Aviir pumps up with $1M for heart diagnostics
Aviir, the Palo Alto, Calif. company that turned Stanford research into technology used to diagnose heart conditions, has brought in $1 million in equity, debt, rights and securities, according to a filing with the SEC. It adds this amount to $1 million raised in August and $7.8 million in bridge financing secured in January from Aberdare Ventures, Bay City Capital and New Leaf Venture Partners. Before that it raised funds in March 2008 amounting to… Continue Reading
Direct Flow Medical takes $40M for heart valve treatments
Direct Flow Medical, maker of a minimally-invasive device to treat heart valve disease, has raised $40 million of a targeted $42.5 million third round of venture funding, according to a filing with the SEC. Based in Santa Rosa, Calif., the company is backed by Johnson & Johnson Development Corp., Foundation Medical Partners, VantagePoint Venture Partners, ePlanet Ventures, EDF Ventures, New Leaf Venture Partners and Spray Venture Partners. It has raised $75 million to date.
Heart drug co. Relypsa gets $10M more to complete trials
Pharmaceutical company Relypsa announced that its investors extended its first round of funding by $10 million to a total $43 million to help it finish phase-two clinical trials on its lead drug candidate, a treatment that could alleviate symptoms of heart failure and chronic kidney disease.
Based in Santa Clara, Calif., Relypsa predicts the phase to close by the end of 2009 and already plans to raise new funds in 2010. The drug being tested treats… Continue Reading
ReShape beefs up with $20M to bust fat
ReShape Medical, maker of a non-surgical device said to treat obesity, just reeled in $20 million in second-round funding to launch a trial of its lead product. Based in San Clemente, Calif., the company’s actual technology remains fairly stealthy.
The investment came from US Venture Partners, New Leaf Venture Partners and SV Life Sciences. Previously, ReShape raised $7.5 million over the course of 2006 and 2007. It has eight employees.
Aviir pumps in $7.8M for heart diagnostics
Stealthy biotech firm Aviir just raised a $7.8 million bridge round of financing to last it through the rest of 2009, according to VentureWire. Based in Palo Alto, Calif., the company hasn’t released much information about its actual products — only that its methods may eventually be used to detect early warning signs of heart disease, heart attacks or strokes on the molecular level.
Born out of research conducted in Stanford University labs, the technology will… Continue Reading
Life-science briefing: Tuesday, March 25, 2008
TODAY’S HEADLINES:
Antibody-discovery startup Adimab raises new funding (release)
Lung-device maker Spiration gets $19M (release)
Sample-prep startup Protein Discovery pulls in $10M (release)
Inogen takes in $13M for portable oxygen device (VentureWire)
Healthcare IT concern Medaptus raises $11M for expansion (VentureWire)
Contract lab Synexis raises $14M (peHUB)
Medical-device VC firm BioStar Ventures takes in $24M of $80M fund (peHUB)
Halsa Pharma gets $250K for “natural” obesity-control treatment (release)
Diagnostics provider Lab21 acquires NPTech (peHUB)
Galil Medical names Martin Emerson CEO (release)
Antibody-discovery startup Adimab raises new funding – Lebanon,… Continue Reading
Amgen, Relypsa and the art of the biotech-spinout-startup-restart
(UPDATED: See below.)
A common dilemma in biotech acquisitions is how to keep a startup’s entrepreneurial management happy and productive when they’ve just been assimilated by the Borg. The answer, often enough, is not to bother, and to let them spin out a new company with scientific “leftovers” that weren’t the point of the acquisition in the first place.
That’s more or less what Amgen has just done in launching Relypsa, a new Santa Clara, Calif., biotech just… 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: Thursday, Oct. 11, 2007
Featured companies: Ablynx, Bind Biosciences, Maas Biolab, Oriel Therapeutics, ThromboVision, Xcellerex
(UPDATED: See below.)
Contract biomanufacturer Xcellerex pulls in $31M — Marlborough, Mass.-based Xcellerex, a startup that provides contract “bioprocess” development and manufacturing, raised $31 million in a third funding round. Investors included VantagePoint Venture Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, and SCG Investments.
Xcellerex develops modular “turnkey” manufacturing systems for complex biomolecules such as the proteins, peptides, antibodies and nucleic acids used in biotech drugs and vaccines. The… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2007
Featured companies: Atritech, Avalon Partners, Ensemble Discovery, Hyperion Therapeutics, LifeBond, ReShape Medical, SafeStitch, Trophos, UltraShape
Hyperion Therapeutics raises $40M against GI and kidney disease — Hyperion Therapeutics, a South San Francisco, Calif., specialty pharmaceutical company, raised $40 million in a second funding round. Investors included Sofinnova Ventures, Highland Capital Partners, New Enterprise Associates and WRF Capital.
Hyperion, which buys the rights to test and market drug candidates from other companies, said the proceeds will allow it to complete… Continue Reading
Antibiotic maker BioRelix gets $26M
BioRelix, a New Haven, Conn., developer of new antibiotics, raised $25.75 million in a first funding round, VentureWire reports (subscription required). The round included New Leaf Venture Partners, Aisling Capital, CHL Medical Partners, Novartis Venture Fund, Elm Street Ventures and Alexandria Real Estate Equities.
BioRelix is developing antibiotics that target what the company says are common stretches of bacterial RNA that control many functions essential for bacterial survival. The funding should allow the company to push… Continue Reading
Interlace Medical, women’s health company, picks up $5M
Interlace Medical, a stealthy Newton, Mass., developer of gynecological devices, raised $5 million in a first round of funding, VentureWire reports. Spray Ventures and New Leaf Venture Partners led the round. PE Wire reports that the startup is focused on the market for polypectomies and myomectomies, which are surgeries for the removal of polyps and fibroids.
Biotech financing: Are early-stage companies hot again?
(Note: This item has been copied over to the Life Sciences page from its original location on the VentureBeat main page. To view it in its original context, with comments, click here.)
Venture investors’ interest in early-stage biotech companies may finally be starting to revive, nearly six years after the collapse of a biotech-stock bubble quashed appetites for the industry’s riskiest but often most innovative companies.
Biotech fundraising is certainly booming. The industry newsletter BioCentury (no link… Continue Reading
Insomnia drug company, TransOral, raises $40M more
TransOral Pharmaceuticals, a Pt. Richmond, Calif. developer of a drug that treats insomnia, has raised $40 million in a fourth round of funding.
See the company’s announcement here.
The investor syndicate was led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and included follow-on investments by New Leaf Venture Partners, Montreux Equity Partners, InterWest Partners, Hamilton BioVentures, Vivo Ventures, Peninsula Equity Partners, and Hercules Technology Growth Capital.
Forest Labs aquires pharma company, Cerexa, for up to $580M
Forest Laboratories said it has acquired Cerexa, a venture-backed biopharmaceutical company in Alameda, Calif., for $480 million. It will pay $100 million more if certain milestones are met.
That’s a quick buy for Cerexa, which was spun out of another company, Peninsula Pharmaceuticals in August 2005.
It is not clear how much money investors made. A group of investors gave $50 million to Cerexa after the spin-out, but presumably Cerexa already carried some worth, and so investors… Continue Reading
Aesthetic Sciences, a secretive co. hoping to solve baby boomers’ facial concerns, raises $6M
Aesthetic Sciences, a Palo Alto company with no Web site, has raised $6 million in a first round of venture capital to develop aesthetic medicine and incontinence products.
Investors are Domain Associates and New Leaf Venture Partners. Aesthetic Sciences is secretive, and was founded in 2004.
Aesthetic Sciences Chairman and CEO Gary S. Petersmeyer, in a statement, said aging baby boomers are driving demand for facial aesthetic procedures, and that growth in this area will see a… Continue Reading
Vaccine co., VaxInnate, raises $40 from Canaan & others
VaxInnate, of Cranbury, NJ said it has raised $40 million in a Series C financing for its development of vaccines for pandemic and seasonal influenza. It is the latest in a series of investments in the sector, as concern rises about the risks of a global pandemic.
The company says its platform has the potential to improve vaccine immunogenicity and efficacy while greatly reducing manufacturing costs.
The funds raised will be used for the continued development… Continue Reading