VentureBeat

TODAY’S HEADLINES:

• Trius Therapeutics raises $30M for new antibiotics (release)
• Genomas gets $1.2M grant for genomic side-effect tests (release)
• Provasculon receives $500K, enters Biogen Idec incubator (VentureWire)
• Animal diagnostics firm Quadraspec aims for $5M round (VentureWire)
• MPM Capital names two executive partners (release)
  

Trius Therapeutics raises $30M for new antibiotics – Trius Therapeutics, a San Diego startup developing new treatments for antibiotic-resistant infections, raised $30 million in a second funding round. Investors included Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers, FinTech Global Capital, Sofinnova Ventures, Versant Ventures, Interwest Partners and Prism VentureWorks.

Trius said the funding will allow it to push its new treatment, an oxazolidinone antibiotic it calls TR-701, into late-stage human tests. The drug, which is intended for drug-resistant staphylococcus and similar infections, is currently in early-stage, phase I trials. Unlike many other new antibiotics, which must usually be taken intravenously, the Trius drug can be taken as a pill.

Genomas gets $1.2M grant for genomic side-effect tests – Genomas, a Hartford, Conn., personalized-medicine startup, received a $1.2 million small business-innovation grant from the NIH. The grant will fund genetic work aimed at identifying people who are most likely to suffer painful side effects from cholesterol-lowering statin drugs.

Statins — particularly Pfizer’s Lipitor, the best-selling drug on the market today — have built up a formidable reputation based on studies that showed they could prevent fatal heart attacks. More recently, however, critics of the drugs have pointed out that stopping one heart attack requires close to 100 people to take the drugs regularly, putting new attention on statin side effects, which can range from painful muscle aches and weakness to memory loss. The Genomas test is intended to reveal whether an individual patient is likely to experience those nerve and muscle effects, known technically as statin-induced neuromyopathy.

Here’s the latest action:
1)Google’s hires astronaut, funds algae-in-space research
2) Google slowly but surely moves apps to work offline
3) AdaptiveBlue makes its “Smart Links” smarter
4) YieldBuild wants to improve the placement and color of text ads
5) Technology to let machines drive cars is six to eight years away
6) Network Physics dies, sells assets to Opnet Technologies
7) Facebook sued for messaging
8) Visto declares it wants to go public for fourth year in a row
9) NBC Universal has pulled it channel from YouTube, with Hulu on way

Google’s hires astronaut, funds more space research – Google has really pulled out the stops on its space exploration ventures. It has committed almost $3 million a year to support 15 researchers at NASA/Ames, including Jonathan Trent, who is trying to figure out how to capture methane emitted by algae in the South Bay and turn it into a sustainable energy source. The thinking is the algae can be used to sustain human habitats on the moon or Mars, and be clean too, according to the Mercury News, which carries the latest details. Google digitizing NASA’s historic documents and images, and working with the space agency to add a “disaster response” layer to Google Earth that would quickly incorporate fresh satellite images of an area after a disaster, such as an earthquake. Google has even hired astronaut Ed Lu (image left), a veteran of three NASA space missions to manage Google’s space competition. (Image courtesy of Patrick Tehlan)

Google slowly but surely moves apps to work offline — It is using Google Gears to make Google’s blog software, Blogger, work offline. There’s a YouTube demo of it here. Google Reader is already offline, and Gmail and Docs should come soon. (Sidenote: VentureBeat’s writers have been using Google Docs to edit stories, and we’ve been having serious problems with Google Docs lately. It’s not showing edits as they’re updated, leaving one writer with one version and another writer with another — leaving our editing process in tatters on more than one occasion. Hope they get the online basics fixed first, before the carried away with the off-line version)

AdaptiveBlue makes its “Smart Links” smarter — Bloggers can now add a line of code to their site, and AdaptiveBlue’s technology will automatically take links to supported sites (Amazon, IMBD, Last.fm, Yahoo! Finance and more) and make them dynamic. Clicking on a Smart Link to the book, Love in the Time of Cholera, for example, will bring up a window with a short summary of the book, links to stores, reviews, and the Wikipedia entry on the author. A Smart Link to a stock offers a summary of its performance, links to Google Finance, CNN Money and SEC filings. You previously had to create Smart Links manually, and this new feature reduces that significant barrier to adoption.

YieldBuild wants to improve the placement and color of text ads — The company’s technology automatically tweaks the format of text ads based on their performance. It is similar to the Rubicon Project, which automatically places ads from the ad networks that deliver the most revenue. However, the Rubicon Project works with both display and text ads and its network-matching is a more robust technology. It’s not hard to imagine Rubicon replicating YieldBuild’s functions but it is hard to imagine it going the other way around.

Technology to let machines drive cars is six to eight years away — That’s the prediction of Sebastian Thrun, a Stanford computer professor, who leads the Stanford Racing Team in this year’s DARPA Urban Challenge, and knows as much as anyone about how well machines can drive cars. He talks about technology that will keep the “car much better in the lane, can brake much, much earlier in a much more regulated way. That would conceivably allow us to increase the packaging density of cars by a factor of two or three. Say it’s two, so at 16 percent occupied, just cut the space between cars in half, all of a sudden you’ve doubled the capacity of the U.S. highway system. That’ll sustain us for another 30 years with the current traffic loads given that the population is increasing and using more highway space.”

Network Physics dies, sells assets to Opnet Technologies – The publicly traded Opnet has paid $10 million in cash to buy the assets of the Mountain View, Calif. Network Physics, which was backed with more than $51 million in eight years from VantagePoint Venture Partners, Sofinnova Ventures, SunAmerica Ventures, Lucent Venture Partners, Intel Capital, Trinity Ventures and Palomar Ventures. Network Physics sells an application performance management appliance.

Facebook sued for messaging — Facebook is being sued by an Indiana woman who alleges Facebook profited from its members sending thousands of unauthorized text messages to her mobile phone and other phones of others that previously belonged to other people. The messages allegedly included explicit language and unsettling remarks, and resulted in charges of 10 cents per message on her phone bill.

Wireless-email company Visto declares it wants to go public for fourth year in a row– This is quite remarkable. Why did it take this publication take so long to call it out?

Catalyst Mobile, a startup that delivers mobile music and entertainment for large partners like China Mobile, has raised $10 million in funding.

The Emeryville, Calif., company provides a panoply of mobile services, essentially trying to do everything mobile for big companies: Foremost, it offers music download technology, with digital rights management. It offers this directly, but also offers the download technology to companies like Warner Music Japan’s Rhino mobile (see screenshot).

But it also offers playlist recommendations, search and advertising. It supports applications in Flash (some of the company’s founders came from Macromedia) as well as SMS, MMS and Java.

The company has already secured a solid foothold in both Japan and China, having landed numerous partnerships with major handset manufacturers, mobile carriers and content providers in both countries.

Japan is one of the world’s most technologically advanced mobile markets, while China is the world’s largest, with more than half a billion mobile subscribers. Among Catalyst’s other plans, the company tells, is providing mobile services for the Beijing Olympics.Such local partnerships are key to gaining traction in these countries. Google, Yahoo and Microsoft, among other companies, are pursuing the same strategy.

Catalyst will use the funding to expand into other parts of Asia and Europe where mobile carriers give independent companies wide-ranging access to their networks.

Sofinnova Ventures and DCM participated in the round.

(Screenshot via 3G.)

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 a licensing agreement with Medicis Pharmaceutical’s Ucyclyd subsidiary, build out its management team and advance its clinical trials. The company’s two leading candidates address a genetic disease called urea cycle disorder, in which toxic ammonia builds up in the blood stream, and hepatic encephalopathy, a neurological complication of cirrhosis.

Atritech raises $22M for clot-prevention device — Plymouth, Minn.-based Atritech, a developer of a device designed to prevent dangerous blood clots, raised $22 million in a fourth funding round. Investors included SightLine Healthcare Vintage Fund, Prism Venture Partners and other existing investors.

Atritech’s device, which it calls the Watchman system, is essentially a tiny mesh basket designed to be implanted in the opening to the heart’s left atrial appendage, a small pouch on the top of the heart. That pouch is often the source of blood clots in patients with atrial fibrillation, a condition in which the heart’s upper chambers beat too fast. Ideally, the implanted basket will catch clots that threaten to escape into the bloodstream, where they could cause a stroke.

The funding will allow Atritech to finish enrolling patients in a late-stage trial of the Watchman device, which is being tested against a blood thinner typically given to prevent clots from forming.

UltraShape gets $15.1M for “body contouring” — UltraShape, an Israeli developer of ultrasound systems designed to break down fat cells for cosmetic purposes, raised $15.1 million in a fifth funding round. Investors included Meritech Capital Partners, Israel Seed Partners and Polaris Venture Partners. The company’s non-invasive device isn’t approved for use in the U.S.

Trophos raises $11.6M for neurological drugs — Trophos, a Marseille, France, biotech focused on developing new drugs for neurological conditions, raised $11.6 million (€8.5 million) in a third round of funding. Investors included OTC Asset Management, CM-CIC Capital Privé, Society General Asset Management (SGAM), Viveris Management, Turenne Capital Partners, Blue Medical and the Association Française contre les Myopathies.

Trophos develops drugs that it believes will promote the survival of neurons threatened by degenerative neurological diseases such as Huntingdon’s disease. Its leading candidates target neuropathic pain and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, better known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

SafeStitch goes public in reverse merger, raises $4M in debt — SafeStitch, a Miami medical-device maker without a Web site, went public in a reverse merger with the defunct firm Cellular Technical Services. The company will list its shares on the American Stock Exchange. As part of the deal, SafeStitch raised a $4 million line of credit from the Frost Group, a private-equity firm, and also takes control of $3 million in cash held by CTS. The company makes devices for minimally invasive gastrointestinal surgery.

NationsHealth acquires Diabetes Care & Education for $3M — NationsHealth, a Sunrise, Fla., provider of medical products and insurance-related services, acquired Diabetes Care & Education, a provider of insulin pumps and related supplies for diabetics. NationsHealth will pay $3 million, $2.5 million in cash and $500,000 in unregistered common stock.

Obesity-device maker ReShape Medical pulls in $3M — ReShape Medical, a Lake Forest, Calif., developer of minimally invasive medical devices to treat obesity, raised $3 million in a follow-on to its first funding round, PE Hub reported, citing a regulatory filing. Investors included New Leaf Venture Partners and SV Life Sciences. The company was previously known as Abdominis, and has now raised a total of $8 million.

Avalon Ventures raises $84 million in eighth fund — Avalon Ventures, a La Jolla, Calif., venture-capital firm specializing in life-science and wireless-technology companies, raised $84 million in an eighth fund, VentureWire reports (subscription required), citing a regulatory filing. Avalon previously raised $75 million for its seventh fund, which closed in 2005.

LifeBond gets $1.5M for new surgical bandages — LifeBond, a Jerusalem-based device company, raised $1.5 million. Investors included GlenRock Israel and the Zitelman Group.

LifeBond is developing a bandage that exudes a sticky gel when it comes into contact with blood, presumably creating a barrier that minimizes blood loss.

Ensemble Discovery , a Cambridge, Mass., biotech, named former Pfizer vice president Michael Taylor as its CEO. Ensemble is developing new drugs and tests based on large, repetitive molecules called macrocycles.

Ensemble raised $17 million in a first funding round in 2004, and in February VentureWire reported that the company was closing a second round in the “tens of millions.”

Featured companies: Bravo Health, InfraReDx, MedAssets, Prestwick Pharmaceuticals

Prestwick Pharma raises $20M for neuro drugs — Specialty pharma Prestwick Pharmaceuticals, a Washington, D.C., firm that acquires cast-off drug candidates to treat neurological conditions, raised $20 million from existing investors, VentureWire reports (subscription required). Among those participating in the funding were Atlas Venture, Sofinnova Ventures, Vivo Ventures, Scale Venture Partners, Warburg Pincus and Pequot Ventures.

Prestwick said it raised the funds to acquire additional drug candidates. The company filed to go public in 2005, but pulled its filing in December of that year.

InfraReDx aims for $40M to detect artery plaque — Burlington, Mass.-based InfraReDx aims to raise $40 million in a “mezzanine” financing to launch its artery-plaque diagnostic system, VentureWire reports. The company is talking to existing and potential new investors, including VC firms and hedge funds.

InfraReDx is developing a near-infrared spectroscopy system for the detection of arterial plaque, which can rupture and create blood clots that could lead to a heart attack. The company expects to complete a clinical trial in October that could lead to approval of the device.

Bravo Health raises undisclosed sum for acquisition — Bravo Health, a venture-backed provider in the Medicare prescription-drug coverage plan formerly known as Elder Health, raised an undisclosed sum in an eighth funding round, VentureWire reports. The funding covers the company’s recent acquisition of a Philadelphia Medicare provider called Senior Health.

Investors included all backers from the company’s previous funding round, a group that includes New Enterprise Associates, Frazier Healthcare Ventures, CCP Equity Partners, Salix Ventures, Alpha Partners, Coleman Swenson Hoffman Booth, Franklin Venture Capital, Frontenac Co., GE Capital, Norwest Venture Partners, Riggs Capital Partners, Sprout Group, Wasatch Venture Fund and Woodbrook.

MedAssets, healthcare IT provider, aims for $230M IPO — MedAssets, an Alpharetta, Ga., provider of healthcare IT and consulting services, filed to raise up to $230 million in an initial offering. The company aims to help community hospitals increase “revenue capture” and “cash collections” and to manage “non-labor expense categories.”

Oddly, MedAsset doesn’t appear to have yet maximized its own revenue capture, as it posted a net loss of $23.8 million last year on revenues of $177.9 million.

KaloBios, a Palo Alto, Calif., biotech antibody-therapeutic company, raised $20 million in a third funding round. The company is developing new drugs based on monoclonal antibodies, which target specific cells or proteins in the body. Its lead candidate, an antibody against granulocyte macrophage colony-stimulating factor, or GM-CSF — a protein that helps regulate the white-blood-cell immune response — is intended to treat a variety of immune-related diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and asthma.

Lehman Brothers led the round, joined by MPM Capital, Sofinnova Ventures, Alloy Ventures, 5AM Ventures, Singapore Bioinnovations, and Lotus BioScience Ventures. The funding will allow KaloBios to support clinical testing of two antibodies and to move a third into human tests.