VentureBeat

Featured companies: Biospace Med, Carbylan BioSurgery, GVK BioSciences, IntraSafe Medical, InViragen, Medingo, ParadigmHealth, Precimed, SV Life Sciences

UPDATED: Expanded items on Carbylan, Medingo, and GVK Biosciences.

Carbylan raises $20M for arthritis, sinusitis drug implants — Palo Alto, Calif.-based Carbylan BioSurgery, a medical-device maker focused on polymer-based drug-delivery technologies, raised $20 million in a second funding round. Investors included Vivo Ventures, Alta Partners and InterWest Partners.

Carbylan is developing a biomaterial-based drug-delivery system in which drug-impregnated polymers of hyaluronic acid are injected into the body in liquid form. Those polymers bind to one another and to the body’s tissues, allowing controlled release of the drug in a particular location. The company’s first drug candidates are aimed at treating sinusitis and osteoarthritis.

Israel’s Medingo gets $27M to develop insulin patch — Medingo, a Tel Aviv, Israel, medical-device maker, raised $27 million. The company’s group parent, Elron Electronic Industries, invested between $13 million and $22 million in the round, including $4 million in convertible loans.

Radius Ventures invested $5 million in the round. Medingo is developing an insulin-delivery patch — although given that it’s remote controlled and holds a reservoir of insulin, it’s probably more like a computerized disk that regulates insulin flow. Medingo says it can be worn anywhere during almost any activity, including showers, swimming, and the other five of the “seven S’s” the company touts on its Web site. (We’re a family Web site, but yes, that particular “S” is there.)

Medingo says it expects to receive FDA approval next year. Not bad for a company founded just two years ago. Medingo’s timetable sounds a bit on the optimistic side to me, but maybe they’re really on the ball with this new-style insulin pump.

Indian contract researcher GVK Biosciences raises $27M from Sequoia Capital — GVK Biosciences, an Indian contract research organization, raised 1 billion rupees ($27 million) from Sequoia Capital. The company runs clinical trials and performs other biomedical services for pharmaceutical clients.

OTHER HEADLINES OF NOTE:

• Inverness acquires care and disease manager ParadigmHealth for $230M (release)
• Biospace Med raises €12M for orthopedic imaging (release)
• IV-system maker IntraSafe raises $2M (VentureWire, sub req’d)
• SV Life Sciences adds Robert Palmisano as venture partner (release)
• InViragen receives funding for dengue vaccine (release)
• Greatbatch acquires orthopedic-instrumentation supplier Precimed (release)

Featured companies: Advanced Bio-Surfaces, Ambit Biosciences, EnteroMedics, Molecular Vision, Skyline Ventures

UPDATED: Expanded items on Skyline Ventures, Ambit, and Molecular Vision, and moved EnteroMedics to a new item here.

Skyline Ventures raises $350M life-sciences fund — Skyline Ventures, a Palo Alto, Calif., VC firm, closed a $350 million fund for healthcare and life-sciences investments. The fund is Skyline’s fifth.

Skyline is unquestionably coming off a hot streak. As it notes in its release, three of its portfolio companies were acquired this year — Avidia, by Amgen; NimbleGen, by Roche; and NovaCardia, by Merck (the links point to our coverage). Four of its portfolio companies — Hansen Medical, Sirtris Pharmaceuticals, Map Pharmaceuticals and Targanta Pharmaceuticals — went public, of which two were big hits: Hansen is up 142 percent and Sirtris 70 percent. (Map is up 13 percent and Targanta is still down 7.5 percent.)

Skyline said it will continue to invest in a mix of early, mid- and later stage companies. The firm is targeting about 15 investments of about $15 million to $35 million per startup.

Cancer-drug maker Ambit Biosciences draws $49M — San Diego’s Ambit Biosciences, a biotech focused on new cancer drugs, raised $49.3 million in a fourth funding round. The company’s drugs block a class of signaling proteins called kinases, a technique that has yielded at least one major cancer drug — Gleevec, used to treat a form of leukemia.

Ambit’s leading drug candidate, a drug for a different form of leukemia, just got off the ground in April, so it will still be some time before anyone knows if its “discovery engine” for kinase inhibitors is yielding good drugs. That hasn’t deterred a number of biotech/pharma VC arms from investing in the latest round, including MedImmune Ventures, Roche Venture Fund and NovaQuest (an arm of Quintiles). Other investors include Apposite Capital, OrbiMed Advisors, Radius Ventures, Horizon Technology Finance, Perseus-Soros Biopharmaceutical Fund, Forward Ventures, Avalon Ventures, GIMV, Jov-CMDF, and Genechem.

EnteroMedics, obesity-device maker, almost halves IPO price target — This item has been expanded and moved here.

U.K.’s Molecular Vision acquired by Acrongenomics — Molecular Vision, a London developer of credit-card sized diagnostic devices, was acquired by Acrongenomics of Geneva for an undisclosed sum. Acrongenomics appears to be a grab-bag company that acquires promising life-science technologies and then brings them to market. The release is here.

Acrongenomics previously held a joint development agreement with Molecular Vision. Our previous coverage of Molecular Vision is here.

OTHER HEADLINES OF NOTE:

• Advanced Bio-Surfaces names David Lorenzi as new CEO (release)
• Novis Pharmaceuticals appoints Thomas E. Burke III as CEO (release)

U-Systems, a San Jose, Calif., maker of ultrasound systems for breast imaging, raised $16.5 million in a fifth round of funding. The company, founded in 1997, markets its systems for the early detection of breast cancer, particularly in women with dense breast tissue.

Although based in Silicon Valley, the company has strong ties to Taiwan. Siemens Venture Capital led the round, joined by Sycamore Ventures, MDS Capital, Radius Ventures, Kinetic Capital, United Investments of Taiwan, President International Development of Taiwan, iD Innovation (founded by Acer chairman Stan Shih), China Investment & Development of Taiwan, and TSC Bioventures of — you guessed it — Taiwan.

Athersys, a Cleveland, Ohio biotech, went public via reverse merger and raised $65 million in a private placement. The company’s release is here.

Founded in 1995, Athersys is active in a bewildering number of areas. Its lead product candidate is an appetite-suppressing drug that acts on a serotonin receptor in the brain called 5HT2c, and in general the company describes itself as focused on metabolic and neurological conditions. But it is also at work on an adult-derived stem-cell treatment for heart disease, stroke and bone-marrow transplant patients. None of these products, however, appear to be in human trials yet, which is sort of intriguing given how long the company has been around.

It turns out that Athersys is also a biotech chameleon. In 2000, it filed to raise $115 million in an IPO. According to its S-1 registration statement, the company was then a “functional genomics” company, which essentially means it surveyed large numbers of genes in an attempt to determine their function. Although popular during the genomics bubble of 1999-2000, this sort of business tended not to pan out for many companies. Athersys withdrew its proposed IPO six months after it was filed.

The Athersys funding was led by Radius Ventures, joined by OrbiMed Advisors, RA Capital Management, Accipiter Capital Management, Hambrecht & Quist Capital Management, MPM BioEquities, and Pappas Ventures.

Indianapolis-based BioStorage Technologies, a provider of biological-material storage services, raised $8.3 million in a first round of funding. The company’s statement is here (PDF).

BioStorage claims to be a “worldwide leader” in the outsourced storage and management of all manner of biological materials, ranging from tissue, bone and blood samples to forensics material to manufactured biological products. It initially raised $5 million (PDF) in its first round last August, then added a second tranche in late 2006. The round was led by Radius Ventures, joined by Spring Mills Venture Partners, Village Ventures, and Twilight Venture Partners.