Luke Timmerman at Xconomy crunched the biotech funding numbers for this year to compile a class of 2013 list. You won’t be surprised that he found things haven’t been this bad since 1996:
There were only 102 first-time financings of life sciences companies through the first nine months of 2013, the lowest amount since 1996, according to data from Thomson Reuters…. If you subtract out one big private equity deal for a life sciences service provider — a $150 million investment in Bethesda, MD-based Precision for Medicine — then just $467 million went into first-time biotech financings through the first nine months of the year.
To make the list, companies had to meet these criteria:
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- A big idea
- A credible management team
- At least $5 million from a first-time financing in 2013
Click through to see the entire list. Here are the most interesting companies from the list.
Biodesy – The company’s technology can monitor structural change at any site within a protein, in real time. The Burlingame, Calif., company has raised $15 million from 5AM Ventures, Pfizer Venture Investments and Roche Venture Fund.
Calorics Pharmaceuticals – The company has raised $10.2 million from Polaris Partners and an undisclosed investor to develop a yeast-based platform to “decipher the biology of caloric restriction, nutrient sensing and related diseases of aging and to discover novel drugs for these conditions.”
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Channel MedSystems – This company is working on a cryothermic device to treat heavy menstrual bleeding that can be easily incorporated into the physician’s office practice. The team has raised $9.8 million from Aperture Venture Partners LLC, Boston Scientific, DFJ Incube Ventures, Scientific Health Development Ltd, and an undisclosed investor.
Envisia Therapeutics – The Research Triangle Park drug-development company raised $25 million from a group of venture capital firms to develop an extended-release implant that replaces the need for glaucoma patients to use daily eye drops.
FractylLabs – The company’s goal is to “liberate patients, empower physicians, and lower health care costs by developing device-based solutions to chronic diseases.” They have raised $14.4 million from Bessemer Venture Partners, General Catalyst, and Domain Associates.
Labrys Pharmaceuticals – The venture-financed development stage company is developing an anti-CGRP monoclonal antibody which has completed Phase 1. Founded in late 2012, Labrys is backed by venBio, Canaan Partners, InterWest Partners and Sofinnova Ventures.
Solstice Biologics – The company closed an $18 million Series A round at the start of the year led by venBio and joined by Aeris Capital AG. Solstice has licensed technology that enables RNA molecules to cross membranes of multiple cell types.
