Life-science briefing: Monday, April 7, 2008

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… Continue Reading

Life sciences briefing: Thursday, Feb. 28, 2008

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… Continue Reading

Quark Pharma: Not quite such a chameleon, after all

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… Continue Reading

Life sciences briefing: Thursday, Feb. 7, 2008

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,… Continue Reading

Life sciences briefing: Monday, Feb. 4, 2008

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

RNA-drug developer Quark aims for $30M after failed IPO

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… Continue Reading

Life sciences briefing: Monday, Jan. 7, 2008

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… Continue Reading

Life sciences briefing: Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2007

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… Continue Reading

Roundup: Biogenerics bill in limbo, clashing data on health IT benefits, the RNAi boom, and more

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… 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… Continue Reading

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… 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… Continue Reading

Biotech chameleons: Quark Pharma aims for $81M IPO

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… Continue Reading

Massachusetts jumps on the stem-cell bandwagon

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… Continue Reading