VentureBeat

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 of a pledged $19 million first funding round, the Seattle Times reports.

Investors included ARCH Venture Partners, 5AM Ventures and Versant Ventures. PhaseRx will draw down the rest of the cash as it achieves various milestones.

The company seems to have neither a Web site nor a press release, and the newspaper story isn’t particularly illuminating on the subject of what PhaseRx intends to do. This Seattle Post-Intelligencer article has more details, however; apparently PhaseRx plans to use some form of synthetic polymer to help RNAi molecules cross into cells. (It’s unclear whether the polymer would also help stabilize RNAi molecules, which are fragile and prone to disintegrate before reaching their targets.)

TyRx Pharma, drug-device combo maker, raises $25M – Monmouth Junction, N.J., medical device maker TyRx Pharma raised $25 million in a new financing round. Investors included Clarus Ventures and Pappas Ventures.

TyRx focuses on implantable polymer-mesh bags meshes that have been coated with drugs of some kind. Its first product, the succinctly named AIGISrx CRMD Anti-Bacterial Envelope contains two antibiotics and is intended as an enclosure for implantable defibrillators designed to prevent infection. (UPDATE: The AEGISrx is actually the company’s most recent product. It also sells the Pivit, a similar polymer-mesh pouch for hernia surgeries. Also, the current financing round is the company’s fifth, according to VentureWire.)

Agennix aims at $40M for cancer drugs – Houston’s Agennix, a biotech developing drugs for cancer and other conditions, hopes to raise $40 million in a late-stage round to fund clinical trials, VentureWire reports. The company hopes to close the round by mid-year. Agennix is developing a bioengineered version of a human protein called talactoferrin that plays an important role in regulating the immune system. Agennix plans to use the funding to fund two late-stage, phase III trials of the drug in lung cancer.

CardioNet sets IPO terms, aims to raise $96M – San Diego’s CardioNet, a maker of wireless cardiac-monitoring devices that hopes to buck the recent trend of IPO collapses, set terms of its proposed IPO and now hopes to raise as much as $95.8 million.

The overall IPO, however, would be much larger — as large as $182.2 million, in fact — because existing CardioNet investors plan to sell more shares than the company itself. While there’s certainly precedent for this sort of thing — Masimo, another Southern California diagnostic-equipment maker, raised nearly a quarter of a million dollars in its IPO last August, the vast majority of which went to selling shareholders, conditions now are far worse than they were six months ago.

CardioNet plans to price its shares between $22 and $24 apiece. Its IPO, it turns out, is part of a complex financial arrangement whereby its last round of funding — $110 million raised last spring — didn’t put a valuation on the company. Instead, those investors received a promise of common stock in the form of shares that convert on the eve of the IPO. The down side here is that if the IPO doesn’t go well, those investors may be hosed. See here for more details.

Featured companies: AstraZeneca, Atlantis Components, Cara Therapeutics, CardioMems, Corium International, New Ortho Polymers, Osprey Pharmaceuticals, Othera Pharmaceuticals, StrataGent Life Sciences

Corium acquires Stratagent, raises $25.1M for “transdermal” drugs — Corium International, a Menlo Park, Calif., biotech focused on drugs that can be delivered through the skin, said it will acquire StrataGent Life Sciences of San Jose, Calif., for an undisclosed sum. At the same time, Corium raised $25.1 million in a third funding round, and said it has commitments for another $15.2 million within the next 24 months.

StrataGent, whose origins lie in work performed at Stanford, has focused on “needle-free” drug delivery using a microjet system in a microprocessor-controlled device resembling an electronic patch. (See our previous coverage here.) The company raised a $16 million round in May, although the company never received more than $6.7 million of that. Corium has a much broader focus that incorporates a variety of technologies for delivering drugs via the skin or mucosal surfaces such as the nasal passages or mouth.

Although ostensibly a straightforward merger, StrataGent CEO Robert Thomas will run the merged company, while Ron Eastman of Essex Woodlands Health Ventures — a previous StrataGent investor — will assume the job of chairman. StrataGent will relocate to Corium’s Menlo Park address. Investors in the latest round include Essex, Quantum Technology Partners, Aphelion Capital and an unnamed “strategic investor.”

CardioMems raises $23.3M for implantable heart sensors — Atlanta’s CardioMems, a medical-device company at work on a new generation of implantable heart sensors, raised $23.3 million in a still-open fifth funding round, VentureWire reports (subscription required). Investors in the round included “most” of the participants in the company’s previous round, a group that includes Arcapita Ventures, Easton Capital Partners, Boston Millennia Partners, Foundation Medical Partners, Medtronic Inc. and Johnson & Johnson Development Corp.

CardioMems is still looking for new investors. Its first product is a wireless sensor that can measure the pressure inside an aneurysm — a weakened section of an arterial wall that’s susceptible to rupture — during surgery intended to repair it.

Othera Pharma arranges $7M debt facility for an eye treatment — Exton, Pa.-based Othera Pharmaceuticals, a specialty pharmaceutical company at work on a new treatments for glaucoma and macular degeneration, arranged a $7 million debt facility with Oxford Financial, a subsidiary of Japan’s Sumitomo. The funding will help Othera advance its lead drug candidate in exsting mid-stage clinical trials.

Cara Thera receives $4M, moves to Connecticut from New York — Cara Therapeutics, a biotech formerly based in Tarrytown, N.Y., has received $4 million in facilities funding from Connecticut Innovations to help fund its move to Shelton, Conn. Cara, which is developing new pain and inflammation treatments, plans to use the money to build laboratory space in its new headquarters.

Connecticut Innovations is a quasi-public economic development agency. In a separate investment, the agency provided $250,000 in seed funding to New Ortho Polymers, a maker of orthodontic appliances.

EffRx raises convertible debt for osteoporosis — EffRx, a Tequesta, Fla., company that repackages old drugs in new formulations, raised an undisclosed some from a convertible debt offering, VentureWire reports. The funding will allow the company to push an “effervescent” version — think of Alka-Seltzer — of the osteoporosis drug Fosamax to the market. The investors weren’t disclosed.

Osprey Pharmaceuticals names new CEO — Osprey Pharmaceuticals, a Montreal biotech that’s consolidating its headquarters operations in San Francisco, named Jack Anthony as CEO. Anthony, currently an Osprey vice president, will remain in San Francisco. Osprey is developing new drugs for kidney disease.

AstraZeneca unit buys dental-implant maker for $71M — AstraZeneca’s medical-technology subsidiary, Astra Tech, agreed to acquire Cambridge, Mass.-based Atlantis Components for $71 million. Atlantis makes customized “abutments,” which are tiny components designed to stabilize dental implants. The company had previously raised about $26.3 million in four funding rounds, VentureWire reports.