OncoVista Inc., which is developing targeted cancer therapies, raised $6.8 million and acquired a controlling position in a public reporting shell company.

The San Antonio-based company sold 970,712 units consisting of stock and warrants in the deal, while also acquiring control of Aviation Upgrade Technologies Inc. OncoVista plans to use that deal as a means of becoming a publicly reporting company.

OncoVista is developing products both through in-licensing deals and in-house programs. In addition, it has diagnostic technology designed to facilitate selection of clinical trial participants and to quantify and predict the response of patients to treatment.

OncoVista was incorporated in 2004. Its president, chairman and CEO is Alexander Weis, co-founder of ILEX Oncology Inc., which was sold for $1 billion in 2004 to Genzyme Corp.

Last year, OncoVista acquired a controlling interest in AdnaGen AG, a Langenhagen, Germany-based company that developed and was marketing tests for the early detection and analysis of circulating tumor cells. Also in 2006, the company obtained its first clinical-stage compound, the nucleoside analogue Cordycepin (3'-deoxyadenosine), through a merger with Aengus Pharmaceuticals.

The company said its product portfolio includes compounds at the discovery and preclinical phases, a Phase I drug candidate for leukemia and a few in-licensed clinical-stage drugs. It also has a platform technology for producing targeted nanoparticles for drug delivery.

Investors in the financing round included Wexford Capital LLC, CAMOFI Master LDC, Bristol Investment Fund Ltd. and other institutional and qualified investors. Maxim Group LLC was exclusive placement agent for the deal.

In other financing news:

• Cortex Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Irvine, Calif., completed its previously announced $14.2 million registered direct offering of about 7.1 million shares and warrants to purchase up to about 2.8 million additional shares at $2.64 each. JMP Securities LLC was lead placement agent, with Rodman & Renshaw LLC co-placement agent. Proceeds will be used to accelerate development of its Ampakine technology, which acts to increase the strength of signals at connections between brain cells, as well as for licensing activities and other corporate purposes.

• Vermillion Inc., of Fremont, Calif., closed its previously announced $20.6 million placement of common stock and warrants. Vermillion sold about 24.5 million shares and issued warrants for the purchase of 19.6 million additional shares with an exercise price of $0.925 per share. The diagnostics firm formerly was known as Ciphergen Biosystems Inc. (See BioWorld Today, Aug. 27, 2007.)

• Sucampo Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Bethesda, Md., said underwriters for its initial public offering exercised in full their option to purchase 562,500 shares, which were all sold by a selling stockholder. So gross proceeds to Sucampo remained at $43.1 million through the sale of 3.8 million shares at $11.50 per share. Cowen and Co. LLC was book-running manager for the offering, while CIBC World Markets Corp. and Leerink Swann & Co. were co-managers. Sucampo focuses on development of drugs based on prostones, a class of compounds derived from functional fatty acids that occur naturally in the human body. (See BioWorld Today, Aug. 6, 2007.)

• MonoSol Rx Inc., of Warren, N.J., which registered for an initial public offering in March, set terms for the proposed IPO, saying it intends to sell 4 million shares at $16 to $18 per share. That would result in gross proceeds of $68 million at the midrange of that estimate. MonoSol Rx is developing drug delivery technology based on its dissolving thin-film technology.