Pelikan closes $25M for handheld diagnostics
Pelikan Technologies, maker of medical devices for diagnosing and monitoring diabetes, just brought in $25 million from undiclosed investors, reports VentureWire. Based in Palo Alto, Calif., the company spun out of Agilent Technologies in 2001 with the launch of its Pelikan Sun line, an electronic lancing device used to test blood sugar.
This round of capital brings its total raised to $145 million (it last raised $89 million at the end of 2007). Past investors (that… Continue Reading
Broncus inhales $38M to treat lung disease, eyes IPO
Broncus Technologies, developer of devices to treat emphysema and other lung ailments, may make a second run at going public after bringing in $38 million in seventh-round funding to break even, reports VentureWire. The Mountain View, Calif. company first filed for a $75 million IPO last November, but withdrew in June due to the flagging lifescience market.
Resuscitated in July with $10 million in debt financing from Western Technology Investment, Broncus plans to release two cancer-fighting… Continue Reading
Pelikan scoops up $12.5M for diabetes diagnostics
Pelikan Technologies, maker of diagnostic and health-monitoring devices that can be used by regular people, nabbed a $12.5 million tranche of an expected $25 million seventh round of funding, according to VentureWire. Its flagship product, the handheld diabetes tester Pelikan Sun, is already on the market and is even being targeted for children.
The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company has raised $145 million to date. Its most recent round amounted to $69 million last December. Contributors to… Continue Reading
Cancer drug developer ChemoCentryx cancels IPO
Mountain View, Calif.-based biotech firm ChemoCentryx announced that it withdrew its filing to go public, citing (as per usual) unfavorable market conditions. The company, which develops drugs to treat cancer and autoimmune ailments like Crohn’s disease, raked in $50 million from its partner GlaxoSmithKline just last month, but the downturn-prompted freeze on IPOs has yet to thaw.
While only four health care companies have been able to go public this year, the company says that the… Continue Reading
Pelikan Tech to push “finger friendly” diabetes testing
One of the constant but unavoidable challenges in trying to control diabetes is the frequent need to test blood-sugar levels by sticking a needle into a fingertip — a step that tells diabetics when they need a snack (to raise blood glucose) or a shot of insulin (to lower it). “Lancing” fingers several times a day can render the tips so tender that it restricts ordinary activity — playing the piano, for instance — for… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2007
Featured companies: American Aerogel, Clinicient, Frazier Healthcare Ventures, Genome Diagnostics, RadPharm, RainDance Technologies, Vivacta
UPDATED: Expanded items on Vitae, RadPharm, Vivacta and Genome Diagnostics. Intelligent Bio-Systems is now covered in a standalone item here.
Vitae Pharma takes in $15M for blood pressure, diabetes drugs — Vitae Pharmaceuticals, a Fort Washington, Pa., biotech focused on new drugs for hypertension and metabolic disorders, raised $15 million in a fourth funding round, VentureWire reports (subscription required). Boehringer Ingelheim, which struck a major… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Thursday, Nov. 15, 2007
Featured companies: BioVex, FullTurn Media, Humanetics, N Spine, Novitas Capital, Reliant Technologies, Symbios, Vaxart, Virtual Radiologic, Winston Laboratories, Zosano Pharma
EXPANDING ITEMS: Stay tuned.
Vaxart receives $3.3M for oral vaccines — San Francisco’s Vaxart, a biotech developing novel adenovirus-based vaccines, raised $2.7 million in a first funding round. Vaxart also received a $600,000 small-business innovation grant from the NIH to assist in developing the company’s vaccine platform.
Vaxart’s vaccine technology involves a non-replicating adenovirus engineered to produce a particular bacterial… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2007
Featured companies: Ganeden Biotech, Glenveigh Medical, Lab21, Lead Therapeutics, Navigenics, Pacific Data Designs, PharMEDium Healthcare, Sloning BioTechnology, VistaGen
UPDATED: Expanded items on Lead Therapeutics, Glenveigh Medical and Sloning BioTech, and moved the Navigenics news to a separate item here.
Lead Therapeutics raises $17M for China-based work in cancer and immunology — San Bruno, Calif.-based Lead Therapeutics, a drug-development startup that plans to do most of its research and development in China, raised $17 million in a first funding round…. Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Thursday, Oct. 25, 2007
Featured companies: BioVex, Cavadis, Innovention, Paratek Pharmaceuticals, Phase Bioscience, Reliant Pharmaceuticals, Xencor
UPDATED: Expanded Paratek and Xencor items.
Paratek Pharma raises $40M for new antibiotics — Boston’s Paratek Pharmaceuticals, a biotech working on new antibiotics to treat drug-resistant bacterial infections, raised a first tranche of a $40 million eighth round of funding. The company’s release is here, VentureWire (subscription required) has more details here.
Investors in this funding included Aisling Capital, D.E. Shaw, Boston Life Science Venture Corporation, Nomura Phase4… Continue Reading
Double vision: Ophthotech, Eyetech and Lux BioSciences
When news that the brand-new startup Ophthotech had raised a $36 million first round broke on Monday, it was clear that the venture amounted to a kind of do-over for officials of the late, unlamented Eyetech Pharmaceuticals. Eyetech, you might recall, burst onto the scene with a rocket-science aptamer-based blindness drug called Macugen and a flashy $157 million IPO, then proceeded to get its head handed to it by even better rocket science from Genentech,… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Monday, Aug. 13, 2007
(UPDATED: See below.)
Featured companies: FoldRx Pharmaceuticals, Ophthotech, Pevion Biotech, Restoration Robotics, Glide Pharma, Reliant Pharmaceuticals, Nanosphere, SurModics, BioFX Laboratories
FoldRx Pharma to receive $22M against cystic fibrosis — Cambridge, Mass.-based FoldRx Pharmaceuticals, a biotech focused on diseases that result from misfolded proteins, will get $22 million over the next five years from an affiliate of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation to further its work against the genetic lung disease. The money will be paid as FoldRx meets various developmental… Continue Reading
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 $45 million in a follow-on to its fourth funding round.
The company features an all-star lineup of investors, which includes BankInvest, Roche Venture Fund, Astellas Venture Management, Boston Life Science Venture… Continue Reading
Agensys pulls in $41M for cancer drugs
Santa Monica, Calif.-based Agensys, a biotech focused on new cancer drugs, raised $41 million in a fourth funding round. Duquesne Capital Management and JAFCO led the round, joined by Innovis Investments, Nextech Venture, Bear Stearns Health Innoventures, Alta Partners, HBM BioVentures, Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch & Cie, H&Q Life Sciences Investments, and Orbimed Associates.
Agensys develops monoclonal antibodies designed to target surface proteins or other molecules that specifically identify tumor cells. Its first drug candidate, AGS-PSCA,… Continue Reading
Implant maker Interventional Spine draws in $24M
Irvine, Calif.-based Interventional Spine raised $24 million in a third round of funding that the company says will support the launch of several new products. The company makes implants and surgical instruments for “percutaneous” spinal operations that feature narrow incisions and, theoretically, less trauma for patients. Here is the company’s release.
Ascension Health Ventures led the round, joined by Wexford Capital, HBM BioVentures, Rock Creek Capital, the MedFocus Fund and a group of current investors.
BaroFold pulls in $12M for protein-refolding technology
BaroFold, a Boulder, Colo., biotech raised $12 million in a first round of funding. The company is developing PreEMT, a technology that uses high levels of fluid pressure to “unclump” biotech-drug proteins that have stuck together and to force proteins that have folded up incorrectly to unfold and refold into a proper configuration. The technology may be useful in boosting production yields of recombinant, or genetically engineered, proteins, which form the basis of many biotech… Continue Reading
ChemoCentryx, autoimmune disease drug co., raises $29.84M
ChemoCentryx, a Mountain View, Calif. developer of oral drugs for autoimmune diseases, inflammatory diseases and oncology, has raised $29.84 million in forth round of funding, according to a regulatory filing cited by PE Week. Glaxo Group Ltd. was joined by existing investors, including Alta Partners, GIMV, HBM BioVentures and OrbiMed Advisors.