Life-science briefing: Monday, April 7, 2008
TODAY’S HEADLINES:
Quark Pharma gets $27M for RNAi drugs (release)
TargetRx takes in $9.6M for physician-prescribing data (release)
D-Pharm raises more than $3M for fat-like drugs (release)
Vortex Medical raises $2.3M for medical devices (VentureWire)
Specialty pharma Ascio takes in $3M (VentureWire)
Keraderm gets $1.7M for antifungal drugs (VentureWire)
Contract researcher CTMG raises $500K toward $1M round (VentureWire)
Singapore’s Progeniq raises seed funding for life-science computing (release)
Acrongenomics scuttles Molecular Vision acquisition (peHUB)
Michael Gutch joins H.I.G. Ventures (release)
Quark Pharma gets $27M for RNAi drugs – Fremont, Calif.-based Quark Pharmaceuticals,… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Thursday, Feb. 28, 2008
TODAY’S HEADLINES:
RNAi developer PhaseRx gets $4M of a pledged $19M (Seattle Times)
TyRx Pharma, drug-device combo maker, raises $25M (release)
Agennix aims at $40M for cancer drugs (VentureWire)
Starr Life Sciences goes after $1.6M for small-animal vital-signs scanner (VW)
CardioNet sets IPO terms, aims to raise $96M (IPOhome)
RNAi developer PhaseRx gets $4M of a pledged $19M – Investor interest in RNA interference, an ancient cellular mechanism for silencing dangerous genes, continues apace. PhaseRx, a Seattle biotech, has raised $4 million… Continue Reading
Quark Pharma: Not quite such a chameleon, after all
Last June, I posted about the long and winding history of Fremont, Calif.-based Quark Pharmaceuticals, a biotech developing drugs based on a new gene-silencing technology called RNA interference, or RNAi. At the time, I labeled the company a biotech chameleon — a term I used to describe biotechs that reinvent themselves, often abruptly and without looking back.
In that sense, Quark is still a chameleon, by which I don’t mean anything pejorative — biotechs turn on… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Thursday, Feb. 7, 2008
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… 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
RNA-drug developer Quark aims for $30M after failed IPO
Fremont, Calif.-based Quark Pharmaceuticals, a biotech developing drugs based on a new technology called RNA interference, hopes to raise $30 million in an eighth funding round, VentureWire reports. Last year, Quark sought $80.5 million in an ultimately abortive IPO.
Quark apparently hopes to close the round within the next few weeks. The company hasn’t given up hope of going public, and now envisions re-filing its IPO in mid-2009. Quark, a biotech chameleon with a long and… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Monday, Jan. 7, 2008
TODAY’S HEADLINES:
Surgical-device maker Aragon Surgical receives $25M (release)
Tacere Therapeutics strikes RNAi deal with Pfizer for up to $145M (release)
Benvenue Medical raises $15M for spine-repair devices (release)
Genome-association co. Genizon BioSciences draws C$31M (release)
Contract research organization Inclinix pulls in $10M (release)
EPocrates, healthcare IT developer, gets strategic investment from Goldman Sachs (release)
ZyGem closes first funding round (release)
Onset Ventures names John Ryan partner (release)
Retired Scripps immunologist Richard Ulevitch joins 5AM Ventures (release)
SV Life Sciences promotes Darren Black to partner… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2007
Featured companies: AerovectRx, Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, Harmony Information Systems, Intelligent Hospital Systems, Merrion Pharmaceuticals, Syntaxin, SymBio Pharmaceuticals
UPDATED: Expanded items on Harmony Info, SymBio Pharma and Merrion Pharma, added Dicerna item.
UPDATE REDUX: Added Syntaxin item.
U.K. biotech Syntaxin raises £16M for pain and nervous-system drugs — Syntaxin, a U.K. biotech focused on drugs that affect cell secretion, raised £16 million ($33.2 million) in a second funding round. The company’s release is here.
Investors in the round included SR One, the venture capital… Continue Reading
Roundup: Biogenerics bill in limbo, clashing data on health IT benefits, the RNAi boom, and more
House-Senate confrontation set over biogenerics – Late last month, a key group of senators reached agreement on legislative provisions that would authorize copycat versions of biotech drugs, which are typically complex proteins manufactured by genetically engineered cells (see details here and here). These provisions would finally put biotech drugs — which don’t face cut-rate competition once their key patents expire — on a par with traditional pharmaceuticals, and have been a long time in coming. They’re… Continue Reading
RNAi developer Protiva raises $3.3M
Protiva, a Vancouver, B.C.-based developer of drugs based on the new technology of RNA interference, raised $3.3 million in debenture financing. Investors included GrowthWorks Capital, BDC Capital, the Canadian Medical Discoveries Fund and Kinetic Capital.
Protiva is currently embroiled in litigation against two other biotechs, including Sirna Therapeutics, another RNAi company acquired by Merck last December, and Tekmira Pharmaceuticals.
Quark Pharma IPO delayed
Quark Pharmaceuticals, the biotech chameleon I profiled here, delayed an IPO that the company expects to raise as much as $81 million, VentureWire reports (subscription required). The newswire said the Fremont, Calif., developer of RNA-interference drugs was slated to begin trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market today.
It’s hard to know what a postponement like this means, although I can’t help wondering if picky investors who have already turned up their noses at a number of… Continue Reading
Tacere Therapeutics sells equity stake to Oncolys BioPharma for hepatitis-drug development
Tacere Therapeutics, a San Jose, Calif., biotech developing new RNA-based drugs, struck a partnership with Tokyo’s Oncolys BioPharma to co-develop a treatment for hepatitis C. The companies didn’t disclose financial terms of the deal.
In exchange for an undisclosed equity investment in Tacere, Oncolys will hold an option to acquire Asian rights to Tacere’s drug TT-033, which Tacere hopes to move into clinical trials late next year.
TT-033 is a drug based on a new and… Continue Reading
Biotech chameleons: Quark Pharma aims for $81M IPO
(UPDATED: See below.)
For some reason, biotechnology is rife with chameleons — companies that suddenly and radically alter their scientific strategy, disease focus or business model, sometimes to recover from a major failure, and sometimes just to be whatever faddish investors want them to be.
Today, for instance, Quark Pharmaceuticals — now a Fremont, Calif., developer of drugs that work via a new mechanism known as “RNA interference” — said in an SEC filing that it now… Continue Reading
Massachusetts jumps on the stem-cell bandwagon
(UPDATE: Minor editing.)
Massachusetts may soon be the next state to offer direct support for stem-cell research and related biotechnology developments. Gov. Deval Patrick yesterday proposed a $1 billion, 10 year life-sciences initiative that would provide a variety of direct grants and subsidies aimed at promoting both academic research and commercial development of new medical therapies.
Although Patrick’s plan is similar in some respects to California’s enormous $3 billion stem-cell effort and New York’s proposed $1 billion investment… Continue Reading