VentureBeat

Featured companies: BioVex, FullTurn Media, Humanetics, N Spine, Novitas Capital, Reliant Technologies, Symbios, Vaxart, Virtual Radiologic, Winston Laboratories, Zosano Pharma

EXPANDING ITEMS: Stay tuned.

Vaxart receives $3.3M for oral vaccines — San Francisco’s Vaxart, a biotech developing novel adenovirus-based vaccines, raised $2.7 million in a first funding round. Vaxart also received a $600,000 small-business innovation grant from the NIH to assist in developing the company’s vaccine platform.

Vaxart’s vaccine technology involves a non-replicating adenovirus engineered to produce a particular bacterial or viral protein, or antigen, which stimulates an immune response. The vaccine, which consists of the adenovirus and an “adjuvant” designed to enhance the immune response, is packaged in a capsule that can be taken by mouth.

Vaccines that depend on viral “vectors” like adenovirus are promising because they can produce immunity without the need to rely on attenuated or killed disease virus. When injected, however, such vaccines frequently stimulate an immune reaction to the adenovirus itself, which can negate the effect of the vaccine or subsequent booster shots. Vaxart believes that oral delivery can sidestep that problem.

The company’s early candidates include vaccines against avian flu, seasonal flu, and biowarfare agents. Investors in the round included Quantum Technology Partners, Life Science Angels, Bay Partners and Sand Hill Angels.

Reliant Tech postpones IPO — Reliant Technologies, the Mountain View, Calif., maker of laser skin treatments, postponed its IPO indefinitely, PE Hub reports. The medical-device maker had previously filed to raise up to $86.5 million in an offer of 5.4 million shares.

Reliant Tech’s postponement comes just a day after EnteroMedics, a maker of obesity-control devices, almost halved its IPO pricing. Until recently, device makers had lived a charmed life where IPOs were concerned, but it’s beginning to look as though market turmoil may be taking its toll on this sector as well. Our previous coverage of the company is here and here.

On the other hand, at least IPO investors won’t get the company confused with Reliant Pharmaceuticals anymore.

N Spine acquired by Synthes for $30M — N Spine, a San Diego maker of spinal devices, was acquired by Switzerland’s Synthes for $30 million. The release is here. N Spine shareholders also stand to receive an additional $45 million in milestone payments if development of the company’s products proceeds as planned. Our previous coverage of N Spine’s fundraising is here.

Zosano Pharma raises $45M for needle-free drugs — Fremont, Calif.-based Zosano Pharma, a specialty pharma working on needle-free drug delivery, raised $45 million in the second half of its initial venture funding. The company said it has now raised a total of $90 million. Our previous coverage of the company, which used to be called Macroflux, is here (last item).

Investors included New Enterprise Associates, Nomura Phase4 Ventures, HBM BioVentures and ProQuest Investments. Zosano’s lead candidate is a patch for delivering the drug PTH through the skin to treat osteoporosis.

OTHER HEADLINES OF NOTE:

• Virtual Radiologic prices IPO mid-range, raises up to $78M (IPO Home)
• Cancer-drug maker BioVex closes $35M round (release)
• Humanetics gets $3.8M grant for radiation countermeasures (release)
• Symbios raises almost $2M for pain-drug delivery (VentureWire, sub req’d)
• FullTurn Media launches medical-education videos, seeks $5M (VW)
• PA Early Stage Partners changes name to Novitas Capital (release)
• Specialty pharma Winston Pharma goes public via reverse merger (release)

Featured companies: AstraZeneca, Atlantis Components, Cara Therapeutics, CardioMems, Corium International, New Ortho Polymers, Osprey Pharmaceuticals, Othera Pharmaceuticals, StrataGent Life Sciences

Corium acquires Stratagent, raises $25.1M for “transdermal” drugs — Corium International, a Menlo Park, Calif., biotech focused on drugs that can be delivered through the skin, said it will acquire StrataGent Life Sciences of San Jose, Calif., for an undisclosed sum. At the same time, Corium raised $25.1 million in a third funding round, and said it has commitments for another $15.2 million within the next 24 months.

StrataGent, whose origins lie in work performed at Stanford, has focused on “needle-free” drug delivery using a microjet system in a microprocessor-controlled device resembling an electronic patch. (See our previous coverage here.) The company raised a $16 million round in May, although the company never received more than $6.7 million of that. Corium has a much broader focus that incorporates a variety of technologies for delivering drugs via the skin or mucosal surfaces such as the nasal passages or mouth.

Although ostensibly a straightforward merger, StrataGent CEO Robert Thomas will run the merged company, while Ron Eastman of Essex Woodlands Health Ventures — a previous StrataGent investor — will assume the job of chairman. StrataGent will relocate to Corium’s Menlo Park address. Investors in the latest round include Essex, Quantum Technology Partners, Aphelion Capital and an unnamed “strategic investor.”

CardioMems raises $23.3M for implantable heart sensors — Atlanta’s CardioMems, a medical-device company at work on a new generation of implantable heart sensors, raised $23.3 million in a still-open fifth funding round, VentureWire reports (subscription required). Investors in the round included “most” of the participants in the company’s previous round, a group that includes Arcapita Ventures, Easton Capital Partners, Boston Millennia Partners, Foundation Medical Partners, Medtronic Inc. and Johnson & Johnson Development Corp.

CardioMems is still looking for new investors. Its first product is a wireless sensor that can measure the pressure inside an aneurysm — a weakened section of an arterial wall that’s susceptible to rupture — during surgery intended to repair it.

Othera Pharma arranges $7M debt facility for an eye treatment — Exton, Pa.-based Othera Pharmaceuticals, a specialty pharmaceutical company at work on a new treatments for glaucoma and macular degeneration, arranged a $7 million debt facility with Oxford Financial, a subsidiary of Japan’s Sumitomo. The funding will help Othera advance its lead drug candidate in exsting mid-stage clinical trials.

Cara Thera receives $4M, moves to Connecticut from New York — Cara Therapeutics, a biotech formerly based in Tarrytown, N.Y., has received $4 million in facilities funding from Connecticut Innovations to help fund its move to Shelton, Conn. Cara, which is developing new pain and inflammation treatments, plans to use the money to build laboratory space in its new headquarters.

Connecticut Innovations is a quasi-public economic development agency. In a separate investment, the agency provided $250,000 in seed funding to New Ortho Polymers, a maker of orthodontic appliances.

EffRx raises convertible debt for osteoporosis — EffRx, a Tequesta, Fla., company that repackages old drugs in new formulations, raised an undisclosed some from a convertible debt offering, VentureWire reports. The funding will allow the company to push an “effervescent” version — think of Alka-Seltzer — of the osteoporosis drug Fosamax to the market. The investors weren’t disclosed.

Osprey Pharmaceuticals names new CEO — Osprey Pharmaceuticals, a Montreal biotech that’s consolidating its headquarters operations in San Francisco, named Jack Anthony as CEO. Anthony, currently an Osprey vice president, will remain in San Francisco. Osprey is developing new drugs for kidney disease.

AstraZeneca unit buys dental-implant maker for $71M — AstraZeneca’s medical-technology subsidiary, Astra Tech, agreed to acquire Cambridge, Mass.-based Atlantis Components for $71 million. Atlantis makes customized “abutments,” which are tiny components designed to stabilize dental implants. The company had previously raised about $26.3 million in four funding rounds, VentureWire reports.

StrataGent Life Sciences, a San Jose developer of needle-free “microjet” injection systems, said it closed a $16 million second round of financing. The company has so far received $6.65 million of that round; the remainder should become available next year if and when StrataGent meets certain milestones.

The round was led by Essex Woodlands Health Ventures. Other investors include Quantum Technology Partners and Aphelion Capital.

StrataGent’s own description of what it’s up to in its funding release is somewhat cryptic. It touts the company’s microjet injection system, which sounds like something out of Star Trek, but figuring out exactly what it is takes some surfing around. According to this UC Santa Barbara press release, this PRish Web page from Stanford’s technology-licensing office, and this funding application posted at NIST’s Advanced Technology Program, the StrataGent technology looks to be a microprocessor-controlled “patch” device that can deliver a large-molecule protein drug directly to the bloodstream. (Protein drugs have to be injected, since the digestive system would break them down too quickly if they’re delivered as pills.)

From the Stanford page:

Based on pulsed liquid microjet technology invented at Stanford, the device creates small, high-speed jets of liquid that penetrate the outer layer of the skin and precisely deposit drugs into the epidermis (the top layer of skin), enabling rapid absorption by the body, while avoiding the pain receptors that lie below in the dermis. This means that the device delivers drugs as effectively as an injection, but without needles.

It sounds pretty cool, although it’s worth remembering that people have been trying, and failing, to do something like this for some time. I’m particularly curious what wearing one of these patches does to your skin over time; StrataGent apparently believes it’s overcome the problem of pain and bruising caused by repeated microjet injections, but it will probably take clinical trials to know if that’s true.

StrataGent’s release also quotes Ron Eastman of Essex boasting about the company’s “pipeline of commercially attractive molecules,” so the company is also apparently reformulating various protein drugs for use with their microjet system. According to the Stanford page, StrataGent is partnered with an unidentified Japanese pharmaceutical company. As for which drugs they’re working with and where they stand in the process — well, the release is silent. Neither is StrataGent’s Web site much help — it’s “under construction.” (Hat tip: VentureWire.)