Hearing aid maker Sonitus lands $13.5M
Sonitus Medical, a company that makes a hearing device to treat single-sided deafness, just brought in $13.5 million in second-round funding to commercialize its flagship product, reports VentureWire. Based in San Mateo, Calif., it still needs to push the device through one more clinical trial and plans to go to market in 2010 if all goes well.
Sonitus’ hearing system consists of two parts: a microphone worn behind the ear, and a component worn inside the… Continue Reading
Intradigm closes $21.4M for cancer therapeutics
Biotech firm Intradigm has tacked an additional $2.9 million onto its second round of funding, bringing its total to $21.4 million. The new money will be used to advance its RNA interference-based line of therapeutics used to treat cancer.
The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company says it distinguishes itself from others pursuing RNA interference strategies by also offering technology to deliver treatment to very specific locations within the body.
Astellas Venture Management led this most recent tranche, which… Continue Reading
Phenomix cancels IPO, finds new lab partner
Biopharmaceuticals company Phenomix withdrew its filing to go public yesterday and right away announced a $340-million collaboration deal with Forest Laboratories. The IPO, intended to raise $86.3 million, had been pending since January.
Forest will aid the San Diego-based firm in the development of its diabetes treatment, dutogliptin, which is currently in its third phase of clinical trials. The deal represented $75 million for the company up front, with potentially more to come as the drug… Continue Reading
Intradigm lands $18.5M to advance oncology treatment
Intradigm, a biotech company that develops RNA interference treatments for cancer, announced today that it took $18.5 million in a second round of financing that included new investors Lilly Ventures, Roche Venture Fund, MP Healthcare Venture Management, and existing investors Alta Partners, Frazier Healthcare Ventures, MediBic Alliance Technology Fund and Novartis Venture Fund.
The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company has developed an RNA interference therapy for cancer, as well as a mode for delivering it to the… Continue Reading
Life-science briefing: Tuesday, March 18, 2008
TODAY’S HEADLINES:
Luminous Medical raises $24M for automated glucose monitoring (release)
Alimera Sciences gets $30M for eye-disease drug (release)
Vaccine maker LigoCyte draws $28M (release)
Heartbeat tracker CardioNet trims IPO, aims for listing today (IPOhome)
Axial Biotech takes in $6M for spinal diagnostics (release)
Insulin bioengineer enGene receives $6.4M (release)
GlucoLight raises funding for, well, glucose monitoring (release)
Germany’s InflaRx gets seed funding for sepsis work (release)
Cell imager Amnis pulls in $3.5M (VentureWire)
Korea Bone Bank gets funding for bone transplants (release)
Luminous Medical raises… Continue Reading
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
Funding roundup: Announcements that got away
Although I try to stay on top of events in the life sciences, announcements do sometimes manage to slip through the cracks. Some days, in fact, I end up triaging. Because the roots of this site — not to mention many of its readers — are in Silicon Valley, Bay Area events are a priority. Then come announcements from the rest of the U.S., then Asia, then Europe. Also, smaller or partial fundings tend to… Continue Reading
Ablation Frontiers raises $22M for treating arrythmia
Ablation Frontiers, a Carlsbad, Calif., developer of devices for treating irregular heartbeats known as cardiac arrythmias, raised $21.8 million in a third funding round. The Novartis Venture Fund led the round, joined by Affinity Ventures, Hexagon Investments, Trellis Health Ventures, Versant Ventures, Aberdare Ventures, and Pequot Ventures.
Ablation Frontiers apparently aims to use radio energy, directed by a catheter, to burn away malfunctioning heart tissue that contributes to arrythmia. The company’s Catheter Ablation System has been… Continue Reading
Aileron Therapeutics pulls in $7M for peptide therapies
Aileron Therapeutics, a Cambridge, Mass., developer of peptide-based drugs for cancer, raised $7 million in a second funding round. The company is at work on a new class of “stapled” peptides, or protein fragments, that it says can penetrate cell walls.
Proteins and peptides make attractive drug candidates because they can interact with other proteins in the body in ways that traditional small-molecule drugs cannot. Most proteins and peptides, however, are too large to enter… 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
ProCertus pulls in $2.3M for prevention of chemo, radiation side effects
ProCertus BioPharm, a Madison, Wis., company developing drugs to minimize the side effects of radiation and chemotherapy, raised $2.3 million in a first round of financing. The company will use the money to begin human tests of products such as DermX, which is supposed to prevent radiation-therapy induced dermatitis.
The round was led by Venture Investors, a significant Midwest-based healthcare and IT venture firm. Existing investors including the Novartis Venture Fund also joined the round.
These… Continue Reading