• Adherex Technologies Inc., of Chapel Hill, N.C., entered agreements with Southpoint Capital Advisors LP, Adherex's largest shareholder, and certain other investors, for a private placement of C$7.2 million (US$7.2 million) that it intends to raise up to an additional C$1.8 million by way of a nonbrokered private placement and up to an additional C$12.75 million by way of a rights offering.

• HemaQuest Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Boston, raised $12 million in a Series B financing round led by new investor, Aberdare Ventures. The firm will use the funds to advance a pair of lead candidates, HQK-1001 and HQK-1004, through Phase II trials. HQK-1001 is an oral small molecule for sickle cell disease or beta thalassemia. HQK-1004 targets hematologic malignancies associated with viral infections.

• NPS Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Bedminster, N.J., has closed a public offering of 10.35 million shares of common stock, including 1.35 million shares for the full exercise of an overallotment option. Net proceeds were approximately $53.3 million. Canaccord Adams acted as sole book-running manager and Needham & Co. LLC acted as co-manager. (See BioWorld Today, April 19, 2010.)

• Rheonix Inc., of Ithaca, N.Y., completed a $12.6 million Series A financing to continue development of the Chemistry and Reagent Device system, which vertically integrates all the functions of traditional molecular diagnostic instrumentation into a single system to achieve unprecedented raw sample preparation, molecular amplification and multiplex analysis, the company said.