By Marie Daghlian
A couple of medical device companies closed significant financing rounds during a week when many members of the biotech community were wheeling and dealing in Chicago at the annual BIO International Convention. Atlanta-based CardioMEMS completed a $37.9 million financing that came from Arcapita Ventures and other existing investors. CardioMems is a digital health company developing wireless patient monitoring technology. The company will use the capital to complete its 550 patient CHAMPION clinical trial evaluating the safety and effectiveness of its heart failure pressure measurement system. Results are expected this summer.
CardioMEMS’ miniature sensor device is implanted in the patient’s pulmonary artery in a catheter-based procedure. The pulmonary artery pressure is then measured and displayed using an electronic monitoring system. The procedure allows patients to perform wireless measurements of their pulmonary artery pressure from home. Data is transmitted to a secure database and is available for review by the implanting physician on the CardioMEMS proprietary website.
North Carolina-based TearScience completed a $44.5 million series C financing from new investors Essex Woodlands Health Ventures, Investor Growth Capital and General Catalyst. Existing investors De Novo Ventures, Spray Ventures and Quaker Bio Ventures also participated in the round. TearScience will use the funding to commercialize its devices designed for use by eye care professionals to diagnose and treat the most common form of chronic dry eye disease.
More than 100 million people worldwide suffer from dry eye syndrome, more than 70 percent of which suffer from evaporative dry eye. Treatments for dry eye conditions represent a global market of more than $2 billion in sales, which is growing more than 10 percent annually. Dry eye experts believe that effective treatment needs to address deficiencies of the protective oily lipid layer of natural tears. TearScience’s devices are designed to help eye doctors effectively monitor and improve the essential lipid layer of the tear film, important for addressing deficiencies of the protective oily lipid layer of nature tears.
TearScience has already gotten approval to market its devices in Europe and is currently seeking U.S. Food and Drug Administration clearance. The company anticipates its products to be commercially available within the next 12 months.
While several Sanofi-Aventis (SNY) executives were looking for innovation at the BIO International Convention, the company struck a licensing deal with Indian generic pharmaceutical Glenmark for rights to develop and market two of its molecules in development for chronic pain. One of the molecules, GRC 15300, is in early stage human trials and is being developed as a potential treatment for diabetic neuropathic pain and osteoarthritic pain.
The announcement of the deal sent shares of Glenmark to a 52-week high and renewed interest in a company that has been a leader in new drug development in the country. Glenmark will get $20 million upfront and up to $325 million in additional payments based on development, regulatory and sales milestones. The company may also be eligible for double digit royalties, according to a statement released by Glenmark.
Under the terms of their agreement, Sanofi will have exclusive marketing rights in North America, Europe and Japan. Glenmark has the right to co-promote the products in the United States and five Eastern European nations. Sanofi-Aventis will have co-marketing rights in Brazil, Russia, China and seven other countries, while Glenmark will retain exclusive rights to India and the rest of the world.
Finally, Merck (MRK) restructured its July 2007 collaboration with Ariad Pharmaceuticals (ARIA), opting to take full control of Ariad’s investigational mTOR inhibitor ridaforolimus in late-stage development for the treatment of soft-tissue and bone sarcomas. Under the terms of the new agreement, Merck will pay Ariad $50 million upfront, $19 million to cover expenses incurred since the beginning of 2010, and up to $514 million in developmental, regulatory, and sales milestones [see story].
Deals for the Week Ending May 7, 2010
Global Venture Financings Company Location Amount Raised ($M)
Principal Focus Immunovo s-Hertogen-bosch, Netherlands n/a Cancer therapeutics Oncos Therapeutics Helsinki, Finland $5.30 Cancer therapeutics Redwood Bioscience Burlingame, CA n/a Proteomics Nanobiotix Paris, France $11.00 Cancer therapeutics Curexo Technology Freemont, CA $13.20 Robotics Inspired Technologies North Huntington, PA $2.80 Respiratory medical devices BiO2 Medical San Antonio, TX $7.50 Respiratory medical devices Biomoda Albuquerque, NM $2.00 Cancer diagnostics CardioMEMS Atlanta, GA $37.90 Wireless sensing AppDynamics San Francisco, CA $11.00 Production troubleshooting InTouch Health Santa Barbara, CA $10.00 Telemedicine TearScience Morrisville, NC $44.50 Ophthalmic medical devices KiOR Pasadena, TX $39.99 Biomass conversion Link Medicine Cambridge, MA $20.00 Neurology rherapeutics TOTAL RAISED US $188.89 TOTAL RAISED EX-US $16.30 Grants and Contracts Company
Funding/Contracting AgencyAmount ($M)
Principal Focus BioMarker Strategies NIH SBIR $1.00 Cancer diagnostics Innate Pharma (New Zealand) Fast Forward n/a Musculoskeletal MitoStem NIH SBIR $0.20 Gene/cell therapy Codexis US DOE ARPA-E $4.70 Biocatalysts GlycoVaxyn (Switzerland) NIH $3.40 Vaccines Crucell United Nations UNICEF contract $110.00 Pediatric vaccines Total Grants and Contracts $119.30 PUBLIC FINANCINGS Company
TickerAmount
Raised $M
Financing Type Medivir (Sweden) SSE:MVIR $41.70 PIPE BSD Medical BSDM $2.50 PIPE--RDO ADVENTRX Pharmaceuticals ANX $19.20 PIPE--RDO Pro-Pharmaceuticals OTC:PRWP $0.31 PIPE International Stem Cell ISCO.OB $13.50 PIPE Oxygen Biotherapeutics OXBT $5.00 PIPE--RDO Arch Biopartners (Canada) CNSX:ACH $0.70 PIPE ImmunoGen IMGN $67.00 Follow-on PhotoMedex PHMD $3.00 Follow-on Stratech (Singapore) Private $3.00 Debt Mylan MYL $1,000.00 Debt Alexza Pharmaceuticals ALXA $15.00 Loan MagForce Nanotechnologies Private $25.50 SEDA TOTAL PUBLIC FINANCINGS-US $1,151.01 Ex-US $45.40 M&A Acquirer
TargetDeal Value
in $M
Focus Althea Technologies Altus Pharmaceuticals (ALTU) n/a Protein technology Vilmorin (France) Arcadia Biosciences n/a Agbio Arcadia Biosciences Limagrain Cereal Seeds n/a Agbio Valeant Pharmaceuticals Aton Pharma $318.00 Ophthalmology Merck Ariad Pharmaceuticals $583.00 Cancer Intercell (Austria) Cytos Biotechnology (Germany) $19.15 Infectious Endo Pharmaceuticals HealthTronics $223.00 Urology Thomas H Lee Partners InVentiv Health $1,100.00 Supply/service Vascular Solutions Escalon Medical $5.75 Medical devices Landec Lifecore Biomedical $54.00 Biomaterials Stago Group Trinity Biotech (Ireland) $90.00 Coagulation POC C.R. Bard SenoRx $213.00 Medical devices Alliances Company/Licensee Company/Licenser Deal Value
in $MFocus AstraZeneca (UK) Targacept n/a Neurology collaboration Santen Pharmaceutical (Japan) Clinical Data n/a Ophthalmic license Sanofi-Aventis (France) Glenmark Pharmaceuticals (India) $345.00 Pain therapeutic license Stason Pharmaceuticals Peregrine Pharmaceuticals (PPHM) n/a Oncology drug license Eisai (Japan) BioSeek (Asterand-UK) n/a Oncology collaboration Global Alliance for TB Drug Development AstraZeneca (AZN) (UK) n/a Tuberculosis collaboration SIOGEN Biotech (Malaysia) Veeda Clinical Research (India) n/a Cancer drug delivery partnership Actavis (Iceland) Sagent Pharmaceuticals n/a Specialty injectables collaboration ACGT (Genting-Malaysia) Chromatin n/a Agbio partnership Boehringer Ingelheim (Germany) Micromet $72.60 Oncology collaboration Onyx Pharmaceuticals S*Bio (Singapore) $20.00 Oncology collaboration RedHill Biopharma (Israel) SCOLR Pharma $30.00 Cancer side effect license Meda (Sweden) Adeona Pharmaceuticals $17.50 Fibromyalgia corporate partnership Vilmorin (France) Arcadia Biosciences n/a Agbio joint venture Warnex Medical Laboratories (Canada) Epigenomics (Germany) n/a Companion diagnostics license
