VentureBeat

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 Ventures, Novartis BioVentures, BioFund Ventures, HBM BioVentures, Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch, BioVeda Fund and Hercules Technology Growth Capital. Paratek’s lead drug candidate, PTK 0796, is being studied against skin-structure infections and community-acquired pneumonia.

Xencor raises additional $15M for cancer, immune-disease drugs — Xencor, a Monrovia, Calif., biotech developing “engineered” protein- and antibody-based drugs, raised an additional $15 million in its fifth funding round, bringing the total to $60 million. Investors included Oxford Bioscience Partners, Merlin Nexus, Novo Nordisk, MedImmune Ventures, HealthCare Ventures and Zen Investments.

Xenocor’s lead candidate is an antibody that could target Hodgkin’s disease and T-cell lymphoma. The company expects to begin early-stage human trials later this year.

HEADLINES OF NOTE:

• Protein purifier Phase Bioscience pulls in an additional $5.4 million (American Venture Magazine)
• Reliant Pharma trims IPO plans, aims for $364M offering (Edgar)
• Cavadis, developer of diagnostics for “vulnerable” coronary plaques, raises seed funding (PDF release)
• Innovention Tech pulls in $115,000 for new surgical probe (release)
• BioVex names Jan van Heek chairman (release)

(UPDATED at 6:30am PT on Friday: See below.)

Featured companies: DNA2.0, Globus Medical, Inotek Pharmaceuticals, Operon Biotechnologies, PleuraFlow

Globus Medical raises $110M for spinal implants — Globus Medical, an Audubon, Pa., developer of spinal implants, raised $110 million in a fifth financing round. Investors included Clarus Ventures, AIG SunAmerica and other large, institutional private-equity funds.

Some have called this the largest venture-capital funding of the year — by a grand total of $1.65. That’s one dollar and sixty-five cents. No lie. That seems to present a definitional problem of sorts, because there is only one named venture-capital firm in the deal, Clarus Ventures, which is all of two years old and has a grand total of nine companies in its portfolio. In addition, AIG SunAmerica is a veritable smorgasbord of financial services, none of which seem to include venture capital, and Globus itself says the rest of its funding comes from private equity.

Previous financings at Globus consisted of debt and four angel rounds, VentureWire reports (subscription required). Prior to the latest funding, the company had raised $18 million in equity from angel investors and $25 million in debt from Silicon Valley Bank and Bank of America. The company plans to retire that debt this year.

Globus, which was founded in 2003, said the funds would fund clinical trials of “multiple innovative technologies under development.” The company claims to be one of the world’s ten largest manufacturers of spinal implants, with more than $120 million in “annualized” revenues. According to VentureWire, Globus revenues last year amounted to $82 million, a figure that may grow to $120 million this year.

The company also recently settled six lawsuits with Synthes, agreeing to pay $13.5 million to the Swiss medical-device maker and to refrain from soliciting or hiring Synthes employees for a full year. Synthes had sued Globus, which was founded by former Synthes employees, accusing it of misappropriating trade secrets. There’s more detail at the Philadelphia Business Journal and the Philadelphia Inquirer.

UPDATE: Tom Salemi at the In Vivo blog has more on what the deal means for Globus in the spinal-device market. For what it’s worth, he doesn’t think this funding should be considered a venture-capital deal, either.

Inotek receives $19M for cancer drugs — Beverly, Mass.-based Inotek Pharmaceuticals, a biotech that aims to tackle cancer, heart disease and inflammation, raised $19.3 million in a third funding round. Investors included Hercules Technology Growth Capital, Meditor Capital Management, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, Care Capital, La Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, MedImmune Ventures, Pitango Venture Capital, and Rho Ventures.

Inotek’s lead drug candidate targets an enzyme in the cellular nucleus that helps repair DNA damage. Disabling that enzyme could make it easier to kill tumor cells.

DNA2.0 strikes artificial-DNA co-marketing deal with Operon – DNA2.0, a Menlo Park, Calif., biotech that bills itself as the largest U.S. provider of synthetic genes, struck an agreement with Huntsville, Ala.-based Operon Biotechnologies under which Operon will co-market DNA2.0’s gene-synthesis services. Meanwhile, it also appears that Operaon will share its nucleic-acid synthesis technology with DNA2.0 to improve DNA2.0’s “speed of synthesis.”

This deal probably isn’t all that huge in and of itself, but DNA-synthesis services are likely to grow in prominence as bioengineers become ever-more versed in techniques for modifying natural genes or even creating new genes from scratch. That’s what the emerging field of “synthetic biology” is all about, and it’s definitely worth watching.

PleuraFlow raises almost $1M for drainage device — PleuraFlow, a Bend, Ore., device startup, raised slightly under $1 million in seed financing, VentureWire reports (subscription required). Investors included the angel group BVC Investor, affiliated with the Bend Venture Conference, and the Cleveland Clinic. PleuraFlow is developing a device to improve pleural and pericardial drainage following heart surgery. The company doesn’t have a Web site.

UPDATE (7:05pm PT): Added items on Globus Medical and Inotek.

UPDATE REDUX (6:30am PT Friday): Expanded Globus item.

Ekos, a Bothell, Wash., maker of ultrasound-enhanced drug-delivery systems, raised $10 million in debt capital from Hercules Technology Growth Capital. The financing will support the sales and marketing of drug-delivery catheters that feature an ultrasound system designed to help drugs break up blood clots more quickly. Ekos launched its catheters in early 2006.

Ekos most recently raised $26 million in a third financing round led by Ascension Health Ventures, joined by new investors Oakwood Medical Investors and Trellis Health Ventures and previous investors CID Equity Capital, EGS Private Healthcare Investors, MedVenture Associates, Mitsui & Co. Venture Partners, Morgan Stanley Venture Partners and NGN Capital.

The company’s release is here.

Ann Arbor, Mich., specialty pharmaceutical company QuatRx Pharmaceuticals raised $44 million in a fifth funding round following the withdrawal of its initial offering last July. Like the much better-known Jazz Pharmaceuticals, QuatRx acquires drugs from other companies in order to push them through clinical development, supposedly with a minimum of risk. That helps account for the fact that its first four drugs in human testing cover a grab-bag of conditions ranging from vaginal atrophy (don’t ask) and testosterone deficiency to the skin condition psoriasis to high cholesterol.

The round was led by Venrock. Also participating were new investors T. Rowe Price, Catella Healthcare, and Hercules Technology Growth Capital. Ten other existing investors also participated; for a full list, see the company’s release here.

Neosil, an Emeryville, Calif., company focused on dermatology products, raised a $10 million in venture debt from Hercules Technology Growth Capital. The debt funding follows the company’s $32 million first-round venture financing in 2004, which involved MPM Capital and Burrill & Co.

Neosil is developing a peptide-based hair-growth product for male pattern baldness and a topical antimicrobial treatment. It describes the debt financing here.