VentureBeat

TODAY’S HEADLINES:

• Aperio Tech raises $20M for digital pathology (release)
• TissueLink changes name, files for $86M IPO (Edgar)
• Specialty pharma Cydex files to raise $50M in IPO (Edgar)
• Hydra Biosciences takes in $34M for pain drugs (VentureWire)
• AVI BioPharma acquires Ercole Biotech for $9M (release)
• Juvaris Bio names Grant Pickering as CEO (release)
  

Aperio Tech raises $20M for digital pathology – Aperio Technologies, a Vista, Calif., developer of systems for digitizing and analyzing medical images, raised $20 million in a third funding round. With the new investment, Aperio has now raised a total of $53 million, including $11 million it pulled in from existing investors last May.

Investors in the latest round included HLM Venture Partners, Galen Partners, Advanced Technology Ventures, Acadia Woods Partners and BlackRock Alternative Advisors. The startup’s tools allow pathologists to scan microscope slides of biopsied tissue or other biomedical samples at high resolution, then view and analyze them for signs of disease.

Over the past six months, Aperio’s tools have received FDA approval for use in manual and automated analysis of tumor-biopsy samples intended to determine whether a patient should receive the breast cancer drug Herceptin.

TissueLink changes name, files for $86M IPO – The medical-device startup formerly known as TissueLink Medical, now renamed Salient Surgical Technologies, filed to raise $86.3 million in an IPO. That makes Salient either the sixth or seventh life-science company to brave the IPO waters this year — a number that’s now maintaining parity with the number of IPOs that have collapsed.

Salient makes surgical tools that use radio-frequency energy to seal up surgical cuts. Although it launched those devices roughly two years ago, the company’s losses have widened since then. Last year, Salient reported a net loss of $14.7 million on sales of $29.5 million.

We previously wrote about TissueLink’s last round of funding.

Featured companies: Azaya Therapeutics, Global Care Solutions, Oxford Immunotec, RealSelf.com, Sequoia Pharmaceuticals, Tactile Systems Technology, WellGen, Zeltiq Aesthetics

UPDATED: Expanded items on Oxford Immunotec, Zeltiq, Tactile Systems, RealSelf.com and Global Care.

Oxford Immunotec pulls in $40M for TB tests — Oxford Immunotec, a U.K. biotech focused on new diagnostic tests for infectious disease, raised $40 million in a third financing round. The company’s release is here (PDF). Investors included Clarus Ventures, Wellington Partners, Kuwait-based National Technology Enterprises Company, the Prelude Trust, Quester and the Dow Chemical Company.

The company’s diagnostic tests identify and measure the activity of immune-system “effector T cells,” whose levels generally correspond to the severity of infection. Oxford Immunotec’s first product is a new diagnostic for tuberculosis designed to replace a century-old skin test. The company says its test has been approved in Europe, Canada and more than 40 other countries. The latest funds will support the U.S. launch of the product.

Zeltiq raises $20.3M for fat reduction — Pleasanton, Calif.-based Zeltiq Aesthetics, a stealthy cosmetic-procedures device maker, raised $20.3 million in a second funding round, VentureWire reports (subscription required), citing a regulatory filing. The company was formerly known as Juniper Medical.

Zeltiq is apparently focused on “new technologies for fat layer reduction” that require “little or no recovery time.” The company’s investors include Advanced Technology Ventures, Frazier Healthcare Ventures and family trusts associated with officers of the medical-device incubator The Foundry, including Hank Plain, Hanson Gifford and Mark Deem.

Tactile Systems Tech receives $11.8M for lymphadema treatment — Minneapolis-based Tactile Systems Technology, a maker of computer-controlled pressure garments designed to treat fluid-related swelling known as edema, raised $11.8 million. The private-equity firm Galen Partners led the round.

Cosmetic-procedure review site RealSelf.com takes sub-$1M seed funding — RealSelf.com, a Seattle-based Web site that hosts reviews of various cosmetic procedures, raised a seed round of funding last July and formally launched its service last Friday. The company’s release is here. Investors in the seed round included Zillow CEO Rich Barton, Revenue Science CEO Bill Gossman and Nick Hanauer, a partner at Second Avenue Partners.

For some reason, RealSelf insists on billing itself as a site for discussion of “anti-aging” products, but its focus appears to lie pretty squarely in the realm of what used to be called “plastic surgery” and now is sometimes prettied up with the term “medical aesthetics.” For the record, there is a actual anti-aging movement filled with people obsessing over ways to slow or reverse the hands of time via supplements, hormones and God knows what else. Although many of its practitioners are somewhat nutty, as a movement it has virtually nothing to do with cosmetic procedures such as teeth whitening, laser hair removal and wrinkle fillers, which are topic A at RealSelf.

In an interesting case of cross-item entanglement, though, there seems little doubt that Zeltiq Aesthetics (see two items up) will eventually figure in RealSelf discussions.

Microsoft acquires Thai healthcare IT provider Global Care Solutions — Microsoft, aiming to deepen its hold on healthcare-IT technology, acquired Bangkok-based Global Care Solutions for undisclosed terms. (The release is here.) Global Care’s primary accomplishment seems to have been building a digital patient-management system for Bumrungrad International Hospital in Bangkok, which is best known as a center for “medical tourists” seeking care at low prices. The WSJ health blog has a good rundown on the deal.

OTHER HEADLINES OF NOTE:

• Specialty pharma Ventaira closes down, Battelle reabsorbs assets (release)
• Nutrigenomics firm WellGen gets $9.5M for anti-obesity ingredient (release)
• Azaya draws $4.1M for reformulated drugs (VW)
• Sequoia Pharma appoints Steven Skolsky as new CEO(release)

Noven Pharmaceuticals, a Miami developer of drug-patch technologies and products, agreed to acquire privately held JDS Pharmaceuticals of New York for $125 million. JDS specializes in neurological drugs, including its antidepressant Pexeva and a timed-release form of lithum for bipolar disorder.

JDS was backed by Galen Partners and Altaris Capital Partners.

Galen Partners, a Stamford, Conn., private-equity firm that concentrates solely on the healthcare industry, closed a $250 million fund, its fifth. The fund will focus on healthcare IT, medical devices and specialty pharmaceuticals.

Wilmington, Mass.-based ONI Medical Systems, a developer of new magnetic-resonance imaging systems, raised $12.5 million in a third funding round. Ziegler Meditech Equity Partners led the round, joined by private-equity firms Galen Partners and Ivy Capital Partners.

ONI makes “anatomy-specific” MRI systems designed to scan particular parts of the body, such as the legs or arms. Traditional MRIs are huge hollow tubes that scan the patient’s entire body, an experience that requires the individual to lie perfectly still and which can induce claustrophobia.

Aperio, a Vista, Calif., maker of systems that digitize medical images for use in the diagnosis of disease, raised $10.6 million from existing investors. It last raised $17 million in a second round of funding in Nov. 2005, and has now garnered a total of $33 million in equity capital. The company’s release is here.

Aperio makes systems that digitally scan microscope slides of tissue samples in high resolution and then allow diagnostic specialists, or pathologists, to view and analyze them in detail. The systems are currently offered for research purposes only, as they have not been cleared or approved by the FDA for patient care.

The round was led by Galen Partners and Advanced Technology Ventures, with participation by other existing investors.