Life-science briefing: Monday, March 10, 2008
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)
BrainCells raises $30M for neuroregeneration drugs – San Diego’s BrainCells, a startup focused on drugs intended to stimulate the growth of new neurons, raised $30 million in a second funding round. Investors included MedImmune Ventures, Bay City Capital, Oxford Bioscience Partners,… Continue Reading
Science by press release — PrimeGen’s murky stem-cell “breakthrough”
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 over the discovery last year (see our coverage) that inserting just four genes into ordinary cells could reawaken their ability to transform themselves into any type of tissue, potentially opening the door to regenerative medicine… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Friday, Feb. 15, 2008
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 for $7.5M to launch new cancer-drug trials (VentureWire)
Triage Wireless gets $6.7M for “cuffless” blood-pressure monitors (peHUB)
MAKO Surgicals prices IPO, falls in first day of trading (WSJ)
ImmunoCellular acquires assets of Molecular Antibody Technology (release)
Q Thera takes in $15M for neural stem-cell… Continue Reading
Biochip and stem-cell biotech Minerva fires, sues its CEO
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 search for his successor. Minerva also said it has filed suit against Czirr in Massachusetts Superior Court.
Details are still rather sketchy at this point. I spoke briefly with Minerva founder Cynthia Bamdad, who declined to… Continue Reading
Bioroundup: Stem-cell science and money, genetic tests go political, clinical-trial data woes, and more
(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 fit.)
Featured stories:
Stem-cell science, money and death
Gene tests: Out of control?
Clinical-trial data wants to be free
Drug, biotech industries face uncertainty
Short takes
Clones, regrown hearts, money and death — Last week, the San Diego biotech http://www.stemagen.com/… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Thursday, Jan. 17, 2007
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 Babler CEO (release)
Alimera Sciences aims for autumn IPO to fund diabetic eye-disease drug (VentureWire, sub req’d)
TransEnterix gets $21M for minimally invasive GI surgery — TransEnterix (no Web site), a Research Triangle Park, N.C., device maker developing tools for “natural orifice”… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2007
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, sub req’d)
Draths raises $2.5M for flu drugs (PE Hub)
Cancer stem-cell co. OncoMed strikes GSK partnership worth up to $1.4B – Redwood City, Calif.-based OncoMed Pharmaceuticals, a biotech founded to target and destroy the “cancer stem cells” that researchers believe may… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Friday, Nov. 30, 2007
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, Seattle’s Fate Therapeutics launched a new regenerative-medicine quest and raised $12 million to help it along. The company aims to develop drugs that redirect fundamental cell biology in ways that mimic the regenerative powers of stem cells, either by… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2007
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 loan facility — SpinalMotion, a Mountain View, Calif., developer of artificial spinal discs, arranged a $14 million “loan facility” — sort of a line of credit — with GE Healthcare Financial Services. The company last raised $20 million in… Continue Reading
Embryonic stem cells without embryos — they’re here
(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 they’re derived from five-day-old embryos in a destructive process, but also hold the promise of unlocking the body’s ability to regenerate damaged or diseased organs because they’re capable of transforming themselves into any type of tissue.
The new techniques… Continue Reading
Stem-cell institute gets a new president, but its management challenges haven’t gone away
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, pictured at left, can bring some stability to the institute, formally known as the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine. A string of CIRM staffers, including former president Zach Hall and chief scientist Arlene Chiu, have… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Thursday, Sept. 13, 2007
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, Rothschild Private Equity and PTV Sciences.
LDR sells spinal-fusion devices, artificial disks and other spine-related devices in more than 30 countries, and plans to use the funds for further expansion.
Aldagen adds $9M for adult stem-cell work — Aldagen,… Continue Reading
California’s stem-cell management disarray
(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 $227 million capital-spending project that will build new laboratories across the state is gearing up.
For all its successes, however, the stem-cell organization — formally known as the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine — can’t seem to keep its… Continue Reading
Stem-cell “brain drain” or “brain gain”?
(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 of the brain drain, though, was always somewhat overblown, as only a handful of scientists have emigrated specifically to escape federal limits on stem-cell research. Among them were Roger Pedersen, the UCSF biologist who in 2001 decamped to… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Friday, Aug. 10, 2007
(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 drugs, raised $3.75 million in a bridge financing as it prepares to raise up to $20 million in a fourth round, VentureWire reports (subscription required). Montaur Capital Partners provided the funding.
VistaGen, founded in 1998, isn’t your typical stem-cell company. Where… Continue Reading
Novocell: With diabetes study pending, investors pony up another $25M
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 round. I wrote earlier about Novocell’s fundraising here.
The round was led by Johnson & Johnson Development, the venture arm of J&J itself, joined by Sanderling Ventures, Asset Management Company and Pacific Horizon Ventures.
In my… 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
Bioheart: A risky stem-cell company boosts its IPO hopes
(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, raises a fair number of questions for would-be investors.
Bioheart’s leading therapy candidate is MyoCell, a treatment designed to reverse heart-attack damage. MyoCell consists of myoblasts — a kind of muscle stem cell — that are removed from a… Continue Reading
Roundup: Guilt-free stem cells, the trials of Avandia, sponsor research bias, news from ASCO, and more
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 of cell in the body. Deriving embryonic stem cells normally requires destroying an embryo — the main reason research with the cells remains limited, as does federal support for the work.
Teams from Kyoto University, MIT and… Continue Reading
Legal cloud lifts from California stem-cell effort
The California Supreme Court swept away the last legal impediment to the state’s $3 billion stem-cell research program Wednesday when it declined to review two lawsuits that challenged its constitutionality.
Ideological foes of the state’s stem-cell effort, which voters approved by a large margin in a 2004 ballot initiative, have waged a two-year battle in the courts to shut it down. The opponents — a coalition of anti-tax and limited-government conservatives and anti-abortion activists — argued… Continue Reading