VentureBeat

(UPDATED: See below.)

Featured companies: FoldRx Pharmaceuticals, Ophthotech, Pevion Biotech, Restoration Robotics, Glide Pharma, Reliant Pharmaceuticals, Nanosphere, SurModics, BioFX Laboratories

FoldRx Pharma to receive $22M against cystic fibrosis — Cambridge, Mass.-based FoldRx Pharmaceuticals, a biotech focused on diseases that result from misfolded proteins, will get $22 million over the next five years from an affiliate of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation to further its work against the genetic lung disease. The money will be paid as FoldRx meets various developmental milestones, including pushing two experimental drugs into early-stage human trials. The company’s current drug candidates, however, don’t target cystic fibrosis, and instead aim to take on a particular class of diseases known as amyloidosis and Parkinson’s disease.

The Boston Globe and the WSJ Health Blog have more.

Newly formed Ophthotech raises $36M against eye disease — Ophthotech, a newly formed Princeton, N.J., biotech with a focus on eye disease, raised a whopping $36 million in a first funding round. The company, founded by a bevy of former Eyetech Pharmaceuticals officials, is going to follow directly in the former company’s footsteps by taking aim at age-related macular degeneration with aptamers licensed from Archemix (which we wrote about here).

Investors in the round included SV Life Sciences, HBM BioVentures and Novo A/S. (See update below.)

Pevion Biotech gets $29M for vaccines — Pevion Biotech, a Bern, Switzerland-based vaccine developer, raised $29 million (CHF35 million) in a first funding round. Investors included BZ Bank Aktiengesellschaft, BB Biotech Ventures II, CC Private Equity Partners and Bachem Holding. The company is conducting clinical trials of vaccines against malaria, breast cancer and hepatitis C.

Hair-transplant automator Restoration Robotics raises $25M — Restoration Robotics, a Mountain View, Calif., developer of robotic surgery systems for hair transplants, raised $25 million in a second round of funding, PE Hub reports. The company’s Web site is a stub and the linked article doesn’t contain much information, but an April VentureWire store republished at Alta Partners’ site gets to the root of the matter:

Sutter Hill Ventures and Alloy Ventures, for example, have invested in the first and second rounds raised in 2005 and 2006, respectively, by Restoration Robotics Inc., which is testing a robotic device that performs hair transplants. Transplant-surgery outcomes vary according to the surgeon’s skill. Restoration’s robot — which is surgeon-controlled — produces uniform results in half the time, says CEO Jim McCollum. Investors hope this pushes hair transplants into the mainstream. Today, “people think of late-night commercials when they think of hair restoration,” says Sutter Hill Managing Director Jeffrey W. Bird.

Investors in the round include InterWest Partners, Alloy Ventures and Sutter Hill Ventures.

Glide Pharma raises $4.6M for needle-free drugs — U.K. specialty pharma Glide Pharma raised $4.6 million (£2.3 million). Investors included Oxford Technology 4 VCT and Oxford Capital Partners. The company is developing drugs that can be delivered via its own needle-free injection system. We’ve written about other startups pursuing similar technology, including StrataGent Life Sciences and Macroflux.

Reliant Pharma refiles for a $400M IPO — Reliant Pharmaceuticals, a Liberty Corner, N.J., specialty pharma that withdrew a planned $300 million IPO in 2005, is going to try again, only with more at stake. The company filed to raise as much as $400 million in an offering, despite the fact that it is on track to lose more than $100 million this year, which would be the third time in four years it has done so.

In the first six months of this year, Reliant reported a net loss to common shareholders of $56.4 million on revenue of $230 million. That net loss would have been only $21.8 million but for preferred-share dividends of $34.6 million in the half. Reliant sells a variety of unrelated second-hand drugs for cardiovascular problems.

Interestingly enough, Reliant made its last charge at the public markets with the famed Ernest Mario at the helm. Mario jumped from Reliant just last week, and is now CEO of the little-known Capnia (see our coverage here).

Nanosphere aims for outsized $100M IPO — Nanosphere, a Northbrook, Ill., developer of nucleic-acid and protein detection and diagnostic systems, filed to raise as much as $100 million in an IPO. As of March 31, the company had an accumulated deficit of $112.6 million. Earlier this year, it submitted its Verigene molecular-diagnostic system to the FDA for approval; Nanosphere intends to market the device to hospital laboratories that currently aren’t equipped to perform such tests in-house.

SurModics snaps up diagnostic-supply company BioFX for up to $22.7M — SurModics, an Eden Prairie, Minn., developer of drug formulations and other biological supplies, agreed to acquire BioFX Laboratories of Owings Mills, Md., for $11.3 million in cash and milestone payments worth up to $11.4 million. The release is here. The acquisition is the second for SurModics this month; it bought out Brookwood Laboraties on Aug. 2 (our coverage is here).

UPDATE (2:37pm PT): Added items on Glide Pharma, Reliant Pharmaceuticals, Nanosphere, and SurModics/BioFX Laboratories.

UPDATE REDUX: Over at Pharma’s Cutting Edge, Fred Cohen notes what I didn’t have time to, which is that Ophthotech essentially amounts to a do-over for the architects of Eyetech’s failure. Check it out.

(UPDATED at 12:30pm PT — see below.)

Featured companies: Capnia, AutekBio, Novacta Biosystems, XLHealth, Leprechaun, Agility Healthcare Solutions, AM Pharma, Milestone Pharmaceuticals, ChanTest

Capnia names former Alza head as CEO – The tiny Palo Alto, Calif., biotech Capnia hired Ernest Mario, a storied figure in the pharma/biotech world, as its CEO. Mario was most recently chairman — and previously CEO — of Reliant Pharmaceuticals, but he’s best known for running drug giant Glaxo (now GlaxoSmithKline) and, immediately thereafter, helming Alza for eight years until Johnson & Johnson acquired it for $10.5 billion in 2001.

Ever since his Alza experience, however, Mario has kind of been hopskotching his way across the industry. He headed Apothogen for four months until it was acquired by IntraBiotics (now Ardea Biosciences), then ran the combined company for a year before skipping to Reliant. Needless to say, the Alza lightning hasn’t yet struck twice.

Capnia’s interesting strategy is to develop drugs that can be delivered as a gas, presumably to be breathed in through the lungs. The company’s lead product, Capella, aims to treat migraines and nasal inflammation such as hay fever, and is currently in mid-stage testing.

Here’s the take on Capella from VentureWire (subscription required):

Capnia uses a gas dispenser to administer carbon dioxide into the nose. The company contends that this may be a safe and effective way to quickly relieve pain caused by migraine attacks and stuffy nose caused by allergies to pollen or environmental things like dust mites or pets. The company has conducted multiple Phase II studies in migraines and rhinitis and is planning additional Phase II trials, said Graham Crooke, managing partner of Asset Management Co.

Biologics manufacturer AutekBio raises $1.1M — AutekBio, a Silicon Valley-Chinese hybrid with its headquarters in Santa Clara, Calif., and operations in Beijing, raised $1.1 million in a first funding round, VentureWire reports. Acorn Campus Ventures and Desert Spring Life Sciences Capital led the round.

The company is a biological contract manufacturer that cultures genetically engineered cell lines for biotech and pharmaceutical concerns. AutekBio plans to raise a larger $10 million round in early 2008, according to VentureWire.

Novacta Bio raises $827K for new antibiotics — U.K.-based Novacta Biosystems, an antibiotic developer in Welwyn Garden City, England, raised $827,000 (€600,000). Investors in the round included Esperante, Westgate Hall, GEIF Ventures and Oxford Technology 4 VCT. Novacta is developing drugs to treat hospital-acquired infections, which are often resistant to standard antibiotics. Its lead candidate, for C. difficile infections, hasn’t yet been tested in humans.

Healthcare specialist XLHealth raises $290M, acquires Leprechaun — XLHealth, a private-equity backed healthcare-services company in Baltimore, raised $290 million in debt and equity and used part of the proceeds to acquire Leprechaun, a provider of healthcare-technology services based in Fort Worth, Texas. Funding was provided by MatlinPatterson Global Advisors, a private-equity firm. XLHealth says it is focused on improving the care of chronically ill seniors.

RFID patient-tracker Agility Healthcare raises $2M in debt — Agility Healthcare Solutions, a Richmond, Va., developer of patient-tracking systems utilizing RFID chips, closed a $2 million “credit facility” that supplements an earlier $6.25 million first funding round it raised in February. Square 1 Bank provided the loan.

Dutch biotech AM Pharma raises $3.4 million against infection and inflammation — AM Pharma, a biotech based in Bunnik, the Netherlands, raised $3.4 million (€2 million) in bridge financing. The company’s two main investors, Forbion Capital Partners and Inventages Venture Capital, provided the funding. AM Pharma is primed to begin raising a third round of funds; its lead drug candidates are respectively in mid- and early-stage human tests against kidney failure, ulcerative colitis and hospital-acquired infections.

Milestone Pharmaceuticals raises $2.6M against inflammation and heart disease — Montreal’s Milestone Pharmaceuticals, a biotech developing drugs against inflammation and heart disease, raised $2.6 million (C$2.75 million) toward its first funding round, VentureWire reports. Investors included MSBI Capital, Fonds Bio-Innovation and an undisclosed individual investor.

Cleveland’s ChanTest draws funds from Ampersand — ChanTest, a Cleveland, Ohio, developer of cell-based tests for drug safety, raised an undisclosed amount of funding from private-equity firm Ampersand Ventures. The company said the funding would support “strategic investments.”

From the company’s press release:

ChanTest’s primary focus is on a family of proteins known as ion channels. There are 400 genes encoding ion channels in the human genome, and countless more can be assembled from this gene collection. These ion channels may either represent targets for new drug development, or unintended targets that can result in unwanted side effects from new drugs. ChanTest pioneered the development of functional, cell-based ion channel testing as a means to predict cardiac side effects produced by non-cardiac drugs. Such testing is now a standard component of regulatory submissions prior to approval of drugs in humans.

UPDATE (11:05am PT): Added items on Novacta, XLHealth/Leprechaun and Agility Healthcare.

UPDATE, TAKE TWO (12:30pm PT): Added items on AM Pharma, Milestone Pharmaceuticals and ChanTest.