PrintThe biggest deals news of the week were the deals that didn’t happen. Charles River Laboratories called off its $1.6 billion deal to buy WuXi PharmaTech due to investor opposition led by Jana Partners, its largest shareholder (see story). And, two life sciences companies failed to complete their expected initial public offerings, as investors showed little interest in unprofitable companies.
Memphis, Tennessee-based SurgiVision, which is developing a medical device to be used in brain surgery, postponed its IPO after cutting its size by 40 percent. San Diego-based Trius Therapeutics is about to initiate a late-stage trial of its lead therapeutic, a new class of antibiotics. The company, which hopes to raise up to $84 million, expected to launch on July 29, but failed to price.
The situation seems to be somewhat better in the private markets. Devicor Medical Products Group, a Wisconsin-based medical device holding company, raised $151.5 million from seven unnamed investors according to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Devicon was established in late 2008 by GTCR Golder Rauner, a Chicago private equity firm that has extensive health-related investments that invested $250 million in the company. Devicon Medical made its first acquisition two weeks previously, buying the breast-care business of Johnson & Johnson’s Ethicon Endo-Surgery, a top player in vacuum-assisted breast biopsy, for an undisclosed amount and renaming it Mammotome.
Texas biofuels company KiOR has raised $110 from 13 investors, according to an amended SEC filing. KiOR was started in 2007 as a joint venture between Khosla Ventures and BIOeCON, a dutch biofuels startup. The company is developing and commercializing Biomass Catalytic Cracking technology that can convert any type of biomass into a high quality bio-crude that is suitable for refining directly to standard transportation fuels.
Cerenis Therapeutics raised $51.7 million in the first close of its series C financing, with half of it coming from the French Fund for Strategic Investment and the other half from existing investors Sofinnova Partners, HealthCap, Alta Partners and TVM Capital, EDF Ventures, OrbiMed and DAIWA Corporate Investment.
Based in Toulouse, France and Ann Arbor, Michigan, Cerenis specializes in the research and development of novel therapies based on the metabolism of HDL—good cholesterol—to treat cardiovascular and other metabolic diseases. The money will be used to fund a mid-stage trial of its lead program, an HDL-mimetic for the treatment of cardiovascular disease and to support the development of other new HDL therapies.
Seattle-based vaccine developer Immune Design secured $32 million in a series B financing that was led by ProQuest Investments with participation by current investors The Column Group, Versant Ventures, and Alta Partners. Immune Design’s cancer vaccine pipeline uses two proprietary technologies: GLA, a novel, synthetic, toll-like receptor 4 agonist, which is a clinical stage adjuvant being developed as a component in multiple internal and partnered vaccine programs; and DC-NILV, a novel delivery vector engineered to target human dendritic cells to elicit functional and broad based immunity.
DEALS FOR THE WEEK ENDING JULY 30, 2010
| Company | Location | Amount Raised (USD M) | Principal Focus |
| Devicor Medical Products | Pleasant Prairie, WI | 151.5 | Medical devices |
| Kior | Pasadena, TX | 110.0 | Industrial/Ag |
| Cerenis Therapeutics | Ann Arbor, MI and Toulouse, France | 51.6 | Cardiovascular therapeutics |
| Immune Design | Seattle, WA | 32.0 | Vaccines |
| Ceres | Thousand Oaks, CA | 20.0 | Industrial/Ag |
| SuperDimension | Plymouth, MN | 9.8 | Lung cancer diagnostics |
| Nitric BioTherapeutics | Bristol, PA | 6.0 | Infectious disease therapeutics |
| HemaQuest Pharmaceuticals | Seattle, WA | 4.0 | Genetic disease therapeutics |
| Total Living Choices | Seattle, WA | 3.5 | Digital health |
| Great Lakes Pharmaceuticals | Cleveland, OH | 3.1 | Medical devices |
| Ambicare Health Limited | United Kingdom | 2.7 | Tools/Technology |
| TOTAL RAISED US | 391.5 | ||
| TOTAL RAISED NON-US | 2.7 | ||
| Grants and Contracts | |||
| Company | Funding/Contracting Agency |
Amount Raised (USD M) | Principal Focus |
| Cerenis Therapeutics (US and France) | OSEO | 7.0 | Cardiovascular therapeutics |
| Groupe Novasep (France) | OSEO | 6.9 | Bioprocessing |
| Cytokinetics | NIH NINDS | 2.9 | Neurology therapeutics |
| Akonni Biosystems | NIH NIBIB | 0.4 | Infectious disease diagnostics |
| Titan Pharmaceuticals | NIH SBIR | 0.5 | Neurology therapeutics |
| Novomer | US Department of Energy | 18.4 | Bioplastics |
| Mediomics | NIH STTR Phase II | 0.5 | Biosensors |
| Sernova (Canada) | Canada's NRC-IRAP | 0.5 | Medical devices |
| Lpath | National Eye Institute BRDG-SPAN | 3.0 | Eye therapeutics |
| Cleveland Biolabs | HHS BARDA contract | 4.1 | Radiation side effects |
| Total Grants and Contracts | 44.2 | ||
| PUBLIC FINANCINGS | |||
| Company | Ticker |
Amount Raised (USD M) |
Financing Type |
| MolMed (Italy) | Milan:MLM | 73.2 | PIPE |
| ReGen Therapeutics (UK) | LSE:RGT | 0.1 | PIPE |
| Cell Therapeutics | CTIC | 4.1 | PIPE |
| Response Biomedical (Canada) | TSX:RBM | 7.7 | PIPE |
| ALDA Pharmaceuticals (Canada) | TSX-V:APH | 0.3 | PIPE |
| Uroplasty | UPI | 16.1 | Follow on |
| Gilead Sciences | GILD | 2,200.0 | Debt |
| Mylan | MYL | 300.0 | Debt |
| Agennix (Germany) | Xetra:AGX | 19.4 | Debt financing |
| Xoma | XOMA | 30.0 | CEFF |
| Omeros | OMER | 40.0 | CEFF |
| NewCardio | OTC:NWCI | 1.5 | Credit facility |
| TOTAL PUBLIC FINANCINGS-US | 2,591.7 | ||
| NON-US | 100.7 | ||
| M&A | |||
| Acquirer | Target |
Deal Value (USD M) |
Focus |
| Illumina | Helixis | 105.0 | Sequencing |
| Iris International | AlliedPath | 6.0 | CLIA laboratory |
| Marina Biotech | Novosom (Germany) | 5.0 | RNA delivery |
| Celestica (Canada) | Allied Panels (Austria) | N/A | Medical devices |
| Axela | Xceed Molecular (Canada) | N/A | Genomics |
| Jade Pharmaceuticals (Radient Pharmaceuticals) | Shanxi BaoTai Pharmaceutical (China) | N/A | Cancer products |
| Kangmei Pharmaceutical (China) | Sichuan Tengwangge Pharmaceutical and Sichuan Baoning Pharmaceutical | Traditional Chinese Medicines | |
| Pharmachem Laboratories | Forbes Medi-Tech (Canada) | N/A | Nutraceuticals |
| Royal Philips Electronics (Netherlands) | Shanghai Apex Electronics (China) | N/A | Ultrasound |
| Alliances | |||
| Company/Licensee | Company/Licenser | Deal Value (USD M) |
Focus |
| Astellas Pharma (Japan) | Regeneron Pharmaceuticals | 295.0 | Antibody technology license |
| Eco-Frontier (Korea) | PetroAlgae | N/A | Biocrude off-take agreement |
| Merck | Sinopharm Pharmaceutical (China) | N/A | Vaccines joint venture |
| Seambiotic (Israel) | Rosetta Green (Israel) | N/A | Renewable fuels collaboration |
| Nestle (Switzerland) | EnWave (Canada) | N/A | Technology R&D agreement |
| PPD | Microsoft | N/A | Technology partnership |
| Genentech (Roche-Switzerland) | NovImmune (Switzerland) | N/A | Inflammatory compound license |
| LabCorp | Merck | N/A | Companion diagnostics license |
| Siena Biotech (Italy) | Aptuit | N/A | Drug development partnership |
| Novartis (Switzerland) | Pathwork Diagnostics | N/A | Cancer biomarker collaboration |
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