A Medical Device Daily
Primera Biosystems (Mansfield, Massachusetts), a molecular diagnostics company with assay programs in infectious disease and oncology, said it closed on $21 million of Series B financing, led by Abingworth and joined by Interwest Partners. Existing investors Malaysian Technology Development Corporation, MPM Capital, Burrill & Company and the Invus Group also participated in the round.
“Primera plans to use this financing to complete development of our instrument system, reagent kits for disease-specific clinical research, future diagnostic tests as well as support ongoing research and development efforts,” said Martin Verhoef, president/CEO of Primera. “With help from our new and existing investors, we will stay ahead of the field by developing molecular diagnostics that have significant impact on patient management and deliver real benefits for doctors, patients and payers.”
Primera is developing a nucleic acid analysis system, STAR (Scalable Target Amplification Routine), which it said combines in a single bench-top system the best features of quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction with true multiplexing of 60 or more targets. The technology was invented by Vladimir Slepnev, PhD, Primera’s chief scientific officer and co-founder.
According to the company, the technology can be applied for gene expression, DNA/RNA analysis, micro RNA analysis, mutation analysis and methylated DNA analysis.
In other financing news:
• Cellectar (Madison, Wisconsin), a privately-held radiopharmaceuticals company, reported that it has raised $13 million in a private offering.
Cellectar said it will use the money to continue operations and execute a Phase I clinical trial for its lead oncology product candidate, CLR1404, which is planned to start this summer.
Cellectar recently opened a new manufacturing facility in Madison, which will make it possible to complete its clinical trials while remaining independent.
The round was led by Venture Investors, with participants including Advantage Capital, several Wisconsin-based angel investor groups and a large private equity firm.
• CyberHeart (Menlo Park, California), which is developing a non-invasive system to treat cardiac arrhythmias, reported that it closed a $9 million Series A financing.
The investment was co-led by Emergent Medical Ventures, LLP (Portola Valley, California) and United Investments (Taipei, Taiwan). Also participating in the round were Venture Select GmbH (Munich, Germany) and Mitsubishi Corporation (New York).
CyberHeart plans to use the financing to fund the development of non-invasive technology for cardiac applications using the CyberKnife System from Accuray (Sunnyvale, California).
• Gemino Healthcare Finance (Philadelphia) provided funding to 12 healthcare companies with total credit facilities exceeding $45 million in 2007, following its March launch. It also opened offices in Dallas and Los Angeles.
The deals included Implantable Provider Group (Alpharetta, Georgia), which secured credit facilities totaling $8 million to help in a recapitalization of the company led by Fulcrum Ventures (Atlanta); Advanced Diagnostic Group (Tampa, Florida), which secured credit facilities totaling $3.45 million for its expanding number of diagnostic imaging centers; and Medstar (College Point, New York), which secured $2.6 million for support as it grows its durable medical equipment provider business.