diaDexus lands $9.2M for cardiovascular diagnostics

South San Francisco, Calif. biotech firm diaDexus just raised $9.2 million in sixth-round funding from Scale Venture Partners, GlaxoSithKline and Baker Brothers Advisors, according to peHUB. The company’s first and only product, the PLAC Test, is used to detect early indicators of risk for heart attack and stroke. If such conditions can be determined at an early stage, aggressive treatment can prevent possibly-fatal events from ever occurring, diaDexus claims.

Founded in 2000, the company had… Continue Reading

Life sciences briefing: Thursday, Feb. 21, 2008

Life sciences briefing: Thursday, Feb. 21, 2008

TODAY’S HEADLINES:

Compact ultrasound maker Zonare Medical raises $30M (VentureWire)
TherOx raises $30M for hypersaturated-oxygen devices (peHUB)
Accumetrics, antiplatelet-drug diagnostic maker, raises $29M (release)
Population Genetics takes in £3.8M for massively parallel genome studies (GenomeWeb)
“Brain fitness” trainer Dakim raises $11M (release)
BioIQ, home-diagnostics maker, takes in $2.5M (release)
Hospital med-tracker Sabal Medical raises funds (release)
Seattle’s PharmaIN gets $400K NIH grant for nanoparticle staph drug (PDF release)
SensiGen, molecular-diagnostics developer, receives Michigan state loan (release)
Arcus Ventures aims for $50M fund, targets cancer (VentureWire)

Compact… Continue Reading

Life sciences briefing: Monday, Sept. 24, 2007

Life sciences briefing: Monday, Sept. 24, 2007

Featured companies: Adnexus Therapeutics, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Cellerix, Elixir Therapeutics, GenomeQuest, Intronn, JapanBridge, JenaValve, VirXsys, Ysios Capital

[NOTE: This item is a catchup daily briefing originally posted on 9/27/07. I've edited the item's timestamp to preserve the chronological order of the briefings. --D.P.H.]

Adnexus Thera cancels IPO, sells itself to Bristol-Myers for $430M — Waltham, Mass.-based Adnexus Therapeutics, a biotech pursuing drugs against cancer and other diseases, said it would cancel plans for its IPO and instead sell… Continue Reading

Xoft raises $33.2M for breast cancer treatment

Xoft, a Fremont Ca. developer of a treatment to reduce the recurrence of breast cancer, said it has raised $33.2 million in a fourth round of financing, and plans to treat its first patients.

See statement here.

The company says its Axxent Electronic Brachytherapy System “uses a miniaturized X-ray source that can deliver localized and targeted radiation treatment,” and can be used in pretty much any environment, including unshielded environments.

The company has now raised a total of… Continue Reading

DiaDexus, which tests for cancer and cardiovascular disease, raises $40M

DiaDexus, a South San Francisco company that makes tests to detect cancer and cardiovascular disease, said it has raised $40 million in a fifth round of funding, according to VentureWire (sub required).

The company says the funding will take it to profitability next year. Baker Brothers Advisors and Scale Venture Partners led the investment. Other investors included Burrill & Co., and existing investors GlaxoSmithKline, Rho Ventures, Bain Capital’s Brookside Fund and Mosaix Ventures, the report said…. Continue Reading