Life sciences briefing: Friday, Nov. 30, 2007
Featured companies: Fate Therapeutics, Medgenics, Satoris
UPDATED: Expanded items on Fate Therapeutics and Medgenics. The Satoris item is now a standalone post here.
Fate Therapeutics launches regenerative-medicine quest with $12M — In one of the splashiest launches in recent memory, Seattle’s Fate Therapeutics launched a new regenerative-medicine quest and raised $12 million to help it along. The company aims to develop drugs that redirect fundamental cell biology in ways that mimic the regenerative powers of stem cells, either by… Continue Reading
Healthcare IT co. MedAssets sets IPO range, aims for $221M
MedAssets, an Alpharetta, Ga., provider of IT and services designed to maximize hospital revenue, said it plans to sell as many as 13.8 million shares at a price of $14 to $16 apiece, for a maximum IPO take of $221 million. The company’s latest SEC filing is here.
The offering would value MedAssets at as much as $685.8 million. In overall size, the amount MedAssets hopes to raise in the offering is slightly less than… Continue Reading
IPO roundup: Broncus Tech aims to breathe in $86M, Aegerion Pharma rides again, and more
Broncus Tech, medical device maker, files for $86M IPO — Broncus Technologies, a Mountain View, Calif., developer of minimally invasive devices for treating emphysema, filed to raise $86 million in an initial offering. The company’s SEC filing is here.
The Broncus technology is a minimally invasive, catheter-based device that creates new passages to bypass collapsed airways in the lungs caused by chronic smoking and similar issues, enabling trapped air to escape. Broncus is only one of… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Thursday, Nov. 15, 2007
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… Continue Reading
EnteroMedics and its risky obesity device, the latest victims of the IPO haircut
(UPDATED: See below.)
(NOTE: This item was originally published as part of today’s life-sciences briefing.)
EnteroMedics, a St. Paul, Minn., device maker working on a neuromodulation implant for treating obesity, slashed its expected IPO pricing by half, lowering it to a range of $8 to $9 instead of its earlier estimate of $14 to $16. The company’s latest SEC fliing is here; under the new terms, EnteroMedics can raise at most $51.8 million, down from the $92 million… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2007
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… Continue Reading
IPOs: Biotech ChemoCentryx and specialty-pharma Xanodyne head for the public market
ChemoCentryx files for $58M IPO to fund autoimmune, inflammation drug — Mountain View, Calif.-based ChemoCentryx, a biotech focused on new small-molecule drugs that affect a class of biochemical signals known as chemokines, filed to raise $57.5 million in an initial offering. The company’s SEC filing is here.
Founded in 1997, ChemoCentryx believes drugs that interfere with chemokine signaling may be able to defuse runaway immune-system reactions that give rise to various autoimmune conditions, inflammation and even… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Monday, Nov. 12, 2007
(UPDATED: See below.)
Featured companies: Anaptys Biosciences, Arterial Remodeling Technologies, Cambria Biosciences, CaseNet, ChemoCentryx, Ensemble Discovery, MediQuest, Piedmont Pharmaceuticals, Raven Biotechnologies, Sensys Medical, Verus Pharmaceuticals, Xanodyne Pharmaceuticals
UPDATED: Expanded items on Anaptys, Arterial Remodeling, Raven Biotech, Sensys and MediQuest. Moved ChemoCentryx and Xanodyne to a separate item.
Antibody-drug maker Raven Biotech merges with VaxGen — Raven Biotechnologies, a South San Francisco biotech developing antibody drugs, is merging with the troubled, publicly held vaccine maker VaxGen. The confusingly worded release is here.
Although… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2007
Featured companies: Aryx Therapeutics, BioForm Medical, Health Market Science, Hypobaric Therapeutics, Mobile Medical International
UPDATED: Expanded items on BioForm, Aryx, Hypobaric and Mobile Medical.
Medical aethetics co. BioForm Medical prices IPO below range, raises up to $92M — BioForm Medical, a wrinkle-treatment maker based in San Mateo, Calif., priced its IPO below its expected range of $9 to $11 a share, reducing its maximum take from the offering to $92 million from $127 million. (See our earlier coverage here… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Thursday, Nov. 1, 2007
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… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2007
Featured companies: AerovectRx, Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, Harmony Information Systems, Intelligent Hospital Systems, Merrion Pharmaceuticals, Syntaxin, SymBio Pharmaceuticals
UPDATED: Expanded items on Harmony Info, SymBio Pharma and Merrion Pharma, added Dicerna item.
UPDATE REDUX: Added Syntaxin item.
U.K. biotech Syntaxin raises £16M for pain and nervous-system drugs — Syntaxin, a U.K. biotech focused on drugs that affect cell secretion, raised £16 million ($33.2 million) in a second funding round. The company’s release is here.
Investors in the round included SR One, the venture capital… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2007
Featured companies: Acceleron Pharma, Bledsoe Brace Systems, Eurobiobiz, Genoptix, Harmony Information Systems, ImmuneWorks, Pasteuria Bioscience, Renal CarePartners, Quantum Genomics, Synergy Software, Vitreo Retinal Technology
UPDATED: Expanded items on Genoptix and Acceleron Pharma.
Diagnostics biotech Genoptix prices IPO above range, raises up to $98M — Genoptix became one of the first biotechs in a long time to demonstrate some oomph with an IPO, pricing its shares above its expected range and then soaring nearly 50 percent in its first day… Continue Reading
IPO roundup: Bioheart, Merrion Pharma in limbo; Reliant vs. Reliant road shows; upcoming offerings
Bioheart’s IPO-related chest pains continue — The week of Oct. 22 has come and gone, and there’s no sign of the scheduled — and already battered — IPO of Bioheart, the Florida company that hopes to treat damaged hearts with patients’ own muscle stem cells. IPO Home now lists the IPO as scheduled on a “day-to-day” basis.
So the jury is still out as to whether the company’s recent halving of its IPO terms will still… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Friday, Oct. 26, 2007
Featured companies: Allozyne, Arteriocyte Medical Systems, Arthrosurface, Bay City Capital, EnteroMedics, OncoVista, Novotech, Power Medical Interventions, Reliant Technologies
UPDATED: Expanded items on Allozyne, Reliant Tech, Power Medical and Bay City Capital.
UPDATE REDUX: Added item on EnteroMedics IPO.
Seattle’s Allozyne draws $30M for new interferon — Allozyne, a Seattle biotech focused on tweaking existing protein-based drugs to improve their properties, raised $30 million in a second round of financing. Investors included MPM Capital, OVP Venture Partners, Amgen Ventures, ARCH Venture… Continue Reading
XDx marks a spot: An $86M IPO for gene-expression diagnostics
(UPDATED: See below.)
When XDx yesterday filed to raise up to $86.3 million in an IPO, the Brisbane, Calif., company joined just a handful of similar molecular-diagnostic companies to test the public markets. XDx specializes in a new type of diagnostic test that measures gene activity — technically, “gene expression” — in blood.
Gene-expression diagnostics have only been around for a few years, and they’re been slow to catch on. The tests use “gene chips” that measure the… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2007
Featured companies: Angstrom Medica, Asuragen, Aryx Therapeutics, HistoRx, MiMedx, Pioneer Surgical, Transfusion & Transplantation Technologies, Tolerx, Vivo Ventures
UPDATED: Expanded Aryx and XDx items.
UPDATE REDUX: Expanded Tolerx item, moved XDx to a separate post.
Aryx sets IPO range, seeks $92M for redesigned drugs — Fremont, Calif.-based Aryx Pharmaceuticals, a specialty pharma focused on producing safer versions of existing drugs, set its IPO range and now seeks to raise as much as $92 million. That’s a bit more than… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2007
Featured companies: Apex Radiology, Arcxis Biotechnologies, EKR Therapeutics, Franklin & Seidelmann, Michelson Diagnostics, SensiGen, Vascular Closure Systems
UPDATED: Expanded items on Arcxis, Vascular Closure and Archemix.
Arcxis pulls in $2M for DNA tools — Arcxis Biotechnologies, a Pleasanton, Calif., biotech tool maker focused on analysis of DNA and proteins in biological samples, raised $2 million in a follow-on to its first funding round, VentureWire reports (subscription required). Investors included Kaiser Permanente Ventures and Claremont Creek Ventures.
Arcxis released its first… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Monday, Oct. 22, 2007
Featured companies: Ablynx, Avant Immunotherapeutics, BioForm Medical, Celldex Therapeutics, Genomas, High-Throughput Genomics, Orchid Cellmark, ReliaGene Technologies, SarCode, TransMolecular, VisEn Medical
UPDATED: Expanded items on SarCode, Celldex/Avant and Ablynx.
UPDATE REDUX: Added items on BioForm Medical, High-Throughput Genomics and Orchid Cellmark/ReliaGene.
San Francisco’s SarCode draws down $7M for inflammation drugs — The two-year-old startup drew down $7 million as part of a $25 million first funding round the company arranged last December, VentureWire reports (subscription required). Investors in that round included Alta… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Thursday, Oct. 18, 2007
Featured companies: American Oriental Bioengineering, Guangxi Boke, Inspired Technologies, Nanosphere, Patton Medical Devices
UPDATED: Expanded items on Nanosphere and Patton Medical Devices.
Molecular-diagnostics firm Nanosphere sets IPO range, now expects $129M — Northbrook, Ill.-based Nanosphere, a maker of nanotech-derived molecular diagnostics, now expects to raise up to $129 million by selling as many as eight million shares in an initial offering. The company’s latest SEC filing is here. Nanosphere intends to price its shares between $14 and $16 apiece.
The… Continue Reading
I told you so: Eat your Bioheart out
(UPDATED: See below.)
I’m not usually one to gloat — oh, who are we kidding? The news today that Bioheart, an oddball “adult” stem-cell company based in Sunrise, Fla., has slashed its IPO price range — essentially halving the company’s value — and fired its underwriters may not be exactly what I predicted when I hazed the company back in July– but it’ll certainly do for now.
For Bioheart — which, I just realized, is backed by the… Continue Reading