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 raises new funding (PDF release)
Healthcare investor EDF Ventures postpones fourth fund (VentureWire)
Global TB-drug alliance names former Sanofi-Aventis exec Jerome Premmeurer as CEO (release)
Liquidia Tech names Neal Fowler as CEO (release)
(NOTE: Sorry… 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 NanoImaging takes in $1.5M (release)
CrystalGenomics, ProQuest Investments create JV co. Palkion (release)
Portico Systems, software maker for insurance plans, raises $7.7M (release)
Stealthy biotech Affomic takes in $7M (peHUB)
Adnavance pulls in C$3.7M… 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 it big almost immediately with a new type of bandage, based on chitin found in shrimp shells, that binds to even the most severe wounds. As the Iraq War loomed,… 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 the fundings other sites are writing about today. I’ll update if anything else crops up. In the meantime, feel free to check out yesterday’s briefing or any other items here.
HemCon… 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 maker CMS for $75M – CMS, a St. Louis, Mo., developer of software for planning and managing radiation-therapy treatments, sold itself to Sweden’s Elekta for roughly $75 million in cash. The… 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 18 to 24 months to spend their stash, they’re eager to deal. Two SPACs, in fact, have recently cut deals with biotech startups, and chances are good they’ll be nosing… 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 that raise money through initial offerings specifically for the purpose of acquiring other companies.
At Renaissance Capital’s IPOhome news page (partial screenshot here, as the flow of news will probably throw… 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 $4.4M for vascular-access devices (VentureWire)
Medical tube and syringe maker Amsino Medical sells stake to Baring PE Asia (release)
Implantable-diagnostic maker Transoma Medical postpones IPO (IPOhome)
H-P “great-grandchild” Alverix raises $7.7M for portable… 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 fibrotic disease (release)
Acrongenomics takes 11 percent stake in Molecular Vision (release)
Hepatitis drug-developer Biolex withdraws IPO (IPO Home)
Employee drug screener eScreen gets Carlyle investment (release)
NovaMin raises $2.5M for dental-care products (VentureWire)
Cardious… 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 medical-device manufacturer EL-Tronic Precision (release)
OpGen appoints former Affymetrix exec Noel Doheny as CEO (release)
Arbor Surgical raises $20M for heart devices – Arbor Surgical, an Irvine, Calif., medical-device maker, raised $20 million… 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 in irritable-bowel drug partnership — Gastrotech Pharma, a Danish biotech focused on gastrointestinal disease, struck a partnership with Eli Lilly involving a drug candidate for irritable bowel syndrome in which… 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 co. Compressus aims to close $14M round (VW)
Channel Medical Partners aims for $150M med-tech fund (VW)
Spinal-implant maker Scient’x names Michael Huggins as CEO (release)
Specialty pharma Cardiokine names Manuel Worcel as… 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 $5.5M for hair loss – Boston’s Follica, a biotech that aims to reverse hormone-related hair loss, raised $5.5 million in a first funding round. Investors included Interwest Partners and PureTech Ventures.
Follica… 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 Biomateriali for €4M (release)
Bosch Group acquires remote health-monitoring co. Health Hero Network (release)
Romark Labs raises $18M for hepatitis drugs – Tampa, Fla.-based Romark Laboratories, a biotech developing drugs for hepatitis and… 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 Beaverton, Ore., device maker focused on bleeding control and wound healing, agreed to sell itself to I-Flow, a publicly traded maker of drug-delivery systems, for $25 million in cash. The… 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 developing grafts for damaged “peripheral” nerves, raised $12.1 million in a third funding round. Investors included Accuitive Medical Ventures, Cardinal Partners, De Novo Ventures and Springboard Capital II.
AxoGen develops tissue… 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 that appears to be no relation of the database-software giant.
I was pretty hard on Precision when it filed its IPO, since its cancer diagnostic test not only struck me as… 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 in milestone payments.
Agensys, which called itself UroGenesys until 2001, is developing a range of antibody drugs against cancer. Oddly, though, the company hasn’t had much to say about its drug… 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 itself to GlaxoSmithKline for the eye-popping sum of $1.65 billion. The release is here. The acquisition news comes just days after doppelganger Reliant Technologies abandoned its own IPO bid (see… 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 Investments, the Aurora Funds, Novak Biddle Venture Partners, Innovation Ventures and several individuals.
The funding will further Centice’s work on the Pass Rx system, a sensor designed to ensure the authenticity… Continue Reading