VentureBeat

TODAY’S HEADLINES:

• Aptamer-drug maker Archemix withdraws its $72.5 million IPO (Edgar)
• OraMetrix raises $20M for robotic orthodontic systems (peHUB)
• Microarray maker TeleChem goes public via reverse merger (release)
• BioVascular pulls in $11M for platelet-disease treatments (release)
• Cequent Pharma adds $4.5M for for RNAi drugs (VentureWire)
• CareSeek, online medical-rating service, gets $575K, looks for $5M (VentureWire)
• Satiogen takes in $700K for obesity treatment (VentureWire)
• Dilon Tech appoints Robert Moussa as CEO (release)

Aptamer-drug maker Archemix withdraws its $72.5 million IPO – I’ve expanded this news into a standalone item on the state of the life-science IPO market here.

OraMetrix raises $20M for robotic orthodontic systems – Richardson, Tex.-based OraMetrix, a maker of 3-D robotic systems for orthodontic use, raised $20 million in a new funding round, peHUB reports. The financing is either a third round (as peHUB puts it) or a sixth (as VentureWire reports based on an interview with the company’s CFO). Existing investors, including Rho Capital Partners, Versant Ventures, Brentwood Venture Capital and Star Ventures, provided the cash.

Founded in 1998, OraMetrix makes and sells what it calls the SureSmile system for orthodontic braces. After taking a 3-D scan of a patient’s mouth, an orthodontist can then use the system’s computer modeling to develop a treatment plan. A robotic system then precisely bends the “archwires” that push teeth around.

OraMetrix claims the system shortens the duration of treatment and reduces office visits. The company has sold the system since 2004 and told VentureWire that it has installed SureSmile for more than 200 doctors, but says it needs to roughly double that figure to reach profitability.

Microarray maker TeleChem goes public via reverse merger – TeleChem International, a Sunnyvale, Calif., maker of gene-chip microarrays that is also known as ArrayIt, went public via a reverse merger with Integrated Media Holdings. The companies don’t quite call it a reverse merger, but given that IMH shares have traded at around two cents since September, the company has a shareholder’s deficit of $1.5 million and noted in its latest quarterly filing that there is “substantial doubt” about its ability to remain a going concern, the dots aren’t all that hard to connect.

Technically, IMH acquired TeleChem’s existing shares in exchange for 35 million shares of the merged company, which will undergo a one for 30 reverse split. At yesterday’s IMH close of, yes, two cents, that values the deal at about $21 million.

BioVascular pulls in $11M for platelet-disease treatments – San Diego’s BioVascular, a specialty pharma focused on drugs for fighting blood clots related to heart surgery, raised $10.9 million in a third funding round. Investors included BB Biotech Ventures, Merck KGaA and Domain Associates.

The funds will allow BioVascular to complete early-stage trials of two drugs, saratin for the prevention of clotting in grafted vessels following heart-bypass operations, and BVI-007, a platelet-production inhibitor it acquired last year when it bought out the biotech Revitus.

Cequent Pharma adds $4.5M for for RNAi drugs – Cequent Pharmaceuticals, a Cambridge, Mass., developer of drugs based on the gene-silencing technique called RNA interference, added $4.5 million to its first funding round, VentureWire reports. The new cash, provided by existing investors Novartis Option Fund, Ampersand Ventures, Nexus Medical Partners and Pappas Ventures, brings Cequent’s total funding in the round to $13.5 million.

RNAi involves the use of short stretches of RNA that engage ancient cellular mechanisms for silencing the output of particular disease-related genes. RNA, however, doesn’t enter cells easily, so Cequent is working on a way to use genetically engineered, non-disease-causing bacteria that will enter human cells and produce the desired RNA molecules locally. We covered Cequent’s previous funding here.

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 diagnostic devices – I’ve moved this item to a standalone post here.

EKR Thera raises funds, pays up to $170M to “reacquire” PDL BioPharma drug – This item is now a standalone post here.

Moksha8 takes in $39M to commercialize drugs for Asia – Moksha8, a stealthy San Francisco drug developer that commercializes “high-value” therapies for Asia and other markets, raised a combined $39 million in first and second funding rounds, peHUB reports, citing regulatory filings. TPG Biotech provided the $24 million first round, and was joined by Lit Tele of Brazil in a $15 million second round.

Actually, I call Moksha8 a San Francisco company because peHUB does, but I have my doubts. The company’s stub of a Web site lists offices in Hong Kong, SF, Philadelphia and London, and provides Hong Kong and Philadelphia-area phone numbers as its main points of contact. The company’s name, by the way, appears to be a reference to the Hindu term for liberation from the cycle of reincarnation. One more observation from the Web site: Moksha8’s “other markets” are likely in Central and South America, which is the only region besides Asia highlighted on a global-map background image there.

Dynogen Pharma goes public, gets $98M in reverse merger – Dynogen Pharmaceuticals, a Waltham, Mass., specialty pharma focused on gastrointestinal disease, went public in a reverse merger with Apex Bioventures Acquisition, a “specialty acquisition” corporation. Such entities are formed by investors specifically to acquire private companies, and frequently — as in this case — raise funds for later acquisitions via an IPO.

Dynogen shareholders will receive $98 million in Apex stock, and are eligible for two additional milestone-related payments of $23 million apiece. The combined company, which will be run by Dynogen’s CEO and operate out of Dynogen’s current offices, is expected to have up to $65 million in cash by the time the deal closes.

Implantable-diagnostic maker Transoma Medical postpones IPO – Transoma Medical, a St. Paul, Minn., maker of implantable medical-diagnostic devices, postponed its planned $77.6 million IPO, IPOhome reports. The company hasn’t yet formally withdrawn the offering, although that seems a foregone conclusion at this point.

Transoma makes implantable monitoring devices, such as a wireless gadget that monitors an individual’s heartbeat and transmits the information to a data center and then to a doctor’s office. Our previous coverage of Transoma is here and here; we’ve also written about startups working on similar devices, such as CardioMEMS and its implantable wireless sensors for measuring blood pressure, heart function and heart rate, here.

Featured companies: Atritech, Avalon Partners, Ensemble Discovery, Hyperion Therapeutics, LifeBond, ReShape Medical, SafeStitch, Trophos, UltraShape

Hyperion Therapeutics raises $40M against GI and kidney disease — Hyperion Therapeutics, a South San Francisco, Calif., specialty pharmaceutical company, raised $40 million in a second funding round. Investors included Sofinnova Ventures, Highland Capital Partners, New Enterprise Associates and WRF Capital.

Hyperion, which buys the rights to test and market drug candidates from other companies, said the proceeds will allow it to complete a licensing agreement with Medicis Pharmaceutical’s Ucyclyd subsidiary, build out its management team and advance its clinical trials. The company’s two leading candidates address a genetic disease called urea cycle disorder, in which toxic ammonia builds up in the blood stream, and hepatic encephalopathy, a neurological complication of cirrhosis.

Atritech raises $22M for clot-prevention device — Plymouth, Minn.-based Atritech, a developer of a device designed to prevent dangerous blood clots, raised $22 million in a fourth funding round. Investors included SightLine Healthcare Vintage Fund, Prism Venture Partners and other existing investors.

Atritech’s device, which it calls the Watchman system, is essentially a tiny mesh basket designed to be implanted in the opening to the heart’s left atrial appendage, a small pouch on the top of the heart. That pouch is often the source of blood clots in patients with atrial fibrillation, a condition in which the heart’s upper chambers beat too fast. Ideally, the implanted basket will catch clots that threaten to escape into the bloodstream, where they could cause a stroke.

The funding will allow Atritech to finish enrolling patients in a late-stage trial of the Watchman device, which is being tested against a blood thinner typically given to prevent clots from forming.

UltraShape gets $15.1M for “body contouring” — UltraShape, an Israeli developer of ultrasound systems designed to break down fat cells for cosmetic purposes, raised $15.1 million in a fifth funding round. Investors included Meritech Capital Partners, Israel Seed Partners and Polaris Venture Partners. The company’s non-invasive device isn’t approved for use in the U.S.

Trophos raises $11.6M for neurological drugs — Trophos, a Marseille, France, biotech focused on developing new drugs for neurological conditions, raised $11.6 million (€8.5 million) in a third round of funding. Investors included OTC Asset Management, CM-CIC Capital Privé, Society General Asset Management (SGAM), Viveris Management, Turenne Capital Partners, Blue Medical and the Association Française contre les Myopathies.

Trophos develops drugs that it believes will promote the survival of neurons threatened by degenerative neurological diseases such as Huntingdon’s disease. Its leading candidates target neuropathic pain and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, better known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

SafeStitch goes public in reverse merger, raises $4M in debt — SafeStitch, a Miami medical-device maker without a Web site, went public in a reverse merger with the defunct firm Cellular Technical Services. The company will list its shares on the American Stock Exchange. As part of the deal, SafeStitch raised a $4 million line of credit from the Frost Group, a private-equity firm, and also takes control of $3 million in cash held by CTS. The company makes devices for minimally invasive gastrointestinal surgery.

NationsHealth acquires Diabetes Care & Education for $3M — NationsHealth, a Sunrise, Fla., provider of medical products and insurance-related services, acquired Diabetes Care & Education, a provider of insulin pumps and related supplies for diabetics. NationsHealth will pay $3 million, $2.5 million in cash and $500,000 in unregistered common stock.

Obesity-device maker ReShape Medical pulls in $3M — ReShape Medical, a Lake Forest, Calif., developer of minimally invasive medical devices to treat obesity, raised $3 million in a follow-on to its first funding round, PE Hub reported, citing a regulatory filing. Investors included New Leaf Venture Partners and SV Life Sciences. The company was previously known as Abdominis, and has now raised a total of $8 million.

Avalon Ventures raises $84 million in eighth fund — Avalon Ventures, a La Jolla, Calif., venture-capital firm specializing in life-science and wireless-technology companies, raised $84 million in an eighth fund, VentureWire reports (subscription required), citing a regulatory filing. Avalon previously raised $75 million for its seventh fund, which closed in 2005.

LifeBond gets $1.5M for new surgical bandages — LifeBond, a Jerusalem-based device company, raised $1.5 million. Investors included GlenRock Israel and the Zitelman Group.

LifeBond is developing a bandage that exudes a sticky gel when it comes into contact with blood, presumably creating a barrier that minimizes blood loss.

Ensemble Discovery , a Cambridge, Mass., biotech, named former Pfizer vice president Michael Taylor as its CEO. Ensemble is developing new drugs and tests based on large, repetitive molecules called macrocycles.

Ensemble raised $17 million in a first funding round in 2004, and in February VentureWire reported that the company was closing a second round in the “tens of millions.”

Athersys, a Cleveland, Ohio biotech, went public via reverse merger and raised $65 million in a private placement. The company’s release is here.

Founded in 1995, Athersys is active in a bewildering number of areas. Its lead product candidate is an appetite-suppressing drug that acts on a serotonin receptor in the brain called 5HT2c, and in general the company describes itself as focused on metabolic and neurological conditions. But it is also at work on an adult-derived stem-cell treatment for heart disease, stroke and bone-marrow transplant patients. None of these products, however, appear to be in human trials yet, which is sort of intriguing given how long the company has been around.

It turns out that Athersys is also a biotech chameleon. In 2000, it filed to raise $115 million in an IPO. According to its S-1 registration statement, the company was then a “functional genomics” company, which essentially means it surveyed large numbers of genes in an attempt to determine their function. Although popular during the genomics bubble of 1999-2000, this sort of business tended not to pan out for many companies. Athersys withdrew its proposed IPO six months after it was filed.

The Athersys funding was led by Radius Ventures, joined by OrbiMed Advisors, RA Capital Management, Accipiter Capital Management, Hambrecht & Quist Capital Management, MPM BioEquities, and Pappas Ventures.