Sure, 3D printing is cool and wonderful, and even can make awesome three-dimensional business cards. But can it save your life?
TODAY’S HEADLINES:
BrainCells raises $30M for neuroregeneration drugs (release)
EKR Therapeutics takes in $50M plus $95M in debt for pain, heart drugs (release)
Wright Medical acquires Berkeley’s Inbone Tech for $24M (release)
Argolyn Bioscience names Nixon Ellis as CEO (release)
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Last week, the Irvine, Calif., startup PrimeGen Biotech made a startling claim: It had successfully transformed adult skin, kidney and retina cells into stem cells, without using viral gene therapy that could trigger cancer. That would represent a significant advance …
TODAY’S HEADLINES:
Q Thera takes in $15M for neural stem-cell treatments (release)
Stroke clotbuster Concentric Medical withdraws IPO (IPOhome)
Avera recaps with $9M to relaunch human tests of GI drug (VentureWire)
Tissue repairer Nerites raises $5.7M (release)
Semafore Pharma aims
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A potentially interesting legal drama is unfolding at Minerva Biotechnologies, a Waltham, Mass., startup developing biochips and exploring the biology of cancer stem cells. In a terse release, the company said it has terminated CEO Jim Czirr and launched a …
(NOTE: Apologies — especially to RSS readers — if you’ve seen this post before, but an apparent server error ate it late yesterday and I was only able to recover it this morning. Enjoy, or ignore, as seems most …
TODAY’S HEADLINES:
TransEnterix gets $21M for minimally invasive GI surgery (release)
Stem-cell developer Bioheart’s IPO postponed (Forbes.com)
Medical-practice software provider AdvancedMD acquired by Francisco Partners (release)
Peptimmune draws $8.2M for MS drug trials (release)
Drug-delivery co. Talima Thera names Martin
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TODAY’S HEADLINES:
Cancer stem-cell co. OncoMed strikes GSK partnership worth up to $1.4B (release)
Kosmix pulls in $10M for health, lifestyle search (release)
CDI Bioscience pulls in $3M for protein-production improvements (release)
UroMedica takes in $7M for incontinence devices (VentureWire,
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Featured companies: Fate Therapeutics, Medgenics, Satoris
UPDATED: Expanded items on Fate Therapeutics and Medgenics. The Satoris item is now a standalone post here.
Fate Therapeutics launches regenerative-medicine quest with $12M — In one of the splashiest launches in recent memory, …
Featured companies: Bind Biosciences, Clarus Therapeutics, HealOr, HistroRx, Plasticell, SpinalMotion, Xenome, Yaupon Therapeutics
UPDATED: Expanded items on SpinalMotion and Plasticell. Previous items on Evalve and Excaliard have been expanded into standalone posts here and here.
Spinal-disc maker SpinalMotion arranges $14M …
(UPDATED: See below.)
Two research groups have just reported ways to “reprogram” ordinary cells in ways that cause them to revert into a primordial state resembling that of embryonic stem cells. Those embryonic cells have long been controversial because …
California’s $3 billion stem-cell agency, which has been without a permanent leader since the end of April, finally filled that void yesterday by naming Alan Trounson as its second president.
Hopes are obviously high that the widely respected Australian scientist, …
Featured companies: Aldagen, LDR, Lyten Endoscopy, MachLabs, Permatox, TeleMedicine Clinic, ThromboVision
Spinal-implant maker LDR raises $25M — Austin, Texas-based LDR, a maker of spinal implants, raised $25 million in a third funding round. Investors included Telegraph Hill Partners, Austin Ventures, …
(CORRECTED: See below.)
These should be the best of times for California’s $3 billion stem-cell program. Lawsuits that barred the institute from spending its vast sums have been dismissed, serious money has started to flow to scientists, and a …
(UPDATED: See below.)
Stem-cell proponents have long told anyone who will listen that U.S. restrictions on the research will lead to a “brain drain” of scientists emigrating to other countries where the work can proceed without limits.
The prospect …
(CORRECTED: See below.)
Featured companies: VistaGen Therapeutics, MindWeavers, Cutanea Life Sciences, Heptares Therapeutics
VistaGen raises $3.75M for stem-cell based drug discovery — South San Francisco, Calif.-based VistaGen Therapeutics, a biotech that uses human embryonic stem cells to discover new …
Novocell, a San Diego embryonic stem-cell company, raised $25 million in a third round of funding. That’s presumably a bit of a letdown for the company, which had previously hoped to pull in as much as $35 million in the …
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 …
(UPDATED: See below.)
Sunrise, Fla.-based Bioheart thinks enough of its stem-cell treatment for heart disease that it has just boosted its expected IPO take by $10 million, to $45 million. A close reading of its latest SEC filing, however, …
Flip switch for stem cells – Three research teams reported a technique for “reprogramming” skin cells into embryonic stem cells, those primordial bits of protoplasm that can propagate themselves indefinitely and, under the right conditions, transform themselves into any type …
