Deals and Data, Feb. 3-23, 2009
Xconomy.com reports that hybrid contact lens-maker SynergEyes landed a $13.3 million venture round, led by De Novo Ventures of Palo Alto, CA, with five other venture firms, Bio-Star Private Equity Fund of Petoskey, MI; Alloy Ventures of Palo Alto; Delphi Ventures of Menlo Park, CA; InnoCal Venture Capital of Costa Mesa, CA; and San Diego-based Windward Ventures.
Mpex Pharmaceuticals landed a $27.5 million Series D financing led by Investor Growth Capital,with RiverVest Venture Partners, as well as existing investors SV LifeSciences, HBM BioVentures, Aberdare Ventures and Adams Street Partners.These investors also made commitments to bring the total financing to $40 million. Mpex’s lead product candidate, MP-376, is a proprietaryaerosol formulation of an antibiotic being developed as a maintenance therapy for patients with chronic respiratory infections, as well as for patients with cystic fibrosis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Cadence Pharmaceuticals landed a private placement of $86.6 million, led by venture capital firms Venrock, with participation by Frazier Healthcare Ventures, Domain Associates, Versant Ventures, NewEnterprise Associates, Bay City Capital and T. Rowe Price Associates. Cadence has two products in phase III trials, an intravenous paintreatment and a treatment for catheter-related infections.
We'd were remiss in missing Medtronic's $225 million acquisition of Ablation Frontiers in Carlsbad in January (PDF). Ablation Frontiers was a device company developing technology totreat atrial fibrillation by removing or cutting out damaged tissues.The deal closed in early February (PDF).
All eyes are on Arena as the company gets ready to unveil the pivotal data for its weigh loss drug. While one day its up and the next its down as day trading speculators try to guess which way the FDA will go on thereview of the company's potentially massive drug weight loss drug, the company assures us that no one has seen any of the data, which is still blinded. The company also started a Phase II trial of a treatment for atherosclerosis with Merck. Here's a profile in Xconomy.com, who also ran with an overview of algae-based biofuels firm like Sapphire Energy and efforts to bring them together.
While you're over there at Xconomy, here's a recent roundup of new news from Amylin and Icahn, Sequenom and the numbers, the Pfizer-Wyeth deal and BIOCOM's efforts in D.C. And here's another week's roundup, with info on Histogen, Cadence and Vertex.
Speaking of Amylin, Eastbourne Capital has nominated a handful of new directors for the company … Isis started a Phase I clinical trial of an antisense-based treatment for Type 2 diabetes … Ain't it cool that InnerCool got on the news in Chicago? … The SDUT did an interesting Sunday roundup on the current state of affairs at Gen-Probe; we'll adjust our documents to show that they now screen 90 percent of the nation's blood supply for STDs, and continue hoping we never get any 'positive' mail from them.
Oh, and on the Vertex front, don't forget their take on Vertex's planned $320 million stock offering, which we'll quote here: "Vertex Pharmaceuticals has struck a deal to raise a jaw-dropping $320 million in a secondary offering of stock. The biotech company, which has 1,300 employees at its Cambridge, MA headquarters and 200 in San Diego, is rallying investors around drug candidates that it hopes will set new standards of effectively treating hepatitis C and cystic fibrosis."
Fresh of the approval of a new drug developed here in town, Ferring Research Institute opened up a 38,000 square foot facility in Sorrento Mesa … La Jolla Pharmaceuticals announced that its treatment for Lupus had not proved to be effective at stopping the disease. Here's an article from the Union-Tribune on the plight of patients with the disease, an autoimmune disorder thatprimarily affects women. The company is looking at its options and hasalmost $30 million in the bank.
Vical took home a $2.3 million milestone payment from AnGes MG related to a clinical trial of Vical's Alovectin-3 to treat metastatic melanoma … MediciNova is still working to buy Avigen … TorreyPines Therapeutics says its treatment for pain showed that it was safe and well-tolerated in an early Phase I trial … Nanogen signed a deal with a Swedish firm called Scandinavian Gene Synthesis to use Nanogen's technology for molecular diagnostics. ScandinavianGene Synthesis- is that like the genetic equivalent of bleaching yourhair blond?
Going from A to Z, Aethelon Medical says it completed a Hepatitis-C trial of its hemopurifier, while Zogenix says the FDA will complete the review of the new drug submission of its Sumavel DosePro needle-fee treatment for migraines by July 15, 2009, so mark your calendars now.
FierceBiotech takes a closer look at local legends Ligand,who in case you are counting, have been responsible for six FDA-approved products and now have five pharma partnerships. Speaking of Ligand and drugs in development, the firm just showed Phase II data on a drug it acquired as part of its Pharmacopia acquisition a few months back showing the product to reduce blood pressure. Ligand also signed a screening deal with Trevana.
PacificGMP completed a collaboration with LigoCyte Pharmaceuticals on master cell and baculovirus banks and will provide storage services under cGMP (current good manufacturing practices) standards for LigoCyte's norovirus vaccine program … Senomyx, which uses technology to develop new food tastes and flavorings, has started development of a set of bitter blockers, which, for some reason, we just can't find punny.
Santarus submitted a New Drug Application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for a new tablet formulation of its Zegerid that is an new formulationis an immediate-release tablet that combines omeprazole, a proton pumpinhibitor, with a mix of buffers … Sequenom published more data on its genetic testing technology, this time showing it could test to show how certain leukemia patients could be more responsive to certain treatments. The company also showed newer data on its various tests for prenatal genetic disorders, as well.
Adventrx said it has completed patient enrollment in a Phase I test for an anti-cancer agent and is pursuing strategic options.
And finally, stem cell research firm International Stem Cell Technologies got an international shout-out in everyone's favorite "makes-me-feel-smarter-reading-it" magazine The Economist. Take a look here, then go buy a newsstand copy to walk around with so you can look smarter too.