Biotech Financings Galore…
February 12, 2009 at 4:14 pm EST | Tags: FinancingHere’s a quick roundup of some the latest financings…lots of cool stuff.
HX Diagnostics landed $3.1M in
a Series A from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Nanogen and Xiamen
YST Biotech. HX Diagnostics is developing rapid point-of-care
immunoassays for detecting pandemic and seasonal influenza. The
Influenza A/B tests will be able provide rapid, qualitative detection
of Type A, Type B antigens from nasal aspirate, nasal swab, throat
swab or nasopharyngeal specimens. [VentureBeat]
Alios BioPharma concluded
the first closing of its $24M Series A financing. The first tranche of
$8.4M has been received and was led by Novo Ventures, Novartis
Ventures and the Roche Venture Fund.
Alios is working on small molecule activators of innate immunity antiviral pathways (RNase L activation), phosphate protected nucleotide prodrug chemistry, and glycoprotein-engineering of interferons (Glycoferon). [MSNBC]
ActoGeniX brought in $17M USD from
European investors to advance its lead product, AG011, for
inflammatory bowel
disease. AG011 is currently in a Phase 2 clinical trial in patients
with ulcerative colitis. Top-line data expected before mid-2009.
Investors included Biovest (Belgium), Gimv, Biotech Fund Flanders, Baekeland Fund, VIB (Belgium), LSP, Aescap Venture (the Netherlands) and Ventech (France). [FierceBiotech]
Esperance Pharmaceuticals raked in an additional $5M, bringing its Series A
total to $14M. The company is using technology licensed from LSU to
develop a targeted anticancer fusion protein that is selectively toxic
to cancer cells and will use the funding to identify a lead compound,
establish an assay to select candidate patients and conduct a
proof-of-concept study in humans with cancer.
Investors include the Louisiana Fund I, Themelios Ventures Partners LP and Research Corporation Technologies. [BioSpace]
Diffusion Pharmaceuticals brought in $2.9M last week to advance its lead
product trans sodium crocetinate (TSC). TSC is currently in a Phase
1/2 clinical trial in patients with peripheral arterial disease
patients and a Phase I trial in patients with high-grade gliomas. [Bio-Medicine]
Divergence Inc. based in St.
Louis raised $11.8M to advance its programs of small molecules to
treat parasite infestation. The products will address the
agricultural nematode control market as well human and animal
anti-helminthic disease.
Investors included MidPoint Food and Ag Fund, Prolog Ventures and certain partners of William Blair & Co. [St. Louis Business Journal]
And that’s that…



