Life sciences briefing: Friday, Oct. 12, 2007
Featured companies: CeraPedics, Lab21, Incisive Surgical, Orasi Medical, Transoma Medcal, ZyGem
(UPDATED: Expanded items on Transoma, Lab21 and Orasi.)
Medical-device maker Transoma files for $75M IPO — St. Paul, Minn.-based Transoma Medical, a developer of implantable wireless diagnostic sensors, filed to raise $75 million in an initial offering. The company is currently focused on the markets for heart patients and general biomedical research.
Transoma received FDA “clearance” for its first product on Oct. 1. That device, called the Sleuth ECG… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2007
Featured companies: 20/20 GeneSystems, Bellicum Pharmaceuticals, Cumbre Pharmaceuticals, Dara BioSciences, Enterprise Partners Venture Capital, Fermentas, International, Iasis Medical, New Leaf Venture Partners, Point Therapeutics, Power Medical Interventions, Rules-Based Medicine, Spinal Restoration, Still River Systems, Targanta Therapeutics
(UPDATED: See below.)
[NOTE: In the interests of getting items up as quickly as possible, I’m going to begin posting linked headlines, which I’ll subsequently flesh out in many — but not all — cases. As the news gets heavier, the briefing is… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2007
Featured companies: AngioScore, Forsight Labs, Genoptix, Metastatix, Optherion, QLT
UPDATED: See below.
Artery opener AngioScore pulls in $30M — AngioScore, a Fremont, Calif., maker of balloon catheters used to open up clogged arteries, raised $30 million in a fifth funding round. Investors included Telegraph Hill Partners, Psilos Group Management, QuestMark Partners, L.P., UV Partners, California Technology Ventures and Innomed Ventures.
AngioScore’s balloon catheters, which inflate inside blocked blood vessels to restore blood flow, are designed to overcome problems that sometimes… Continue Reading
IPO roundup: MAP Pharma’s mixed reception, other recent filings
MAP Pharmaceuticals, the Mountain View, Calif., specialty pharma, had a mixed reception to its IPO Friday. The company priced its shares at $12, below its anticipated range of $14 to $16, raising up to $69 million — substantially less than the $92 million it might have pulled in. Investors, however, reacted positively and pushed up the shares 11 percent to $13.35.
MAP reformulates existing drugs in order to deliver them via inhalers. Its leading product is… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Friday, Sept. 28, 2007
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…. Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2007
Featured companies: Ablynx, Cardiosolutions, Carigent Thereapeutics, Elusys, Genome Corp., GlobeImmune, Novazone, Targanta Therapeutics, Waterfront Media
UPDATED at 5:45am on 9/27/07
GlobeImmune raises $41M for immune-system therapies — GlobeImmune, a Louisville, Colo., biotech focused on new forms of immunotherapy to treat viral infections and cancer, raised $41.2 million in a third funding round. Investors included Wexford Capital, Celgene, the Mellon Family Investment Company, the Richard King Mellon Foundation, Eminent Venture Capital, Boston Life Science Venture, WRF Capital, HealthCare Ventures,… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Monday, Sept. 24, 2007
Featured companies: Adnexus Therapeutics, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Cellerix, Elixir Therapeutics, GenomeQuest, Intronn, JapanBridge, JenaValve, VirXsys, Ysios Capital
[NOTE: This item is a catchup daily briefing originally posted on 9/27/07. I've edited the item's timestamp to preserve the chronological order of the briefings. --D.P.H.]
Adnexus Thera cancels IPO, sells itself to Bristol-Myers for $430M — Waltham, Mass.-based Adnexus Therapeutics, a biotech pursuing drugs against cancer and other diseases, said it would cancel plans for its IPO and instead sell… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Friday, Sept. 21, 2007
Featured companies: CG Therapeutics, Complete Genomics, ConforMIS, Flexible Medical Systems, LeMaitre Vascular, MAP Pharmaceuticals, ParaPro, Vascular Architects, Zars Pharma
(UPDATED on 10/1/07: See below.)
[NOTE: Posting has been slow recently for personal reasons. I'll be doing my best to catch up today.]
Complete Genomics raises funding for high-speed sequencing — Complete Genomics, a Mountain View, Calif., developer of high-speed genome sequencing technology, said it raised an undisclosed sum in a second funding round, VentureWire reports (subscription required). The company said… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Thursday, Sept. 20, 2007
Featured companies: Allergan, Athenahealth, Atria Genetics, Celera, Esprit Pharmaceuticals, Vida Diagnostics
(NOTE: This item was posted on Friday, 9/21/07. I’ve backdated its timestamp to preserve the chronological order of the briefings.)
Celera buys Atria Genetics for $33M — Rockville, Md.-based Celera, the onetime genomics pioneer still working to turn itself into a diagnostics company, agreed to pay $33 million to acquire Atria Genetics of South San Francisco, Calif. (Atria doesn’t seem to have a Web site, and if… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Monday, Sept. 17, 2007
Featured companies: Bioptigen, Echo Therapeutics, Forest Laboratories, Intrinsic Therapeutics, Microbia, Phreesia, Sontra Medical, TransMedics, Xanthus Pharmaceuticals
[NOTE: This is a catchup briefing, posted on 9/28/07. I've adjusted the item's timestamp to keep the briefings in chronological order. --D.P.H.]
Patient-info digitizer Phreesia takes in $10.3M — Phreesia, a New York company that claims to offer a “100% free” — but ad-sponsored — digital patient check-in application to doctors, raised $10.3 million in a second funding round. Investors included Polaris Ventures… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Friday, Aug. 31, 2007
Featured companies: Aryx Therapeutics, FlowCardia, Graftcath
FlowCardia raises $30M for artery roto-rooters — Sunnyvale, Calif.-based FlowCardia, a medical-device maker building catheter systems that bore holes in blood clots, raised $30 million in a third funding round. Investors included Gilde Healthcare Partners, Life Sciences Partners, Hambrecht & Quist Capital Management, New Science Ventures, Frazier Healthcare Ventures, JP Morgan Partners, Pappas Ventures, Rockport Venture Partners and Gold Hill Capital. The funding is intended to speed commercialization of the company’s… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Monday, Aug. 27, 2007
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… Continue Reading
The credit crunch: A capital bypass for life sciences?
Over at VentureBeat proper, Matt highlights a theory advanced by venture capitalist Keith Benjamin, who argues that the credit crunch now threatening the private-equity boom may have the unexpected effect of boosting returns in technology investments. (Keith puts this all down in his own words on his personal blog and in this contributed piece at VentureBeat.)
Turns out a few people have also been wondering whether a deflating private-equity bubble might also redirect capital to the… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Friday, Aug. 24, 2007
(UPDATED at 11am PT on Sunday, 8/26/07: See below.)
Featured companies: Clinical Data, Epidauros Biotechnologie, Precision Therapeutics, UMD, Zars Pharma
UMD to close $8M for menstrual pain and osteoporosis — Cincinnati’s UMD, a developer of vaginal drug-delivery technologies, expects to close up to $8 million in a fifth funding round, VentureWire reports (subscription required). The company has backing from an undisclosed new investor, and expects former investors Charter Life Sciences and Asset Management to join the round.
UMD is developing… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Tuesday, Aug. 21, 2007
(UPDATED at 7:40pm PT: See below.)
Featured companies: Adnexus Therapeutics, BioForm Medical, Confirma, Cardiovascular Systems, Mirabilis Medica, Neuromed Pharmaceuticals, PlaCor, Seno Medical Instruments, Vibrynt
BioForm Medical files $115M IPO for “medical aesthetics” — BioForm Medical, a San Mateo, Calif., developer of wrinkle fillers and other products for cosmetic procedures, filed to raise $115 million in an initial offering. BioForm’s major customers are plastic surgeons and dermatologists.
BioForm, however, takes pains to describe itself differently on its Web site…. Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Monday, Aug. 20, 2007
(UPDATED at 7:10pm PT: See below.)
Featured companies: NeurAxon, VytronUS, Avila Therapeutics, CardioNet, Ventana Medical Systems, CytoLogix, PlaCor
NeurAxon raises $32M for pain drugs — You have to hand it to Waltham, Mass.-based NeurAxon — the company certainly knows how to keep itself in the news. Today, it announced it has raised $32 million in a second funding round, a week after it reported a positive early-stage trial result for its experimental migraine treatment.
Investors included Delphi Ventures, OrbiMed Advisors,… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Friday, Aug. 17, 2007
Featured companies: Concentric Medical, Vertebration, Vision RT, Kemeta
Clotbuster Concentric Medical files for $69M IPO — Mountain View, Calif.-based Concentric Medical, which makes and markets devices for removing dangerous blood clots from the brains of stroke patients, filed to raise up to $69 million in an initial offering. The company’s devices consist of catheters that are threaded into the body’s circulatory system via the femoral artery in the groin and passed into the brain to the site… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Thursday, Aug. 16, 2007
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… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Monday, Aug. 13, 2007
(UPDATED: See below.)
Featured companies: FoldRx Pharmaceuticals, Ophthotech, Pevion Biotech, Restoration Robotics, Glide Pharma, Reliant Pharmaceuticals, Nanosphere, SurModics, BioFX Laboratories
FoldRx Pharma to receive $22M against cystic fibrosis — Cambridge, Mass.-based FoldRx Pharmaceuticals, a biotech focused on diseases that result from misfolded proteins, will get $22 million over the next five years from an affiliate of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation to further its work against the genetic lung disease. The money will be paid as FoldRx meets various developmental… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Thursday, Aug. 9, 2007
(UPDATED at 6:40pm PT: See below.)
Featured companies: Nereus Phramaceuticals, KFx Medical, NeuroMed Pharmaceuticals, Adnexus Therapeutics, Masimo, Biofisica, Aegera Therapeutics, LymphoSign, InfuScience, Palmetto Infusion Services
Nereus Pharma raises $45M for ocean-derived cancer drugs — San Diego’s Nereus Pharmaceuticals, a biotech that searches for cancer drugs in marine microbes, raised $45 million in a follow-on to its fourth funding round.
The company features an all-star lineup of investors, which includes BankInvest, Roche Venture Fund, Astellas Venture Management, Boston Life Science Venture… Continue Reading