Each week, many millions are invested into life sciences startups. There are so many that often, they get lost in the weeds. We’re keeping track for you – based on regulatory filings reported to the SEC. Here are the new funding notices from Oct. 24 to 30:
Biotech
Aileron Therapeutics – Cambridge, Massachusetts
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When Investment Rhymes with Canada
Canada has a proud history of achievement in the areas of science and technology, and the field of biomanufacturing and life sciences is no exception.
- $33 million in equity raised, closing out a $48 million Series E round
- The funding will bring Aileron candidate ALRN-6924 – a drug that works to activate a solid tumor suppressor protein called p53 – to clinical trial. The company says its stapled peptides lock peptides in their most biologically effective shape, allowing proteins found in the body already behave like drugs.
- Learn more from MedCity News
Alexza Pharmaceuticals – Mountain View, California
- $8 million in equity raised
- Its Staccato platform creates orally inhalable drugs to treat schizophrenia, cluster seizures and bipolar disorder. The idea to target CNS disorders with inhalants is that they can be faster-acting than the traditional tablet and can be taken without medical supervision, unlike IV drugs. It’s aerosol-izing three drugs – loxapine, alprazolam and ropinirole. Its version of Alprazolam, known commonly as Xanax, is in Phase 1 trials.
Avisa Pharma – Albuquerque, New Mexico
- $3.7 million in equity raised of a proposed $4 million round
- New Mexico startup Avisa Pharma is developing a breath-based diagnostic that can rapidly detect the presence of serious lung pathogens. It’s conducted a proof of concept study with cystic fibrosis patients, and plans to study the device’s efficacy in patients around the world with tuberculosis.
- Learn more from MedCity News
Dignify Therapeutics – Research Triangle Park, North Carolina
- $99,997 in equity raised of a proposed $3 million round
- Its lead drug candidate treats urinary retention in folks with spinal cord injury, and by extension reduce catheter-associated urinary tract infections and hospitalizations. The company’s also developing therapies for bladder or bowel dysfunction in patients with spina bifida, multiple sclerosis, stroke, Parkinson’s disease and diabetes.
Minerva Biotechnologies – Waltham, Massachusetts
- $2 million in equity raised of a proposed $30 million round
- Supplier of next-gen biochips – that is, nanoparticles that serve as a kind of “black box” for the end user when conducting their own assays. It is also studying a stem cell growth factor called MUC1 that it says plays a role in cancer cell genesis – and is developing an inhibitor for the protein as a cancer therapeutic.
Mousera – San Mateo, California
- $8.8 million in equity raised
- Working to update pre-clinical research and development for the pharmaceutical industry using technologies such as big data, algorithms and sensors so drugs can be discovered faster. The startup is led by former Proteus Digital Health Timothy Robertson.
- Learn more from MedCity News
NantBioscience – Culver City, California
- $25 million in equity raised of a potential $100 million round
- The cancer-focused personalized medicine segment of billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong‘s diversified Los Angeles startup Nantworks – which earlier this month received $320 million in investment from the Kuwait Investment Authority. NantBioscience is currently collaborating with Celgene, though the well-capitalized startup hasn’t disclosed any specifics on what it is working on. NantBioscience raised another $25 million in May.
- Learn more from MedCity News
Nexgenia – Seattle, Washington
- $500,000 in equity raised of a proposed $1 million round
- Uses “smart” polymer reagents to develop clinical immunoassays. The company says its reagents change state from single molecules, which react quickly, to macro-molecular aggregates, which are easy to separate and analyze.
PellePharm – Menlo Park, California
- $1.25 million in equity raised
- The company’s keeping pretty under the radar, but this 2012 accelerator report from Stanford says PellePharm licensed skin cancer technology from Dr. Jean Tang. The idea is to repurpose an oral medication for basal cell carcinoma and basal cell nevus syndrome as a topical cream.
Recombinetics – St. Paul, Minnesota
- $540,800 in equity raised of a proposed $3 million round
- Developing animal models with defined genetic conditions that are purportedly identical to those found in humans – improving the predictive power of preclinical trial.
Syntimmune – New York, New York
- $8 million in equity raised of a proposed $26 million round
- Another brand-new and stealth biotech, so here’s what we got: It’s led by Dr. Laurence Blumberg, who has taken Syntimmune’s helm after four years of leadership at Kadmon – a biotech with a scattered smattering of platforms (it’s working on metabolomics, monoclonal antibodies and gene regulation in the spaces of hep C, cancer and immune-related disease.) But on Syntimmune – yep, that’s all for now. Stay tuned.
Syros Pharmaceuticals – Watertown, Massachusetts
- $53.1 million in equity raised
- Finding ways to control cancer by learning how proteins that regulation gene expression operate. It uses what it calls “super-enhancers,” that is, the kinases and transcription factors that help shape a stem cell into a nerve cell, or a skin cell or a tumor cell, as the basis for a new therapeutic platform.
- More from MedCity News
Transgenomic – Omaha, Nebraska
- $2.4 million in equity raised
- Personalized medicine company – conducts genetic testing in the cancer, cardiac, neurologic and mitochondrial disease spaces. Has three divisions – a clinical lab, a contract research lab and a diagnostic tools manufacturing site.
Health IT:
Rimidi Diabetes – Atlanta, Georgia
- $1.3 million in equity raised of a proposed $2.2 million round
- Its software tracks a diabetic’s blood glucose data and matches it on a dashboard with “meaningful and motivating” health and fitness metrics. It monitors exercise, diet and stress, as well as weight, blood pressure and lipid measurements.
Medical Devices
Medipacs – San Diego, California
- $2 million in equity raised of a proposed $6 million round
- A wearable and programmable drug-administering pump that’s meant to replace IV access and ultimately remove some of the human error in medication dispensation. The company says its pump can administer insulin, hormones, fertility drugs, anti-coagulation drugs and pain medication.
Podimetrics – Somerville, Massachusetts
- $1.2 million in debt raised
- Spun out of a 2011 Hacking Medicine conference at MIT, this startup is developing a smart insole that gathers and transmits continuous information about the patient’s feet, as they’re vulnerable to neuropathy and serious infection. In particular, it focuses on the prevention of diabetic foot ulcers.
Prescient Surgical – Mountain View, California
- $6 million in equity raised of a proposed $7.7 million
- A wound care startup working to reduce surgical site infection. Prescient’s first working to roll out products for abdominal and laparoscopic surgeries, with plans to expand into vascular, orthopedic and endocrine surgeries.
- Learn more from MedCity News
Respicardia – Minnetonka, Minnesota
- $25 million in equity raised
- Sleep apnea device. The company’s Remede system works a bit like a pacemaker, but it’s implanted in a vein that’s near the phrenic nerves that run between the lung and heart to the diaphragm. It generates small electric pulses that stimulate a response in the diaphragm that regulates breathing – so patients don’t stop breathing, at random, in the middle of the night.
- Learn more from MedCity News
Spinal Simplicity – Overland Park, Kansas
- $250,000 in equity raised of a proposed $4 million
- Hawks a minimally invasive surgical procedure. It’s Minuteman device – only available outside of the U.S. – is meant to promote spinal fusion for indications like lumbar stenosis, degenerative disc disease and spondylolisthesis.
Spirometrix – Pleasanton, California
- $6.9 million in equity raised of a proposed $8.9 million
- Another breathalyzer company: Spirometrix’s first device – called the Fenom – will help diagnose and manage asthma in a physician’s office, measuring exhaled nitric oxide in the breath of a patient. It’s also working on a product called the Fenomy that’s meant for individual monitoring of asthma. The company plans to develop devices for COPD and chronic pulmonary hypertension as well.
Veran Medical Technologies – St. Louis, Missouri
- $2.3 million in equity raised of a proposed $12 million round
- Lung cancer diagnostics: Its electromagnetic scoping technology is meant to detect cancerous lesions in the lung early, and its percutaneous biopsy tools are meant to be coupled with CT scanning.
