma

(UPDATED: Expanded items for Nanosphere, HemaQuest and Transzyme. Moved Novalar to a separate item here.)

Diagnostic maker Nanosphere prices IPO at low end of range, raises up to $113M — Nanosphere, a Northbrook, Ill., biotech focused on nanotech-derived diagnostics,… Continue Reading

Life sciences briefing: Friday, Sept. 28, 2007

Life sciences briefing: Friday, Sept. 28, 2007

Featured companies: Imalux, Sagent Pharmaceuticals, Sequel Pharmaceuticals, Sinexus, TranS1, U.S. Spinal Technologies

Sagent Pharmaceuticals draws in $53M for injectable generics — Sagent Pharmaceuticals, proving that there’s still life in the apparently lucrative but boring specialty-pharmaceuticals business, raised $53 million in a first funding round. Vivo Ventures led… Continue Reading

Life sciences briefing: Thursday, Aug. 9, 2007

Life sciences briefing: Thursday, Aug. 9, 2007

(UPDATED at 6:40pm PT: See below.)

Featured companies: Nereus Phramaceuticals, KFx Medical, NeuroMed Pharmaceuticals, Adnexus Therapeutics, Masimo, Biofisica, Aegera Therapeutics, LymphoSign, InfuScience, Palmetto Infusion Services

Nereus Pharma raises $45M for ocean-derived cancer drugs — San Diego’s Nereus Pharmaceuticals, a biotech that searches for cancer drugs in marine microbes, raised… Continue Reading

Vascular biology biotech TargeGen raises $40M

San Diego’s TargeGen, a biotechnology targeting disease treatments related to abnormal blood-vessel growth, raised $40 million in a fourth funding round. New investors included Innovis Investments, VantagePoint Venture Partners and CTI Life Sciences Fund, joined by existing investors Forward Ventures, Enterprise Partners, Chicago Growth Partners.

TargeGen’s… Continue Reading

Biotech financing: Are early-stage companies hot again?

Biotech financing: Are early-stage companies hot again?

(Note: This item has been copied over to the Life Sciences page from its original location on the VentureBeat main page. To view it in its original context, with comments, click here.)

Venture investors’ interest in early-stage biotech companies may finally be starting to revive, nearly… Continue Reading

Cytyc to buy women’s contraception company, Adiana, for up to $215M

Cytyc Corporation, a publicly traded company targeting women’s health and cancer diagnostics, said it has agreed to acquire Adiana, a venture-backed Redwood City company that has developed a “non-incisional alternative to tubal ligation” for permanent contraception for women.

Cytyc, based in Marlborough, Mass., will make an… Continue Reading

Sanuras, breat tumor device company raises $15M

Sanarus Medical, a Pleasanton, Calif. company that makes a device to treat breast tumors, has raised $15 million in fifth round of funding, according to a regulatory filing cited by PE Week.

Investors included Easton Capital Partners, Alta Partners, Forward Ventures, Channel Medical Partners, Federated Kaufman… Continue Reading