VentureBeat

TODAY’S HEADLINES:

• Topical Botox maker Revance gets $43M, option to be acquired by Medicis (release)
• Reva Medical draws $42M for resorbable stents (release)
• AccentCare raises $8M for senior home-care services (VentureWire, sub req’d)
• Light Dimensions aims for $6M for light-based skin treatment (VW)
• Carigent pulls in $2M for nanoparticle drugs (release)
• Celtic Pharma shoots for $1.5B in two drug-investment funds (VW)

Topical Botox developer Revance gets $43M, option to be acquired by Medicis — Mountain View, Calif.-based Revance Therapeutics, a developer of a Botox-like topical cream for wrinkle treatment and excessive sweating, raised $43.2 million in a third funding round. Medicis, a dermatology-products company in Scottsdale, Ariz., invested $20 million in the round and promised up to $5 million more in exchange for an option to acquire Revance or to exclusively license its botulinum-toxin drug.

The deal values Revance at approximately $200 million. Other investors in the round include Essex Woodlands Healthcare Ventures, Vivo Ventures, Technology Partners, Shepherd Ventures, and Palo Alto Investors. The Medicis options will extend through mid-stage human tests of the company’s botulinum-toxin drug.

Reva Medical draws $42M for resorbable stents — Reva Medical, a San Diego device maker focused on artery-opening stents that can be broken down and reabsorbed by the body, raised $42 million in a private financing. Cerberus Capital Management and Brookside Capital led the round, joined by Pequot Capital Management, Medtronic, Domain Partners and Group Outcome LLC.

Stents are used to prop open clogged arteries following a heart attack or other cardiovascular problems. The expandable mesh tubes, however, can also lead to additional problems down the line, such as the formation of scar tissue that can reblock vessels and even the creation of dangerous blood clots. Several companies are now pursuing stents that last just long enough for a previously clogged vessel to heal; we covered a Paris-based startup in this field, Arterial Remodeling Technologies, here.

Carigent pulls in $2M for nanoparticle drugs — New Haven, Conn.-based Carigent Therapeutics, a biotech developing new drugs based on nanoparticles that take aim at particular biological targets, raised $2 million in a first funding round. Saint Simeon Marketing and Investments provided the funding.

Carigent’s approach is to envelop drugs in a biodegradeable nanoparticle, which then will be coated with antibodies or other molecules designed to “anchor” the particle on or wthin certain cells or tissues. We’ve covered the company previously here.

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: 23andMe, APT Pharmaceuticals, Hyperion Therapeutics, Isis Biopolymer, Virogenomics

UPDATED at 10:30am PT.

APT Pharma raises $22M for transplant and heart drugs — Burlingame, Calif.’s APT Pharmaceuticals, a specialty pharma currently focused on a drug to fight organ-transplant rejection, raised $22 million in an extension of its first funding round. Investors included Versant Ventures, Great Point Partners, Vivo Ventures and Charter Life Sciences.

APT, which acquires its drug candidates instead of developing them itself, has raised a total of $30 million to date. Its lead candidate is an inhalable form of the immunosuppressive drug cyclosporine, called Pulmoniq, which is intended to prevent rejection and improve survival in lung-transplant patients.

23andMe reveals size of first funding round — PE Hub reports that Google-backed 23andMe has raised $8.9 million, citing a regulatory filing. Apparently, however, this isn’t new funding. When the personal-genomics startup (see our coverage here and here) announced its funding back in May, all we knew was that Google had invested $3.9 million, with unspecified participation by Mohr-Davidow Ventures and New Enterprise Associates bringing the round to somewhere around $10 million. I’m now told that the $8.9 million figure is just the total of that first round, which also included participation of some angel investors.

Hyperion Therapeutics drums up $15M in debt — The South San Francisco specialty pharma pulled in $15 million in debt financing from Comerica Bank and Life Sciences Capital. Hyperion, which raised $40 million in equity just a month ago (see our coverage in the first item here), in-licenses drug candidates from other companies and runs them through clinical trials.

The company also announced a slate of senior executives, many of them from Ucyclyd, a Medicis Pharmaceutical unit with which Hyperion recently concluded a licensing deal. Hyperion’s lead drug candidates address a gastrointestinal disorder and liver disease.

Drug-delivery company Isis Biopolymer draws $1.5M — Isis Biopolymer, a Warwick, R.I., device maker focused on a new drug-delivery technology, raised $1.5 million in seed funding, VentureWire reports (subscription required). GP Bullhound of London provided the funding.

Isis is exploring ways of using electrophoresis, a low-level electric current that can theoretically drag large, charged drug molecules across barriers like skin, as a new way of delivering drugs without needles via a patch-type device — one the company tells VentureWire is “more of a Band-Aid than an iPod.” The company has launched a $5 million first round of fundraising, and expects to begin human trials of its patch early next year.

Virogenomics gets $2M grant for bio-sensor work — NIST awarded Tigard, Ore.-based Virogenomics a $2 million grant to develop a system that tests for a variety of biological molecules at once, the company said. A closer read of the company’s press release suggests that it is developing a kind of protein chip — essentially a way of scanning for the presence of particular proteins in a sample such as blood serum — that relies on some sort of microelectronic “transducers” to signal detection.

At least from this description, it’s not really clear why this sort of technology would warrant a NIST grant, as any number of companies are developing similar-sounding protein chips. Virogenomics is something between a biotechnology firm and an incubator; the company says it licenses promising technologies and develops them in-house until it can spin them off into new startup companies. (Virogenomics strikes me as a pretty odd name for this sort of tech-development outfit, unless it’s a failed biotech that later developed a new purpose, although that’s just a guess.)

Featured companies: Imalux, Sagent Pharmaceuticals, Sequel Pharmaceuticals, Sinexus, TranS1, U.S. Spinal Technologies

Sagent Pharmaceuticals draws in $53M for injectable generics — Sagent Pharmaceuticals, proving that there’s still life in the apparently lucrative but boring specialty-pharmaceuticals business, raised $53 million in a first funding round. Vivo Ventures led the round for the Schaumburg, Ill., company.

Like other specialty pharmas, Sagent essentially picks up abandoned or cast-off drugs from other companies and tries to make them work in new ways. The company plans to take its first product to market in the fourth quarter, VentureWire reports (subscription required).

From VentureWire:

Schaumburg, Ill.-based Sagent focuses on the development of injectable treatments. The company’s core strength is generic pharmaceuticals, Yu said, and it has a broad-based focus on injectable treatments for a variety of indications. Sagent currently has more than 200 products in development, and plans to launch its first injectable treatment, which has already been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, in the fourth quarter. For the commercialization, Sagent plans to draw on the 20 business partnerships the company has worked to establish, Pauli said.

NovaCardia spinoff Sequel Pharma draws on $20M for heart drug — Fresh from the sale of NovaCardia to Merck (see our coverage here), officials of that heart-drug company founded a second startup, San Diego’s aptly named Sequel Pharmaceuticals, and raised $20 million in a first funding round. Investors included Domain Associates, Forward Ventures, InterWest Partners, Montreux Equity Partners, and Skyline Ventures.

Sequel owns the rights to one of NovaCardia’s former drugs, which it intends to develop as a treatment for atrial fibrillation, a problem characterized by uncoordinated pumping and electrical activity in the heart’s upper chambers that can put people at risk of blood clots and strokes. The company also plans to develop novel drugs for its pipeline.

U.S. Spinal Tech to seek $20 million — Boca Raton, Fla.-based U.S. Spinal Technologies said it plans to solicit $20 million in third-round funding, VentureWire reports. The company has begun speaking to investors but hasn’t yet received any money.

So far, the company has raised $9 million, 40 percent of that from angels and the remainder from other individuals. U.S. Spine makes several spinal implants that are already on the market, but a flagship device designed to replace the “pedicle screws” that serve as anchor points for rods in spinal fusion is stilll under development.

Sinexus raises $3.5M for sinusitis devices — Palo Alto, Calif.-based Sinexus raised $3.5 million in a first funding round, PE Hub reports, citing a regulatory filing. Investors included Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Buyers and U.S. Venture Partners. The medical-device company is focused on treating chronic inflammation of the nasal passages.

As it turns out, Sinexus also received seed funding in 2003 from Durect, a company that makes drug-delivery technologies. According to this 10-K filed with the SEC, Durect and an unnamed venture-capital firm each loaned Sinexus $150,000; Durect repurchased the obligation from Sinexus in February 2006.

Medical imager Imalux pulls in $5.1M — Cleveland’s Imalux, a developer of optical-tomography imaging systems, raised $5.1 million in a third funding round. The proceeds include the conversion of $2.5 million in bridge financing. Early Stage Partners, ElectroSonics Medical, Reservoir Venture Partners, Symark, and more than twenty other prior and new investors participated in the round.

Spinal-device maker TranS1 sets IPO range, aims to raise up to $88.6M — Wilmington, N.C.-based TranS1, a developer of minimally invasive spinal-fusion devices, said it plans to price its IPO shares between $12 and $14 apiece, yielding a maximum possible take of $88.6 million. See our earlier coverage of TranS1’s IPO here.

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.

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Vivo Ventures plans its first in Asian life-science investments now that it has closed a new fund, VentureWire is reporting (subscription required). The Palo Alto, Calif., outfit, formerly known as BioAsia Investments due to its former association with Asian investors, just closed a $275 million healthcare fund, its sixth.

From the VentureWire story:

Vivo expects to invest this fund in 14 to 18 companies, with a particular emphasis on those with drugs or medical devices in clinical trials. Historically, it has put 70% of investments into biotechnology companies and 30% into medical device concerns. Its portfolio includes drug makers Aspreva Pharmaceuticals Corp., which went public in 2005; CoTherix Inc., which went public in 2004 and was acquired last year by Actelion Ltd.; and Oculex Pharmaceuticals Inc., acquired by Allergan Inc. in 2003 for $230 million cash.

In recent years, Vivo has been considering opportunities in Asia and is now ready to make direct investments there. It already has backed an undisclosed U.S. company that has two joint ventures with Chinese companies, [Vivo partner Chen] Yu said. In addition, the firm has hired a team in China to help it invest there, though Yu declined to give details about that team or the types of investments the firm expects to make there. He estimated that Vivo would back two or three Asian companies with this fund.

The partners are attracted to Asia, and China in particular, because the medical-technology market there is beginning to mature, Yu said. Other firms scouting Chinese health-care opportunities include Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, which last year hired as partner James Li, former medical director of China operations; and Burrill & Co., which is raising up to $200 million for a China-focused fund.

Yu also said Vivo is positioned to see the best deals in China, largely because of the connections of Managing Partner Frank Kung, who formerly was co-founder of Genelabs Technologies Inc., a company he took public in 1991 that established operations in Taiwan, Singapore, and Switzerland in addition to the U.S.

Vivo’s bare-bones release on its new fund is here.