Recent Financings: Drugs vs. Diagnostics
February 6, 2009 at 10:32 am EST | Tags: FinancingThere’s been a few financings recently which we haven’t mentioned. While there’s some drug development players in here, it looks like diagnostic companies are doing quite well despite the draining of investor wells. Here we go…
Linkage Biosciences just
announced that they secured $2M USD in a Series A from Greenhouse
Capital Partners and James R. Fisher, managing member of Fisher
Capital Corp, the latter of which is partnered with Kohlberg Kravis
Roberts & Co. Linkage develops molecular diagnostics that focus on
human leukocyte antigen (HLA) typing for solid organ and hematopoietic
stem cell transplantation.
CEO Zachary Antovich said “Our unique advantages are speed and simplicity while achieving superior accuracy. Our tests generate results much faster, with far less effort, than anything else available in the marketplace. We are pleased to have the support and experience of Greenhouse Capital and Jim Fisher as we begin to commercialize our products and expand our presence in the marketplace.”
MolecularMD
received $3M from Ballast Point Ventures. MolecularMD markets BCR-ABL
diagnostic kits for monitoring patients on Gleevec. The company says
they’re planning on using the funds to expand their infrastructure and
advance other programs in colon and lung cancer.
Arcxis Biotechnologies announced an
infusion of $8M+ from Claremont Creek Ventures, Alafi Capital and
Kaiser Permanente Ventures. This is the first tranche of an
anticipated $15M raise that will be used to launch the company’s first
product, the Lysix Nucleic Acid Workstation (below).

The product works by rapidly isolating, identifying and characterizing genes and proteins that have “changed” as a result of infectious disease and cancer. The process will allow for faster, more accurate and economical diagnosis and can also be used in environmental and epidemiological studies.
Arcxis has already raised $5 million in a first round of financing, including $3M in grants from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the National Institute of General Medical Sciences and Roche Molecular Systems. The company has also announced that it is partnering with Homeland Security to produce a 20-minute diagnostic test to detect the presence of bacterial and viral agents in a patient’s blood.
Rib-X Pharmaceuticals’ next
generation fluoroquinolone, delafloxacin (RX-3341), got some positive
results in their recent Phase 2 trial for complicated skin and skin
structure infections (cSSSI). The results garnered the company a a
$25M cash infusion to advance its pipeline. Investors included
Warburg Pincus, ABS Ventures, Axiom Ventures, EuclidSR Partners,
MedImmune Ventures, Oxford Bioscience Partners, S.R. One, and Vox
Equity Partners.
Enzymotec, maker of
biofunctional ingredients that address nutritional states and
diseases, secured $11M in a Series B from existing investors Ofer Hi
Tech, Millennium Material Technologies Fund, Galam, and a new
investor, Mexican food additives manufacturer Arancia Industrial SA de
CV. Enzymotec, founded in 2000, has also obtained a $7M credit line
from an Israeli bank.
Eiger Biopharmaceuticals has raised $7.1M in Series A from InterWest
Partners and Vivo Ventures. Though the company does not have a website
and remains elusive about their products, sources tell us the
company’s technology is based off modulators
of cathepsin S. The company is going after therapy areas such as
psoriasis, pain, multiple sclerosis, atherosclerosis, and rheumatoid
arthritis.
Symphogen, danish developer of
recombinant polyclonal antibodies, has raised $42M in a FIFTH round of
financing from Essex Woodlands Health Ventures. The financing will be
used to advance Sym004, a polyclonal antibody against EGFR that
targets multiple epitopes vs just one epitope by currently marketed
mAbs.
…and that’s that.



