From what I can tell, the company is working on the holy grail of in silico drug discovery. Add some inputs, out comes the list of compounds to synthesize. I work for a company that relies heavily on structure activity relationships between virtual molecules and receptor models and all I can say is… good luck.

Numerate Completes $4 Million Financing
-(Via Business Wire Health News.)

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Interesting play here. There is no doubt obesity is a huge and underserved market but one of the reasons is that the treatment therapies must be extremely safe (search CB1 antagonists or rimbonant if you’re in the mood for some light reading).

My question is this: how do you restrict vessel remodeling /angiogenesis (or whatever they’re doing) to just adipose tissue? I would imagine most molecular pathways involved in regulating this network are pretty homogenous across organ systems; no one is suggesting Avastin (VEGF inhibitor) be used for the treatment of obesity for instance

In my opinion, they are either on to something novel and interesting, or haven’t thought this through. Let’s hope for the sake of medicare’s pocketbook it’s the former.

Zafgen Raises $14 Million
-(Via BioSpace.com Featured News and Stories.)

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$85M is quite a haul but Pacira isn’t your normal, early stage delivery company. They already have an approved and marketable product in DepoFoam, a delivery technology that provides sustained-release delivery of injectable medications (e.g.; biologics).

Pacira has created formulations for six of the current top selling biologics; including EPO, G-CSF, hGH, INF-, FSH, and one undisclosed drug and intends to develop one or more of these assets as part of a biosimilar/bioimprovement strategy.

It seems this company is poised for a win. With the huge biosimilar push from insurers and a method for improved biologics dosing from companies, they have the market covered from both sides.

Pacira Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Raises $85 Million
-(Via BioSpace.com Featured News and Stories.)

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Can somebody explain to me how it is possible to launch a drug without having released results of a single phase 3 trial or have filed an NDA? Anybody?

Accera, Inc. Completes $35 Million Series C Financing
-(Via PR Newswire: Biotechnology.)

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The ChemoFx Drug Response Marker is a laboratory test that determines how an individual patient’s cancer cells will respond to different chemotherapy agents prior to initiating chemotherapy. Using ChemoFx to help select treatment can lead to better clinical outcomes while reducing exposure to toxic, ineffective chemotherapeutic agents. Clinical trials have demonstrated the potential for 1.4 times longer overall survival and a two- to three-fold improvement in progression-free cancer survival when ChemoFx is used in advance of making a therapeutic choice.

Interesting brute force method of testing for efficacy. I’m guessing the vast majority of this money goes into “product awareness.” It doesn’t matter how good your product and service is if no one knows about it.

Precision Therapeutics Secures $43 Million in Venture Capital Funding
-(Via PR Newswire: Pharmaceuticals/Biotechnology.)

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Fidelity Biosciences has injected $65 million into EnVivo Pharmaceuticals Inc. and bought out all other venture investors in the neurological-drug developer.

EnVivo Pharmaceuticals was founded in 2001 and currently has 38 FTEs. EnVivo had raised ~$63.2M in three funding rounds, $14.9M Series A in October 2002 and $24.3M Series B in September 2004, $24M Series C in September 2006. Investors included scientific founders, Fidelity Bioscience Group, BBBC Investor Group that includes Baylor College of Medicine, and CoGene BioTech Ventures.

Fidelity Biosciences Injects $65M, Takes Over EnVivo Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
-(Via BioSpace.com Featured News and Stories.)

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Image via Wikipedia

Alnara Pharmaceuticals announced today that it has secured $20 million in Series A venture capital financing. The round was co-led by Frazier Healthcare Ventures and Third Rock Ventures, and included co-investor Bessemer Venture Partners. Proceeds from the financing will be used to accelerate the development of non-systemic protein therapeutics.

The newly formed company is being led by Alexey Margolin, Ph.D., chief executive officer, and an experienced Board of Directors. Dr. Margolin is the former chief scientific officer of Altus Pharmaceuticals Inc. Alnara’s Board of Directors is chaired by Richard Aldrich, co-founder of Vertex and Sirtris, and includes Christoph Westphal, M.D., Ph.D., chief executive officer of Sirtris, a GSK Company; James Topper, M.D., Ph.D., general partner, Frazier Healthcare Ventures; and, Robert Tepper, M.D., partner, Third Rock Ventures.

The press release went on to say… bla bla bla… new approach…. bla bla bla… we’re going to succeed faster than everyone else because we’re unique and special. I’m paraphrasing… but, in all seriousness, good luck with that.

Alnara Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Secures $20 Million in Series A Round
-(Via Business Wire Health News.)

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Salient plans to use the net proceeds to fund programs aimed at continuing to expand its sales and marketing organization and accelerating development of new advanced energy products based on its proprietary Transcollation™ technology. Salient will also use a portion of the proceeds to fund working capital requirements and amortize term debt.

Salient Surgical Technologies, Inc. Secures $17.9 Million in Series F Financing Round
-(Via Business Wire Health News.)

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DFine is dedicated to developing treatments for VCFs that relieve pain
and improve quality of life for patients. More than 700,000 new VCFs occur
every year in the United States due to osteoporosis, tumor growth and
traumatic injury, accounting for nearly 150,000 hospital admissions and
resulting in close to $1.6 billion in annual costs.(1)

Minimally invasive treatment of VCFs, percutaneous vertebral
augmentation (also known as vertebroplasty or kyphoplasty), require
placement of bone cement into the fractured vertebra. Percutaneous
vertebral augmentation offers many benefits compared to a conventional
surgical approach including reduced procedure time, shorter hospital stays,
shorter recovery period and the elimination of brace usage.

DFine Secures $30 Million in Series D Funding
-(Via PR Newswire: Pharmaceuticals/Biotechnology.)

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Image via Wikipedia

Lutonix announced the close of a $20 million Series B financing. Lutonix is a medical device company
focused on drug coated balloon
angioplasty technology for the treatment and prevention of coronary and
peripheral artery stenosis caused by atherosclerosis. Lutonix’s drug coated
balloon technology is anticipated to enhance therapeutic options for
patients who are candidates for conventional therapies such as balloon
angioplasty and stents and for those who are no longer likely to benefit
from those treatments.

Lutonix’s first targeted indication is expected to
be the treatment and prevention of vascular restenosis through the use of
its proprietary, drug coated balloon angioplasty catheter. Lutonix will use
the new capital for continued product development activities and to fund
the company’s initial human clinical trials.

The round was led by Versant Ventures (http://www.versantventures.com),
a leading healthcare-focused venture capital firm, that was joined by new
investor, Delphi Ventures (http://www.Delphiventures.com). Also
participating in this round were both Series A investors, U.S. Venture
Partners (http://www.usvp.com) and founding venture firm RiverVest Venture
Partners (http://www.rivervest.com).

Lutonix Inc. Announces $20 Million Series B Financing
-(Via PR Newswire: Pharmaceuticals/Biotechnology.)

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The investment, led by Inventages, will advance continued development of the Neuroptix Sapphire diagnostic platform and related technologies. The Neuroptix Sapphire system consists of a non-contact optical device combined with an eye drop which specifically identifies Alzheimer’s-related proteins found in the lens of the eye. Rockport Venture Partners acted as the financial advisor on the transaction.

Interesting idea. I’d love know their business model. How much can you possibly charge for one of these devices / exams? Aren’t cognitive declines using ADAS-cog or other such measures a better clinically relevant test?

I guess if reducing tau protein in Alzheimer’s patients (like many hot pipeline candidates attempt to do) works, this will be a valuable diagnostic technology to catch the disease early. If the drugs don’t pan out, the company may fade into expensive obscurity.

Neuroptix Raises $18.5 Million in Successful B Round
-(Via Business Wire Health News.)

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Image via Wikipedia

This has to be the worst time in a decade to found a company.

Nobody told Michael Mullan and Fiona Crawford.

They’ve announced today that they have founded and incorporated Archer Pharmaceuticals to treat Alzheimer’s Disease.

Apparently, Archer has several compounds that are ready to enter clinical development, including ARC029 and ARC031. Both are targeted at the reduction of soluble amyloid proteins in the brain. In addition, Archer has several other agents in the preclinical stage, including Gamma Secretase Inhibitors and BACE Inhibitors.

These approaches are designed to attack the Alzheimer’s disease soluble amyloid in different ways, providing complementary approaches to the lead compounds. A strategy that so far, has yet to have a single success story (see Flurizan and Bapineuzumab for my opinion on this strategy in general).

A Phase I/IIA clinical trial, that is currently being conducted in Europe, was designed to evaluate the safety of Nilvadipine, the active ingredient of ARC029, in Alzheimer’s sufferers. The study has shown that the drug was well tolerated in Alzheimer’s patients.

While neither ARC029 nor ARC031 is currently available in the United States (U.S.), Archer Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is expecting to proceed with U.S. clinical studies within the next few months.

Archer Pharmaceuticals, Inc. intends to fast track ARC029 and ARC031, while continuing to work on other therapeutic approaches.

It’s a dicey time to start a company in general, let a lone a company with compounds having mechanisms of action with such a dismal record of success. Maybe they’re different. I say good luck to you.

New Pharmaceutical Company, to Target Alzheimer’s Disease
-(Via BioSpace.com Featured News and Stories.)

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