Venture Update Vol. XI, #3, March 2007
Done Deals
Durham – Motricity (www.motricity.com), a provider of mobile content services and solutions, has received $50 million from investment legend Carl Icahn, through an affiliated company. Motricity will use the additional equity funding to pursue acquisitions that broaden its technology base and expand its share of the rapidly consolidating mobile content services industry. Since late 2005, Motricity also has signed customers including MTV, BET and Universal Music Group. Contact Les Hamashima (919.287.7345).
Durham – Adherex Technologies Inc. (www.adherex.com) has completed a previously announced public offering for $25 million in gross proceeds. Adherex, which is developing a broad portfolio of cancer therapies, expects to use the public offering to finance its clinical programs for eniluracil and ADH-1 well into 2008 and pay the previously announced up-front fee of $1 million to GlaxoSmithKline for all the rights to eniluracil. Contact Melissa Matson (919.484.8484).
Durham – Chimerix Inc. (www.chimerix-inc.com), a biotechnology company developing orally available antiviral therapeutics, has completed a $23.1 million private placement of its Series D preferred stock. New investor, Canaan Partners, led the round, with additional funding from Alta Partners and current investors including Sanderling Ventures, Asset Management Company and Frazier Healthcare Ventures. The current financing will augment Chimerix’s pipeline into commercial opportunities for an oral drug for CMV (and other dsDNA virus), a topical treatment for papilloma virus and cervical condyloma and another drug for multi-drug resistant HIV infections. The smallpox drug development, currently in Phase I clinical trials, will continue diligently under the $36.1 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Contact Athanasios Maroglou (919.806.1074).
Durham – Icagen, Inc. (www.icagen.com) has raised an additional $22 million through a securities purchase agreement with institutional and other accredited investors. Principal investors in the financing included Greenway Capital, QVT, Venrock Associates, Alta Partners and an affiliate of Quintiles Transnational Corp. Icagen will use the net proceeds from this private placement to fund its research and development programs and for general corporate activities. Contact Dr. Richard D. Katz (919.941.5206).
RTP – AlphaVax Inc. (www.alphavax.com) has completed a $12.7 million Series E Preferred Stock offering, with a majority invested by existing equity shareholders. Interest from investors led to the exercise of the over-allotment provision of the company’s term sheet. AlphaVax also announced acceptance of two IND applications by the FDA to begin clinical trials evaluating vaccines for influenza and cytomegalovirus developed with the company’s alphavaccine technology. Contact Alison Worley (919.595.0321).
Raleigh – rPath (www.rpath.com), which is developing a platform for creating and maintaining software appliances, has closed $9.1 million in second round financing. Investors in the Series B round included General Catalyst, North Bridge Venture Partners and Wakefield Group. The company will use this new capital to expand its market leadership in creating and maintaining software appliances. Contact Jill Dykes (919.749.8488)
RTP – Smart Online, Inc. (www.smartonline.com), a provider of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) for the small business market, has closed a $6 million private placement with two new investors, Herald Investment Trust plc and Magnetar Capital Master Fund, Ltd. The proceeds will be used for working capital purposes and to pay off certain existing debt of the company. Contact Thomas Furr (919.765.5000).
Morrisville – 6th Sense Analytics (www.6thsenseanalytics.com), a software development metrics company, has raised $5 million in Series A funding to accelerate research and development and expand sales and marketing efforts. The financing was led by Washington, D.C.-based Core Capital. Durham-based Intersouth Partners also participated in the funding round. Contact Allison Niday (831.439.9068).
RTP – Advanced Liquid Logic (www.liquid-logic.com), a microfluidics “lab-on-a-chip” spinout from Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering, has acquired Raleigh-based Nanolytics, Inc. (www.nanolytics.com), for an undisclosed amount. Nanolytics, founded in the late 1990’s, had received several million dollars in commercial and government support prior to the transaction. Michael Pollack, an early Nanolytics employee, left Nanolytics to further develop the technology at Duke University and then went on to co-found Advanced Liquid Logic in 2004. The company plans launch its first commercial product in late 2007. Contact Richard West (919.287.9010).
Raleigh – Peak 10 Inc. (www.peak10.com) has acquired bayMountain, of Richmond, Va., to enhance its technical capabilities and service offerings as a data center operator and managed services provider. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Peak 10 is the largest independent company of its type in the eastern United States. The acquisition will help the company expand to the Northern Virginia, Charlottesville and Tidewater regional markets. Contact David Menzies (919.863.2393).
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On the Up
LaamScience Inc.
Raleigh, N.C.
Preventing an influenza pandemic in the United States could be in the hands of Research Triangle Park-based LaamScience Inc., who developed a coating that destroys virtually all viruses and bacteria.
The permanent coating activates when it exposed to visible light. Tests reveal that the nanocoating kills 99.9 percent of influenza viruses and 99.9 percent of vaccina virus, which causes rash, fever, body and head aches. The coating’s reaction with the light is similar to the photodynamic therapy used to treat HIV and some cancers.
The two masterminds behind the research and discovery are Dr. Stephen Michielsen, an associate professor of the College of Textiles at North Carolina State University, and Drs. Igor Stojiljkovic and Gordon Churchward, associate professors of the School of Medicine at Emory University.
Current development focuses on wallpaper coatings and furniture in hospital waiting rooms. Michielsen said a lot of people get sick waiting to see the doctor. Roughly 100,000 deaths occur from infections contracted while in the hospital every year. Several local hospitals are experimenting with the coatings at this point.
LaamScience, which stands for Light Activated Anti Microbials, hopes to explore other applications for the coating. It has developed a room air-purifier with the nanocoated filter technology. Anti-viral filter systems will be used for airplanes and businesses, and the anti-viral masks could seriously affect the national effort against pandemics.
However, the application for a patent on the invention must be approved first. The Food and Drug Administration’s approval is also necessary because LaamScience prevents humans from bacteria and viruses. FDA may have concerns about the permanence of the coating and its reaction with human’s skin.
North Carolina angel investors have contributed $430,000 in seed money to LaamScience with the help and leadership of Tom Roberg, chief executive officer. Roberg was a long-time executive of IBM and Global Software and an influential investor with the life science startups.
Roberg returned from retirement to invest in a technology that could prevent avian flu, SARS and infections within hospital doors. After patent approval, LaamScience could be in every household, filtering the air and protecting the nation. Contact Tom Roberg (919.954.0096).
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New Developments
Chapel Hill – Dr. Dennis Gillings and his wife, Joan Gillings, have committed $50 million to the School of Public Health at UNC-Chapel Hill. A former UNC biostatistics professor, Gillings went on to become the founder, chairman and CEO of RTP-based Quintiles Transnational Corp (www.quintiles.com), which is now one of the world’s largest privately-held CROs. Gillings’ $50 million gift, the largest single commitment the university has ever received, puts UNC over its $2 billion goal for the Carolina First Campaign. In recognition of the $50 million gift, the School of Public Health will be renamed the “Dennis and Joan Gillings School of Global Public Health.” Contact Scott Ragland (919.962.0027).
RTP – The North Carolina Biotechnology Center (www.ncbiotech.org) has awarded $1.9 million in grants to four North Carolina universities to boost biotechnology research and teaching collaborations. The 13 separate Institutional Development Grants were awarded to scientists at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Wake Forest University, North Carolina State University and East Carolina University in a highly competitive funding round. Contact Jim Shamp (919.541.9366).
RTP – The Council for Entrepreneurial Development (www.cednc.org) has selected six companies to present at Venture 2007, which is set for April 23-25, 2007, at Washington Duke Inn & Golf Club in Durham, N.C. Over 50 companies from across the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic will present at the 24th annual conference. Companies selected to date include CeNeRX (Cary, NC, www.cenerx.com), NContact Surgical (Morrisville, NC, www.ncontact.us), Near-Time (Chapel Hill, NC, www.near-time.com), Neotropix, Inc. (Malvern, PA, www.neotropix.com), Taproot Systems, Inc. (Morrisville, NC, www.taprootsystems.com) and Tengion (East Norriton, PA, www.tengion.com). Contact Dhruv Patel (919.549.7500 x118).
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In the Pipeline
Charlotte – Alveolus, Inc. (www.alveolus.com), a provider of non-vascular interventional stent technology, has launched its “AERO” Hybrid Tracheobronchial Stent System, which has been cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for treatment of malignant pulmonary obstructions. The major symptom of malignant pulmonary obstruction is difficulty in breathing, a condition that often requires hospitalization. The placement of a stent may improve the condition while reducing a patient's hospital stay. Contact Eric Mangiardi (704.926.4848).
Durham – Argos Therapeutics (www.argostherapeutics.com) has initiated a Phase 1/2 clinical trial to test the immunologic activity and safety of its AGS-004 in HIV-infected adults. The target population for the study is patients with durable viral suppression from highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). AGS-004 is a personalized RNA-loaded dendritic cell based immunotherapy that is designed to stimulate the patient’s immune system to target and destroy the patient’s own unique viral burden. Contact Chris Erdman (508.647.0209).
Morrisville – Diosynth Biotechnology (www.diosynthbiotechnology.com) signed an extension of its exclusive agreement with PDL BioPharma, Inc. for the commercial manufacture of Retavase (reteplase), a fibrinolytic agent that has been marketed in North America since October 1996. Retavase is indicated for use in the management of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in adults for the improvement of ventricular function following AMI, the reduction of the incidence of congestive heart failure, and the reduction of mortality associated with AMI. Contact Rob Gustines (919.337.4425).
Durham – Inspire Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (www.inspirepharma.com) has signed an exclusive licensing agreement with InSite Vision Incorporated for the U.S. and Canadian commercialization of AzaSite (1.0% azithromycin ophthalmic solution), a topical anti-infective product currently under review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of bacterial conjunctivitis. Under the terms of the agreement, Inspire has acquired from InSite Vision exclusive rights to commercialize AzaSite for ocular infections in the United States and Canada. Contact Dan Budwick (212.477.9007).
High Point – TransTech Pharma (www.ttpharma.com) and Novo Nordisk, of Denmark, have agreed on a licensing deal where TransTech obtained an exclusive license to Novo Nordisk’s clinical glucokinase activator (GKA) program that testing showed could help diabetes patients control their glucose levels. TransTech will make an up-front payment to Novo Nordisk for the worldwide rights, and has committed to additional milestone payments and royalties on commercial product sales. No further terms of the deal were disclosed. Contact Stephen L. Holcombe (336.841.0300).
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Mark Your Calendar!
CED's
Venture 2007 Conference
April 24-25, 2007
Washington Duke Inn & Golf Club
Durham, NC
Biotech 2007 Conference
May 14-15, 2007
Durham Marriott at the Civic Center
Durham, NC
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