Life-science briefing: Monday, March 17, 2008
TODAY’S HEADLINES:
Defibrillator maker Cameron Health takes in $14M (VBLS exclusive)
Miramar Labs gets $20M for “aesthetic” devices (VBLS exclusive)
Nellix raises $6.5M for aneurysm grafts (VBLS exclusive)
Vessel-clog remover Chestnut Medical pulls in $7.8M (VBLS exclusive)
Consumer genetics tester DNA Direct receives $7M (PDF release)
Precision Thera again prowling for venture funding (VentureWire)
Cancer-drug maker ChimeraCore raises $4.3M (VentureWire)
Kai Sensors pulls in $2.2M for radar-based sensors (VentureWire)
ProNAi raises $6M for DNA drugs, seeks $20M more (VentureWire)
(NOTE: Items on Cameron Health, Miramar Labs, Nellix and… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Friday, Feb. 29, 2008
TODAY’S HEADLINES:
Arriva Pharma recaps with $6M for respiratory anti-inflammatory drugs (release)
Genetic tester Sciona gets another $5.2M, distribution deal (VentureWire)
Joint resurfacer Arthrosurface takes in $4M (release)
Automated medication dispenser MDG Medical receives $14M in debt, equity (release)
California Stem Cell raises funds for heart, neurodegenerative treatments (release)
Arriva Pharma recaps with $6M for respiratory anti-inflammatory drugs – Arriva Pharmaceuticals, an Alameda, Calif., drug developer focused on inflammatory respiratory disease, raised $6 million in a convertible-stock funding that recapitalized the company…. Continue Reading
23andMe allows a peek at its genomics service, minus the $999 fee
23andMe — the Google-backed startup that scans your genome for disease-risk factors and other information, now lets anyone see how the service works without first charging $999 for the privilege. My first impression: It packs a tremendous amount of information into clean, uncluttered pages that are still relatively easy to understand even for newcomers to genetics.
The 23andMe service stands in particularly sharp contrast to a similar offering from deCODEme, which I reviewed unfavorably here and… Continue Reading
23andMe makes genomics personal — and slick
(UPDATED: See below.)
As I discussed a few weeks ago with respect to deCODEme — a “personal genomics” service hurriedly launched last November by Iceland’s deCODE Genetics in an apparent attempt to beat 23andMe to market (it succeeded by a day or so) — these sorts of services can awfully dense and difficult to navigate. The deCODEme service appears to be particularly bad in that respect, both in terms of its design and even the underlying science… Continue Reading
23andMe’s European vacation and other personal-genomics notes
(UPDATED: Added links from Davos. Also, an earlier version of this post originally appeared at the end of this item.)
While I’ve been diving into deCODEme’s surprisingly spotty personal-genomics service, 23andMe has been whooping it up in Europe. The startup launched its consumer gene-scanning service there and made a splash at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where it handed out 1,000 free saliva-collection kits to attendees and another 50 for “elite journalists.” (Google’s Sergei Brin —… Continue Reading
deCODEme and its questionable disease-risk predictions
(UPDATED: Original final paragraphs on 23andMe broken out as a separate post here.)
A few days ago, I noted that deCODEme, the personal-genomics spinoff of Iceland’s deCODE Genetics, looks to be offering disease-risk predictions based on surprisingly thin evidence. I looked into it a little more deeply, and while I’m not a geneticist or even a close approximation thereof, I’m still a little taken aback by how little deCODEme currently seems to be flying on where many… Continue Reading
deCODEme’s underwhelming personal-genomics service
(UPDATED: See below.)
Personal-genomics vendors like 23andMe and deCODEme, which promise to give ordinary individuals a peek at their genetic inheritance, have received a ton of press attention since they launched last November (not least of all from us — see here and here for starters). Unless you happened to have a spare $1,000 laying around, however, you were pretty much out of luck if you simply wanted to know exactly what you might be getting for… Continue Reading
The nitty-gritty on Knome: How it works
(UPDATED: See below.)
(NOTE: This is the second of two posts on Knome, a newly launched startup that offers to sequence your entire genome for $350,000. For part one, which provides a broad overview of Knome’s whole-genome sequencing and how it differs from services offered by other personal-genomics companies, click here.)
First things first: The company’s name is pronounced “nome,” as in the Alaskan city. A bemused debate over proper pronunciation has circulated among folks in and around the… Continue Reading
Genomics for the rich: Knome reads your entire genetic code — for the low, low price of $350,000
(UPDATED: See below.)
(NOTE: This is the first of two posts taking a close look at Knome. For part two, which examines Knome’s business model and how its service works — based largely on an interview with Knome CEO Jorge Conde — see here.)
First it was genomic pioneers James Watson and Craig Venter. Next up are the first ten volunteers in Harvard geneticist George Church’s Personal Genome Project. And now just about anyone can have their entire genome… Continue Reading
23andMe: Will the personal-genomics company need Big Pharma to make money?
23andMe held its official launch today, as expected, and in the process managed to address a few of the nagging questions that remained after I reviewed its service over the weekend. “Addressed” is definitely the operative word here, though, because firm answers are still in short supply.
For instance, can personal genomics really make money for a startup like 23andMe? (To recap briefly for those joining the show already in progress, the company will scan your… Continue Reading
23andMe lets you search and share your genome — today
(UPDATED: See below.)
Personal genomics is finally here.
23andMe, the Google-backed startup that promises to let individuals search and share their personal genetic information, just unveiled its service on its Web site. (A formal announcement is planned for Monday. For links to our previous coverage, see the end of this post or click here.) For $999, anyone can spit in a plastic tube the company will send you, then mail it back for a kind of shortcut scan… Continue Reading
Navigenics finally offers you a peek at your genome — except not really, and not yet
(UPDATED: See below.)
So at long last, one of the personal-genomics companies we’ve been writing about since May has finally launched its service. Navigenics, the Redwood City, Calif., startup that promises users a “personalized genetics analysis” so they can better manage their health risks, kicked off its business yesterday with a drum-rolling press release and a story clearly handed to the WSJ. (For a non-subscription version, click here.)
Except that, as it turns out, Navigenics hasn’t really launched… Continue Reading
Will 23andMe and Navigenics lock up your genome and charge you for the key?
Over the last few months, startups like 23andMe and Navigenics have attracted a fair bit of attention for promising to let ordinary people search through their own genomes to better understand their disease risk, genealogy and ancestry. (For our coverage, see the links at the end of this item.) But one of the first major attempts to take a close look at them — courtesy of the November issue of Portfolio — left me with… Continue Reading
Compendia Bioscience, cancer-genomics data miner, leverages the Web for biodata analysis
A number of startups are starting to bring the power of the Web to bear on complex masses of biological data. One of the latest is Compendia Bioscience, an Ann Arbor, Mich., computational biotech that’s focused on mining cancer-genomics data. The company just received a $2.4 million grant from the National Cancer Institute to further development of Compendia’s lead product, a program that combs through and analyzes publicly available data on gene activity in a… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Thursday, Oct. 4, 2007
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… Continue Reading
Decoding 23andMe — Illumina spills the beans
First, it was self-described 23andMe investor Martin Varsavsky who spilled some early information about the secretive personal-genomics startup founded by Sergey Brin’s new wife, Anne Wojcicki, and now backed by Google and Genentech. (See our coverage here.) Now more details about 23andMe’s plans to help individuals map their own genomes are emerging, courtesy of Illumina, a gene-scanning company partnered with the startup.
At an investor conference yesterday, Illumina CEO Jay Flatley sketched out 23andMe’s plans and… Continue Reading
Personal genomics and the end of insurance
Not too long from now, your genes are likely to be at war with your health insurer — and your genes may well have the upper hand.
Within the next few years, it should become fairly easy and inexpensive to get a rough-and-ready readout of your own genetic code, one that you can scan for information on which diseases you’re most likely to contract, which drugs will help you the most, and ultimately even how your… Continue Reading
Craig Venter’s genome and our brave new world
(UPDATED: See below.)
It’s finally all about him.
By “him,” of course, I mean J. Craig Venter, the iconoclastic scientist who had his entire genome sequenced, posted in a public database, and analyzed in a scientific paper published Monday in the online journal PLoS Biology. If for some reason you hadn’t heard, feel free to take a moment to read all about it in the NYT, the Washington Post, the Financial Times, Reuters, CNN, or any of the… Continue Reading