Life sciences briefing: Wednesday, March 5, 2008
TODAY’S HEADLINES:
Precision Thera merger with “blank check” Oracle Healthcare collapses (release)
Sleep Solutions takes in $21M for sleep-apnea diagnostics (release)
Trevena takes in $24M for drugs targeting G-proteins (release)
“Specialty biotech” PanGenetics gets €23M for antibody drugs (release)
Cancer-drug maker Unibioscreen pulls in €5M (release)
Danish contract manufacturer CMC Biologics… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2008
TODAY’S HEADLINES:
Adnavance pulls in C$3.7M for molecular diagnostics, names new CEO (release)
“Personalized medicine” co. Proprius sells to Cypress Bio for up to $75M (release)
Vaccinex raises $25M in wake of GSK deal for antibody drugs (VentureWire)
Cianna Medical receives $9M for breast-cancer radiation treatment (release)
Electron-microscope image provider… Continue Reading
HemCon Medical, bolstered by high-tech bandage sales, hits the acquisition trail
HemCon Medical Technologies, a Portland, Ore., startup that makes and sells high-tech bandages, said it will acquire Alltracel Pharmaceuticals, a publicly traded but barely profitable Irish healthcare conglomerate that also has a wound-care focus. The release is here.
HemCon was only founded in 2001, but hit… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Friday, Feb. 22, 2008
TODAY’S HEADLINES:
HemCon Medical acquires Alltracel Pharma (release)
Transoma Medical, implantable wireless device maker, withdraws its IPO (Edgar)
Oracle Healthcare cuts Precision Thera acquisition price by roughly 15 percent (release)
MedBillManager adopts change:healthcare name, aims for March 3 relaunch release
Another slow news day, as yesterday we covered most of… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Monday, Feb. 18, 2008
TODAY’S HEADLINES:
Sweden’s Elekta buys radiation-therapy software maker CMS for $75M (release)
Infusion-services firm Critical Homecare withdraws $125M IPO for buyout (Edgar)
NOTE: It’s a slow news day thanks to the President’s Day holiday. I’ll update with whatever else comes over the transom later today.
Sweden’s Elekta buys radiation-therapy software… Continue Reading
Here comes the SPAC attack
The IPO market is getting ugly for many startups, but the sun is still shining for special-purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs — sort of shell companies with blank-checks to acquire other companies opportunistically.
SPACs are raising money hand-over-fist with public offerings, and since they have only… Continue Reading
Brace yourselves for the SPAC attack
Life-science IPOs may be hitting the wall — so far this year, seven biotech and medical-device startups have yanked their offerings — but one part of the IPO market is booming. That’s the field of “special-purpose acquisition corporations,” or SPACs, which are essentially blank-check companies… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2008
TODAY’S HEADLINES:
H-P “great-grandchild” Alverix raises $7.7M for portable diagnostic devices (release)
Moksha8 takes in $39M to commercialize drugs for Asia (peHUB)
Dynogen Pharma goes public, gets $98M in reverse merger (release)
EKR Thera raises funds, pays up to $170M to “reacquire” PDL BioPharma drug (release))
R4 Vascular receives… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Monday, Feb. 4, 2008
TODAY’S HEADLINES:
PEAK Surgical takes in $21M for electrosurgical tools (release)
CellGate acquired by Australian cancer biotech ProGen for $2.5M (release)
Traversa raises $2M for RNAi-delivery technologies (release)
RemitDATA, Web-based healthcare-service co., takes in $5.5M (bizjournals.com)
Spinal-implant maker Archus Orthopedics gets $10M venture loan (release)
Promedior pulls down another $5.5M for… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2008
TODAY’S HEADLINES:
Arbor Surgical raises $20M for heart devices (release)
Small Bone Innovations acquires ankle-replacement maker Link America (release)
Active Implants adds $3M for hip and knee implants (VentureWire)
Clarian Health Partners launches VC unit with $25M (release)
Iroko Pharma acquires non-U.S. rights to Merck heart drug (release)
Remmele Engineering acquires… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Monday, Jan. 28, 2008
TODAY’S HEADLINES:
RNA-drug developer Quark aims for $30M after withdrawn IPO (VentureWire)
Lilly takes stake in Gastrotech in irritable-bowel drug partnership (VentureWire)
Health and wellness company Nurtur acquires Work/Life Innovations (release)
Profectus Biosciences names Shawn Patrick O’Brien CEO (release)
Lentigen appoints Tim Ravenscroft as CEO (release)
Lilly takes stake in Gastrotech… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2007
TODAY’S HEADLINES:
Teva acquires protein-therapeutic maker CoGenesys for $400M (release)
ViewRay takes in $25M for MRI radiation-therapy guidance (release)
NovaMed, Chinese clinical-research outfit, receives $14M (release)
Progentix Ortho raises first funding round (release)
Medical imaging co. Point Biomedical recaps with $25M (VentureWire)
Lumidigm takes in $7M for optical-fingerprint ID systems (VW)
Medical-software… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Friday, Jan. 4, 2008
TODAY’S HEADLINES:
Follica pulls out $5.5M for hair loss (release)
WuXi PharmaTech to acquire AppTec Lab for $151 million (release)
U.S. Venture Partners names Laurence Lasky a venture partner (PDF release)
Burrill & Co. promotes several life-science VCs (release)
SV Life Sciences promotes Darren Black to partner (release)
Follica pulls out… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Wednesday, Dec. 26, 2007
TODAY’S HEADLINES:
Romark Labs raises $18M for hepatitis drugs (release)
Cubist buys Illumigen Bio, a hepatitis-drug biotech, for $9M (release)
MedCap voices opposition to VaxGen-Raven Bio reverse merger (release)
NeuroMetrix acquires EyeTel Imaging assets for $10M (release)
Solstice Neurosciences appoints Dennis Smith as CEO (release)
LeMaitre Vascular snaps up graft maker… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Friday, Dec. 14, 2007
TODAY’S HEADLINES:
AcryMed, wound-healing specialist, sells itself to I-Flow for $25M (release)
Stent maker Devax pulls $85M IPO filing (Edgar)
Cempra Pharma gets $10M for anti-infective drugs (TechJournal South)
Genesis Genomics takes in C$312K for DNA-based diagnostics (GenomeWeb)
AcryMed, wound-healing specialist, sells itself to I-Flow for $25M — AcryMed, a… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2007
Featured companies: AxoGen, Cognition Therapeutics, Ester Neurosciences, Gene Security Network, HealthTalk, MPM Capital, Revolution Health, SparkPeople
UPDATING: Expanded items on AxoGen, Ester and Cognition. Posted full items on MPM (link) and Gene Security Network (link).
AxoGen raises $12M for nerve regeneration — AxoGen, an Alachua, Fla., biotech focused on… Continue Reading
Precision Thera drops IPO, goes public via reverse merger
(UPDATE: The merger is dead.)
Pittsburgh’s Precision Therapeutics, a biotech working on diagnostics designed to identify the best chemotherapy for cancer patients, appears to have dropped its planned IPO and instead went public via a reverse merger with Oracle Healthcare Acquisition — a “blank check” acquisition firm… Continue Reading
Cancer-drug biotech Agensys sells to Astellas for $387M — but is it a pig in a poke?
Yet another biotech has succumbed to Big Pharma’s deep-pocketed blandishments. Agensys, a decade-old Santa Monica, Calif., biotech with an early-stage pipeline, just agreed to sell itself to Japan’s Astellas Pharma for $387 million in cash. The company’s shareholders can receive up to another $150 million… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Wednesday, Nov. 21, 2007
Featured companies: Cerus, LabNow, Reliant Pharmaceuticals
UPDATED: Expanded items on Reliant Pharmaceuticals and Cerus.
GSK acquires Reliant Pharma for $1.65 billion — And then there were none. Reliant Pharmaceuticals, a Liberty Corner, N.J., specialty pharma that filed for an initial offering back in August, has instead decided to sell… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Monday, Nov. 19, 2007
Featured companies: Alere Medical, AorTx, BioMedical Innovations, Cavidi, Centice, Integrated BioPharma, Oxitech, Nastech
UPDATED: Expanded items on Centice, AorTx and Alere Medical.
Centice raises $11M for drug-safety technology — Centice, a Morrisville, N.C., developer of computer-sensor systems, raised $11 million in a second funding round. Investors included S-Group Direct… Continue Reading