Recent Financings: Drugs vs. Diagnostics

February 6, 2009 at 10:32 am EST | Tags:

There’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.

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