Pervasis Therapeutics Inc. raised $9.75 million to support Phase II development of its Vascugel blood vessel repair product, and to conduct research on expanding the product's uses into additional vascular and nonvascular applications.

The financing came from existing investors Flagship Venture Partners, Polaris Venture Partners and Highland Capital Partners and from Musket Research Associates.

Vascugel uses the concept of tissue engineering to enable implantation of allogeneic endothelial cells in a controlled state. When wrapped around an injured blood vessel, Vascugel endothelial cells provide growth regulatory compounds to the underlying blood vessel, in the hopes of promoting a natural healing and to prevent excessive scar tissue formation, inflammation and thrombosis.

In August the Cambridge, Mass.-based company completed patient enrollment for its two Phase II clinical trials in human subjects with end-stage renal disease who require arteriovenous fistula and arteriovenous graft access for hemodialysis. Initial safety results for Phase I trials in November 2006 showed positive results, with all primary safety endpoints achieved.

In other financing news:

• BioSpecifics Technologies Corp., of Lynbrook, N.Y., has sold 200,000 unregistered shares of its common stock, in a private placement offering to an investment fund, at a purchase price of $10.50 per share for aggregate proceeds of $2.1 million.

• Cavit Sciences Inc., of Delray Beach, Fla., has received $500,000 from two common stock purchase agreements executed in November to fund its HIV focus. Cavit received the funds through the sale of its common stock to Vision International Enterprises SA and Isthmus Investments Management SA. In addition, Cavit will issue the investors common stock purchase warrants to buy additional shares at exercise prices ranging from 40 cents to $3 per share, which potentially can add approximately $4.5 million in financing during the next four years. Cavit's lead product candidate, CT-5, is a diluted form of Maruyama vaccine being investigated in HIV.

• Cell Therapeutics Inc., of Seattle, has priced an offering of 800,000 shares of new common shares. The share issue will equate to approximately 1.2 percent of its market capitalization. The offering is expected to close today and to raise approximately $1.27 million. The shares will be sold to Societe Generale.

• Protagen AG, of Dortmund, Germany, has closed on an interim €1 million (US$1.48 million) financing round to expand its protein biochips business unit. The money came from existing institutional investors, MIG AG and Co KG Beteiligungsfonds 3, Munich, and S-Venture Capital Dortmund GmbH, as well as from a new investor, Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau. The latest funding brings the total amount of venture capital financing raised by Protagen since 2004 to €5.3 million.