Spinal Modulation raises $27M to treat spinal pain
Spinal Modulation, a company that makes treatments for chronic spinal pain, has brought in $27.4 million in a third round of capital to finance trials of its lead medical device. Based in Menlo Park, Calif., the company is backed by Johnson & Johnson Development Corp., InCube Ventures, Raffle Venture Partners, DeNovo Ventures, DFJ ePlanet Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and MedVenture Associates.
Med device maker Starion sells to Microline, bringing varying returns
Starion Instruments, a medical device maker based in Sunnyvale, Calif., has been acquired by surgical tool provider Microline Pentax, bringing in generous returns for some of its investors, while leaving others at break even, reports VentureWire. Financial details of the deal haven’t been disclosed.
Starion’s backers included Atherton Venture Partners, Johnson & Johnson Development, St. Paul Venture Capital, Tyco Ventures and WTI Ventures. While it remained in stealth through most of its existence, the company was… Continue Reading
InSound raises $13 million more for hearing aids
Newark, Calif. hearing aid producer InSound Medical tacked $13 million more onto a fifth round of funding (now totaling $43 million). The tranche came from new investor Stanford Group, in addition to existing contributors, and is likely to be the company’s last fundraising effort, reports VentureWire.
The money will be used to expand commercial sale of its “invisible” Lyric hearing device, which is designed to be insterted directly into the ear canal by a physician. The… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2007
TODAY’S HEADLINES:
Gene-silencing developer Santaris raises €20M (PDF release)
Consumer-driven healthcare manager RedBrick Health prescribed $15M (release)
Cardiac Dimensions takes in $36M for heart-valve device (release)
TcLand Expressions gets €8.2M for biomarkers (PDF release)
TheraQuest Bio gets $3M for pain drugs (release)
Brain-software maker NeuroTrax visualizes $1.5M (VentureWire)
ActivBiotics selling off assets after clot-busting drug failure (release)
Nanostart buys stake in Singapore’s Curiox, a drug-discovery tech firm (release)
Respiratory biotech Altair Thera gets additional funding (VentureWire)
Specialty pharma Prometheus Labs files for $100M IPO (Edgar)
Sirtris… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2007
Featured companies: AerovectRx, Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, Harmony Information Systems, Intelligent Hospital Systems, Merrion Pharmaceuticals, Syntaxin, SymBio Pharmaceuticals
UPDATED: Expanded items on Harmony Info, SymBio Pharma and Merrion Pharma, added Dicerna item.
UPDATE REDUX: Added Syntaxin item.
U.K. biotech Syntaxin raises £16M for pain and nervous-system drugs — Syntaxin, a U.K. biotech focused on drugs that affect cell secretion, raised £16 million ($33.2 million) in a second funding round. The company’s release is here.
Investors in the round included SR One, the venture capital… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Friday, Oct. 19, 2007
Featured companies: DirectFlow, Direvo, Indigo Biosystems, MacroGenics
Direct Flow raises $27M for heart-valve implants — Santa Rosa, Calif.-based Direct Flow Medical, a startup developing heart implants, raised $27 million in a second funding round. Investors included Johnson & Johnson Development, Foundation Medical Partners, VantagePoint Venture Partners, ePlanet, EDF Ventures, New Leaf Venture Partners and Spray Venture Partners.
Direct Flow makes minimally invasive aortic-valve replacements for the heart. This particular field happens to be booming — we’ve previously covered… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Monday, Oct. 15, 2007
Featured companies: Biolipox, Cellpoint Diagnostics, Corum Medical, MediKeeper, Mendel Biotechnology, NanoMed, Orexo, Rules-Based Medicine, Tengion
UPDATED: Expanded the Tengion item, and that’s about it.
Tengion raises $33M for bladder regrowth — Tengion, a Norriton, Pa., biotech focused on regenerating diseased or damaged organs, raised $33 million in a third funding round. Investors included Deerfield Partners, Bain Capital, Johnson & Johnson Development, HealthCap, Quaker BioVentures, Oak Investment Partners, L Capital Partners, Horizon Technology Finance and Oxford Finance.
Tengion is working on… Continue Reading
Novocell: With diabetes study pending, investors pony up another $25M
Novocell, a San Diego embryonic stem-cell company, raised $25 million in a third round of funding. That’s presumably a bit of a letdown for the company, which had previously hoped to pull in as much as $35 million in the round. I wrote earlier about Novocell’s fundraising here.
The round was led by Johnson & Johnson Development, the venture arm of J&J itself, joined by Sanderling Ventures, Asset Management Company and Pacific Horizon Ventures.
In my… Continue Reading
Biolex Therapeutics raises $30M for multiple-sclerosis treatment
Biolex Therapeutics, a Pittsboro, N.C., developer of technology for improving the properties of monoclonal antibodies, raised $30 million in a third funding round.
Biolex specializes in producing proteins that are difficult to make with existing bioengineering processes and in optimizing the biological properties of monoclonal antibodies. It is also pursuing its own experimental drug candidates, and said the proceeds of this round will serve primarily to advance Locteron, an experimental time-release form of interferon alfa, into… Continue Reading
CVRx, developer of hypertension-treatment devices, draws in $65M
CVRx, a Minneapolis-based developer of an implantable device for the control of high blood pressure, raised $65 million in a fourth round of funding that will support a “pivotal” clinical trial of the device. The round was led by Johnson & Johnson Development, and also included existing investors New Enterprise Associates, Thomas Weisel Healthcare Venture Partners, InterWest Partners, ABS Ventures, Frazier Healthcare Ventures and SightLine Partners. CVRx has so far raised a total of $125… Continue Reading