Venture Update Vol. IX, #10, November 2005
Done Deals
Durham – Serenex (www.serenex.com) has raised $30 million in third round funding. Ritchie Capital was the lead investor, joined by existing investors Intersouth Partners, Lilly Ventures, Mediphase Venture Partners, Takeda Research Investment and Seaflower Ventures. Serenex has also in-licensed worldwide rights to develop and commercialize SNX-1012 for chemotherapy and radiation-induced oral mucositis from Mucosal Therapeutics. Contact Ian Howes (919.281.6001).
RTP Aerie Pharmaceuticals (www.aeriepharma.com), a Duke University spin-out focused on the development of drugs to treat glaucoma, has raised $21 million in first round financing. Co-leading the round were Alta Partners and Texas Pacific Group Ventures. Aerie will use the funds to help take its leading glaucoma treatment, AR-101, into phase I and phase II clinical studies in 2006. Contact Thomas J. van Haarlem (919.313.9650).
RTP – Clinication, Inc. (www.clinication.com), a software company focused on reducing patient noncompliance, has received its first institutional funding from Synectic Asset Ventures. The company will use the funds to accelerate sales and marketing efforts for its Web- and cell phone-based Patient Adherence Management System. Contact Adee Feinstein (866.643.6328).
Morrisville – Tekelec (www.tekelec.com), a developer of telecommunications products for fixed, mobile and packet networks, has completed its $75.6 million acquisition of the minority interest in Santera, a provider of Class 4, Class 5, wireless and wireline solutions to tier-one operators. Contact Joni K. Brooks (919.461.1065).
Durham – Smart Online (www.smartonline.com), a provider of software-as-services for small and medium sized businesses, has closed its purchase of Iowa-based Computility, Inc. in a deal worth $4.23 million in Smart Online stock. Smart Online also acquired iMart, a solutions provider of multi-channel eCommerce systems, for $3.4 million in cash and 205,767 shares of stock. Contact Thomas Furr (919.765.5000).
Wilmington – aaiPharma Inc. (www.aaipharma.com), a science-based pharmaceutical company, has acquired the clinical development team of German-based Rentschler Biotechnologie GmbH & Co. KG, a contract manufacturer of drugs containing recombinant proteins. aaiPharma will carry out a number of existing contracts with Rentschler on a subcontract basis. The firms will also work together to expand their range of technological and clinical expertise to customers in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. Contact Ludo J. Reynders (910.254.7000).
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On The Up
Advanced Liquid Logic
RTP, NC
Advanced Liquid Logic, Inc. (www.liquid-logic.com) is developing a powerful and flexible liquid handling technology for applications where miniaturization of the liquid handling process is advantageous. The RTP-based company hopes to apply their technology, which they call digital microfluidics, to medical diagnostics, high-throughput drug screening, environmental testing and other applications.
Over the past few decades, there has been increasing interest in ways to miniaturize chemical and biological analysis. Some of the chemicals used in drug screening and medical diagnostics cost billions of dollars per gallon. Out of this interest, an industry called microfluidics was born.
Most microfluidic methods shrink the pipes, pumps, and valves necessary to transport liquid from one place to another. Advanced Liquid Logic found a way to eliminate the pumps, pipes, and valves altogether by manipulating liquid droplets using an electrical charge.
The path of each droplet is programmed into the controlling software and discrete droplets of various liquids can be dispensed, transported, mixed, split, incubated or presented to a detector.
The architecture has no fixed paths, just arrays of electrodes printed on an inexpensive printed circuit board. This makes it very easy to reconfigure a test or to apply the same chip to many different tests. In addition, since the droplets are moved by simply switching these electrodes on and off, the equipment to drive this “lab-on-a-chip” will be small and inexpensive.
The technical founders of Advanced Liquid Logic, Dr.’s Michael Pollack and Vamsee Pamula, began work on the technology in the late 1990’s in Duke University’s electrical engineering laboratories. They started the company in 2004 when they received two Phase I SBIR grants from the National Institutes of Health.
Since then, they have received additional grant funding, licensed the technology from Duke and more recently, completed a round of angel financing and received an SBIR bridge loan from the NC Biotech Center. The new financing will be used for equipment, working capital, and other opportunities.
“We’re putting together a great team and we look forward to the challenges ahead,” said Liquid Logic CEO Rich West. The company has also announced that it will be adding additional engineers to its staff in the coming months. Contact Rich West (919.990.8566).
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New Developments
Durham – Constella Group (www.constellagroup.com) has received a contract from the U.S. Agency for International Development with a potential value of $325 million. Constella will work to improve family planning and reproductive health, HIV/AIDS healthcare, and safe motherhood programs and services in third world countries. Constella has also been awarded a five-year, $25 million contract with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Contact Sue Ann Pentecost (919.313.7601).
Chapel Hill – The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (www.unc.edu) has been designated as one of seven centers for cancer nanotechnology research by the National Cancer Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health. The Carolina Center for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence will participate in a five-year, $144.3 million initiative to develop nanotechnology systems that will be used for detecting and treating cancer. Contact Rudy Juliano (919.966.4383).
Durham – Neal Hunter, co-founder and former executive of semiconductor maker Cree, has joined three other former Cree employees to form a startup company, temporarily named LED Lighting Fixtures. The new company will develop long-lasting light fixtures for Cree’s LED chips, which are currently used to illuminate cell phones and other devices. The company will open a Durham office in late 2005 and hire an additional 16 employees over the next year. Contact Jessica Blue (919.277.1159).
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In the Pipeline
Chapel Hill – Pozen (NASDAQ: POZN, www.pozen.com), which develops therapeutic advancements for diseases with unmet medical needs, will receive a $20 million milestone payment from GlaxoSmithKline. The payment came after the FDA agreed to review a drug application for the migraine treatment Trexima, co-developed by GSK and Pozen. If approved, the companies could begin marketing the drug by the second half of 2006. Contact Bill Hodges (919.913.1030).
RTP – AlphaVax (www.alphavax.com), a vaccine company that develops products for infectious diseases, biodefense and cancer, has won a $3.3 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institute of Health (NIH), for the preclinical development of a vaccine for smallpox. The grant will bring together preclinical research conducted at the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, which has identified protective antigens for a smallpox vaccine, and a promising vaccine system being developed by AlphaVax. Contact Peter Young (919.595.0400).
RTP – RTI International (www.rti.org) has received a $1.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop biomarkers that can be used to predict the onset of drug-induced liver injury and that will help scientists understand the liver's adverse response to drugs. The four-year grant is part of the NIH Roadmap Initiative designed to encourage an interdisciplinary approach to biomedical research that will translate research into clinically relevant discoveries. Contact Lisa Bistreich (919.316.3596).
RTP – Icoria, Inc. (www.icoria.com) has received a Phase II SBIR contract from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), National Institutes of Health, worth close to $800,000. The contract supports the application of metabolomics and gene expression analysis in the study of alcohol-related diseases, including liver and brain injury.
Pittsboro – Biolex Therapeutics (www.biolex.com), a protein therapeutics company, has successfully completed a Phase 1 clinical trial of BLX-883. The study was designed to test the safety and pharmacology of BLX-883, a form of alfa interferon, which is used in the treatment of hepatitis C and B, and multiple types of cancers. Contact Jan Irick (919.542.9901).
Durham – SCYNEXIS, Inc. (www.scynexis.com), a medicinal chemistry-focused drug discovery and development company, has signed a deal to provide medicinal and analytical chemistry services to Tokyo-based Teijin Pharma Ltd.'s research programs. The agreement provides Teijin Pharma with access to the SCYNEXIS medicinal chemistry team backed by proprietary technologies such as the HEOS® Software Suite, MEDCHEM-FACTORY™ and KIT™ Kinase Inhibitor Technology. Contact Terry Marquardt (919.544.8600).
RTP – Diosynth Biotechnology (www.diosynthbiotechnology.com), a supplier of contract manufacturing services for the global biotechnology industry, has won a contract to manufacture antibodies for ImmunoGen, a developer of targeted anti-cancer therapeutics. Diosynth will undertake technology transfer and conduct process and analytical development work related to production of ImmunoGen's huN901 antibody. Diosynth will use its cell-culture, fed-batch technology to manufacture the huN901 antibody for ImmunoGen. Contact Richard Basile (919.337.4305).
Cary – 3C Institute for Social Development (3-C ISD, www.3cisd.com), a research firm specializing in the development and delivery of scientifically validated assessment and intervention tools which promote positive social development and mental health in children, has been awarded a $100,000 Phase I SBIR Contract from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). The flagship 3-C ISD product, S.S.GRIN, will be the model and foundation in the development of a new efficacious intervention program specifically for elementary children with High Functioning Autism. Contact Melissa DeRosier (919.677.0101 ext. 11).
RTP – Metabolon, Inc. (www.metabolon.com), a leader in the discovery of biomarkers using metabolomics, has been awarded a contract from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to identify disease biomarkers for multiple sclerosis. In the study, blood samples from a group of patients diagnosed with MS and exposed to environmental factors will be compared with blood samples taken from a group of healthy subjects exposed to similar conditions. Results from this study could potentially lead to more effective diagnostics and treatments for the disease. Contact Stephanie Ferrell (919.287.3359).
Apex – NCSRT, Inc. (www.ncsrt.com), a provider of filtration, separation and purification solutions, has received an Export Achievement Certificate from the U.S. Department of Commerce. The award was in recognition of NCSRT’s recent export transactions. NCSRT recently exported advanced filtration and chromatography products to aid two Indian-based biotechnology companies with the production on insulin, hepatitis vaccines and other products. Contact (919.387.8460).
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Mark Your Calendar!
CED's Opportunity 2005
November 10-11, 2005
Hilton Wilmington Riverside
Wilmington, NC
www.cednc.org/opportunity
CED’s Venture 2006
May 2-3, 2006
Pinehurst Resort
Pinehurst, NC
For more information, visit the CED Web site (www.cednc.org) or call 919-549-7500.
Venture Update is published by the
Council for Entrepreneurial Development (CED)
an entrepreneurial support organization located in the Research Triangle Park, N.C.
Robert Albright, editor
P.O. Box 13353, RTP, NC 27709
Phone: 919-549-7500
FAX: 919-549-7405
email: news@cednc.org