Highlights from recent Life Science venture capital news.

VM Index subscribers see full details of all Life Science Venture Capital deals from the past week plus profiles and analysis of thousands of investors and venture-backed companies.

 

Funding & Investment

North America

July 25th, 2012 – Cambridge, MA

Bluebird bio Secures $60 Million in Oversubscribed Financing

bluebird bio, a leader in the development of innovative 
gene therapies for severe genetic disorders, today announced the successful completion of a $60 
million Series D financing. In this round, new investors Deerfield Partners, RA Capital, Ramius 
Capital Group, and two undisclosed blue chip public investment funds joined existing investors 
ARCH Venture Partners, Third Rock Ventures, TVM Capital, and Forbion Capital Partners. In 
addition, Shire plc joined the round as a strategic investor.

http://www.bluebirdbio.com/pdfs/bluebirdbio-Series-D-Financing.pdf

 

July 24th, 2012 – Waltham, MA

Histogenics raises $49 million

Regenerative medicine company Histogenics Corporation, announced today the completion of a $49 million round of financing. The syndicate was led by Sofinnova Ventures with participation from additional new investors Split Rock Partners, BioMed Ventures and FinTech GIMV Fund, L.P. Existing investors ProChon Holdings BV, Altima Partners, Foundation Medical Partners, Inflection Point Capital and Boston Millennia Partners also participated in the financing. Proceeds will be used to complete the ongoing Phase 3 clinical program for lead product candidate NeoCart®, which is currently enrolling patients.

http://www.histogenics.com/news/2012-07-24-histogenics-closes-49-million-series-a-fundraising-to-support-commercial-development-of-transformational-cartilage-repair-products/

 

July 24th, 2012 – San Diego, CA

CoDa Therapeutics Completes $40 Million Series B Equity Financing

CoDa Therapeutics, Inc. announced today that it raised an additional $20M from RusnanoMedInvest (“RMI” a subsidiary of RUSNANO) in a second close of its Series B financing round. The transaction is the first investment under a joint investment agreement between RUSNANO and Domain Associates that was reached in March 2012. This brings the total Series B Round to nearly $40 million following the first close late last year. All current investors, including Domain Associates, GBS Ventures and BioPacificVentures participated.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/coda-therapeutics-completes-40-million-170000199.html

 

July 25th, 2012 – Chicago, IL

Analyte Health Raises $22M for Online Medical Services

Who wants to go to the doctor to talk about sexually transmitted disease? Three venture firms are betting that many people would rather discuss STD questions over the phone.
Apex Venture Partners , Mohr Davidow Ventures and New World Ventures are backing Analyte Health Inc., an online medical-services company that helps people get tested for STDs and also provides them with access to doctors who answer questions by phone.

http://pevc.dowjones.com/article?an=DJFVW00020120725e87parz81&from=alert&pid=32&ReturnUrl=http%3a%2f%2fpevc.dowjones.com%3a80%2farticle%3fan%3dDJFVW00020120725e87parz81%26from%3dalert%26pid%3d32

 

Europe

July 23rd, 2012 – Jerusalem, ISR

Chiasma Closes $38.5 Million Equity Financing

Chiasma (pronounced key-azma), Inc., a privately held biopharma company, announced that it closed a $38.5 million equity financing co-led by new investor Abingworth and current investor MPM Capital that also included investments from existing shareholders 7 Med Health Ventures, ARCH Venture Partners, F3 Ventures and Fredric Price, Chiasma’s Chairman & CEO.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/chiasma-closes-38-5-million-154800454.html

 

July 23rd, 2012 – London, UK

Innovations invests in £17 million funding round for portfolio company, Cell Medica

Imperial Innovations Group plc (AIM: IVO, ‘Innovations’), a leading technology commercialisation and investment group, has invested in a £17 million funding round in portfolio company Cell Medica, a clinical stage cell therapeutics business, enabling it to continue development of its immune reconstitution cell therapies in Europe and to launch new operations in Texas, US, focussing on cancer immunotherapy. Invesco Perpetual and the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) also participated in the round.

http://www.imperialinnovations.co.uk/node/677

 

July 25th, 2012 – Liverpool, UK 

Evgen Raises £460K in Funding

Evgen, a Liverpool, UK-based company that develops a new cancer treatment, has raised £460k in funding. Backers include existing investors Enterprise Ventures (EV), the North West Fund for Biomedical, the Sarum Oncology Fund and a consortium of private individuals.

Led by CEO Dr Stephen Franklin, Evgen is developing Sulforadex, a synthetic pharmaceutical based on sulforaphane, a substance produced in the body after eating broccoli and other vegetables in the cabbage family, whose cancer protective benefits have been well documented.

http://www.finsmes.com/2012/07/evgen-raises-460k-funding.html

 

July 26th, 2012 – London, UK 

Clinithink Closes Investment Deal and Opens Doors for Healthcare

Spurred on by policy reforms in the US, investment in health IT continues to surge in 2012 as more and more healthcare providers continue to implement technology to improve patient care and reduce the cost of delivering medical services. Demonstrating the trend to invest in high-value health IT solutions is Clinithink, a UK-based healthcare software company which has successfully concluded a Series A funding round led by Vanguard Atlantic, a US-based equity firm focused on technology.

http://www.clinithink.com/?news=clinithink-closes-investment-deal-and-opens-doors-for-healthcare

 

This Week In Venture Capital is brought to you by VM Index – Venture Capital made easier

VM Index is an online IT, Life Science, Biotech & Med Tech venture capital funding tool with expert data that enables companies to raise more money, faster and at a better valuation than they could otherwise.