Softscope Medical Tech.: Series A $4M

Softscope Medical Technologies, Inc. (St. Louis Park, MN) an early stage medical device company developing improved endoscopic procedures, has completed a $4M Series A financing. The round was led by Thomas, McNerney & Partners and Accuitive Medical Ventures.

VIRxSYS Corp.: Series G $20M

VIRxSYS Corporation (Gaithersburg, MD), who is developing genetic therapies for HIV and cancer, closed a $20M Series G round of financing, the company has raised a total of $87M to date. The financing will be used to support research and clinical programs including VRX496, a gene-based immunotherapy for the treatment of HIV. Phase II clinical trials of VRX496 are underway. Financial backers were not announced.

Help Wanted: Venture Partner (Inventages)

Who says VC does not hire? Inventages, with offices in Switzerland and the Bahamas, appears to be recruiting a Life Sciences Venture Partner for their $1.5B global fund. Forward any inquiries to hr [at] inventages [dot] com.

Primary Responsibilities of Venture Partner:

• Support in due diligence and portfolio management
• Manage portfolio co.’s on biz dev, marketing, strategy and ops
• Take on management positions or board seats

Key Task may involve:

• Implement marketing strategy and strategic decisions
• Structure collaborations, partnerships and agreements
• Serve as liaison officer for commercial projects

Required Qualifications of Candidates:

• The candidate shall have a life science and business education
• Experience in marketing of OTC and Pharma products
• Experience in biz dev, negotiation and deal making skills
• Minimum of ten years experience in Biotech and Pharma
• Experience in establishment of contacts within large corp
• Excellent English skills; a second language is welcome

NeoVista: Series C $41M

NeoVista, Inc. (Fremont, CA), an ophthalmic device company focused on the treatment of age-related macular degeneration, has raised $41M in Series C funding. Essex Woodlands Health Ventures led the deal along with MPM Capital and previous investors SV Life Sciences, Versant Ventures, The Carlyle Group and Accuitive Medical Ventures.

Quinnova Pharmaceuticals: Series A $13.6M

Quinnova Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a specialty dermatological reformulation pharmaceutical company focused on innovative dermal drug delivery platforms, has completed a $13.6M Series A round of financing. Participating in the round are Thomas, McNerney & Partners, H.I.G. Ventures and an investor syndicate led by Omnivest (Bermuda) Ltd.

It’s A Blog…No…A dBase?

My intention with OnBioVC is to 1) Develop a searchable pseudo-dBase of bio deals; inquiries may be made by round, location and sector. The ‘categories’ in the side-rail is where one can do their searching and sorting, and 2) Post monthly, quarterly and annual summaries of the activity observed. Likewise these qualitative pieces will be searchable in the side-rail too.

I am eager to hear suggestions on alternative/additional methodologies. Please email me your thoughts: arubenstein@rnaventures.com

Ampla Pharmaceuticals: Series A $5.47M

Ampla Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (La Jolla, CA) has raised $5.47M in Series A funding. Still operating in stealth mode the company website is currently unavailable. Investors include Integra Ventures, Advent International and Crabtree Ventures

Aushon BioSystems: Series A $7.78M

Aushon BioSystems (Burlington, MA), which provides microarray-based tools, instrumentation and services for life science research, drug discovery/development and clinical diagnostics, announced they have closed their Series A $7.78M financing. North Bridge Venture Partners led the deal.

Why This? Why Now?

I have been blogging at Colorado Life Science Deal Flow (CLSDF) since May of 2005. My foray into the blogosphere was catalyzed by observing little orange RSS chicklets all around the web. This curiosity about new technology led to building something that has become unexpectedly both valuable and rewarding.

Rewind to yesterday and my conversation with a former managing director of a successful life science venture capital firm turned CEO (again). This distinguished gentlemen, who shall remain nameless (for the time being), was so smartly complimentary of CLSDF. The heaping praise was very much appreciated however, then came the inevitable “BUT”. He mentioned that there does not appear to be anyone blogging about the entire bio VC landscape; CLSDF is obviously very geographically niche.

So with that in mind…OnBioVC was born.

Not being certain where this path may lead it will undoubtedly be a fun experiment…