VentureBeat

Featured companies: Asteres, HemaQuest Pharmaceuticals, Nanosphere, Novalar Pharmaceuticals, Tranzyme Pharma

(UPDATED: Expanded items for Nanosphere, HemaQuest and Transzyme. Moved Novalar to a separate item here.)

Diagnostic maker Nanosphere prices IPO at low end of range, raises up to $113M — Nanosphere, a Northbrook, Ill., biotech focused on nanotech-derived diagnostics, priced its IPO at $14 a share, at the low end of its estimated range. The company, which could sell as many as eight million shares, stands to raise up to $112.7 million in the offering, which values the company at as much as $309.4 million.

Nanosphere is focused on molecular diagnostics that gauge the likelihood of problems such as blood clots or a patient’s likely response to a particular medication. Our previous coverage of the company is here and here.

HemaQuest draws $20M to fight blood disease — Newton, Mass.-based HemaQuest Pharmaceuticals (no Web site), a biotech focused on new drugs for blood disorders such as sickle-cell anemia, raised $20 million in a first funding round. Investors included De Novo Ventures, Forward Ventures and Lilly Ventures.

The company said the funds will support clinical trials of its first drug candidate, an oral treatment for sickle-cell anemia and beta thalassemia. Both diseases involve disorders of hemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying molecule found in red blood cells. HemaQuest said it intends to submit plans for a human test of its drug candidate, which it didn’t identify, by the end of this year.

Novalar raises $30M for dental-numbness reverser — See the full story here.

Tranzyme Pharma pulls in $20M for GI drugs — Tranzyme Pharma, a Research Triangle Park, N.C., biotech developing new drugs for gastrointestinal and metabolic disorders, raised $20 million in a third funding round. Investors included H.I.G. Ventures, Thomas, McNerney & Partners, Quaker BioVentures, and BDC Venture Capital.

Tranzyme’s lead drug candidate aims to treat severe gastroparesis, a condition in which food stops moving through the stomach, and ileus, a form of obstruction in the bowel. That drug, designated TZP-101, recently began mid-stage human trials in both conditions.

OTHER HEADLINES OF NOTE:

• Self-dispensing drug machine maker Asteres pulls in $8M (VentureWire, sub req’d)

Featured companies: Reliant Technologies, Leptos Biomedical, Calidora Skin Clinic

Reliant Tech seeks $95M IPO for dermatology lasers — Mountain View, Calif.-based Reliant Technologies, a developer of medical lasers for “skin rejuvenation” treatment, filed to raise as much as $95 million in an initial offering. The company currently markets two laser systems for skin treatment under the Fraxel brand name, and intends to launch a third one next year.

Oddly enough, Reliant Tech’s IPO filing comes just days after Reliant Pharmaceuticals filed for a $400 million initial offering (see our coverage in this daily briefing). That should certainly keep investors on their toes. Journalists, too — I almost didn’t cover this IPO because I thought I’d already written about it.

Although it has products on the market, Reliant Tech is not only still losing money, its losses are apparently continuing to mount. Total revenues have grown substantially, to $57.4 million in 2006 from $4.5 million in 2004, but its net losses have also kept pace, largely as a result of mounting sales and marketing expenses. Net losses in 2006 were $20.9 million, up from $13.3 million in 2004; for the first half of 2007, the company posted a loss of $10.9 million on $35.3 million in revenue.

Reliant Tech raised $37 million in its two most recent fundings, most recently drawing in $15 million in a fifth round, according to VentureWire (subscription required).

Neuromodulator Leptos raises $20M for obesity implant — Leptos Biomedical, a Brooklyn Center, Minn., developer of obesity-control implants, raised $20 million in a third funding round, VentureWire reports. Investors included Latterell Venture Partners, Spray Venture Partners, Thomas McNerney & Partners and Technology Partners.

Leptos is developing what it calls an “implantable pulse generator” designed to send electric signals into the sympathetic nervous system in order to suppress appetite and induce the burning of fat. The company has apparently already conducted a pilot trial of the device, which it says the new funding will allow it to extend. Leptos hasn’t disclosed additional details about its technology; on its Web site, the page devoted to approach is a two-paragraph stub filled with boilerplate.

I’ve written earlier about EnteroMedics, another company hoping to treat obesity using an implant that interferes with signals transmitted along the vagus nerve — you can read our previous coverage here. In general, the whole field of “neuromodulation” is heating up quite a bit these days, with companies hoping to use timed electrical pulses to the nervous system for treating everything from epilepsy to sleep apnea to hypertension — although it’s worth bearing in mind that almost all of these approaches are so far unproven. See our previous coverage of other companies in this space here, here, here, here, and here.

Founded in 2003, Leptos is the brainchild of serial physician-entrepreneur John Dobak, who previously founded hypothermia-inducer InnerCool Therapies and CryoGen, which developed a cryothermic technique for stanching uterine bleeding. Both companies have since been acquired — InnerCool for $6 million (after raising $49 million) and CryoGen for something between $40 million and $150 million (after raising roughly $60 million).

Skin-clinic chain Calidora raises $4M for SoCal expansion — Calidora Skin Clinic, a chain of four “medical-aesthetic” skin-care clinics in the Seattle area, raised $4 million in a first funding round to expand its operations into southern California. Roughly half the funding was provided by the company’s existing angel investors and insiders, with Fluke Venture Partners providing the rest.

From the release:

Courtion said the funding enables the completion of expansion plans underway in Manhattan Beach, Marina Del Ray, and Glendale, Calif., and other real estate and partnership opportunities on the near horizon. The company is working with Southern California based Caruso Affiliated, a leading retail developer, on two of the three properties, including the Americana at Brand, which is slated to open in downtown Glendale in Spring of 2008.