A Medical Device Daily

Venture capital firm Gilde Healthcare Partners (Utrecht, the Netherlands) reported the close of its €150 million ($213 million) venture fund, Gilde Healthcare II (GHC II).

Gilde said that GHC II is one of the largest funds ever raised to invest in European healthcare and is backed by current investors in Gilde Healthcare Funds, who have been joined by some new investors.

The original target for GHCII was €125 million, but Gilde said the additional investment was attracted by its “excellent investment track record [resulting in] six exits in the past two years.

Gilde said that GHCII will invest in companies developing therapeutics, diagnostics, medical devices and enabling technologies at all stages of a company’s development from seed stage to pre-IPO rounds. Investment size will range from €1 million up to €15 million per investment after all private rounds of financing. It is planned to make more than 15 venture investments from GHCII.

Pieter van der Meer, General Partner of Gilde, said, “The quality of our investment portfolio, which we have built and moved to liquidity within five years, has enabled us to generate attractive returns to our investors.”

Gilde Healthcare Partners currently reports over €275 million ($390 million) under management and says it is looking to lead new investments in therapeutics, diagnostics, medical devices and enabling technologies.

Founded in 2000, Gilde has representatives in London and Madrid. Companies that Gilde has supported include Ablynx (Belgium), Agendia (Netherlands), AMT (Netherlands), Chroma Therapeutics (UK), and Symphogen (Denmark).

Applied Bio, Olink team on PLA technology

Applied Biosystems (Foster City, California), a business of Applera (Norwalk, Connecticut), said it has signed an exclusive license and collaboration agreement with Olink Bioscience (Uppsala, Sweden) to commercialize Olink’s proximity ligation assay (PLA) technology. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Applied Bio will co-develop the PLA technology for specific applications in life science research, including biomarker validation and characterization of complex biological processes.

According to Olink, PLA uses two oligonucleotide-labeled antibodies, DNA ligation, and nucleic acid amplification to detect proteins, their modifications, and their interactions in limited samples. Applied Biosystems said it believes the PLA technology will provide researchers with a method for protein analysis that combines antibodies for protein recognition with DNA amplification for analytical quantitation.

Applied Bio will develop products for in vitro applications of PLA in a controlled environment. These products will combine the protein detection features of the PLA method with the quantitative precision of TaqMan reagents on Applied Biosystems’ real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) systems.

According to the company, the use of PLA technology should allow scientists to conduct protein expression studies using reagents and instruments for genotyping and gene expression analysis. Compared to traditional methods such as western blot analysis, researchers are expected to be able to use significantly less biological sample to measure relative changes in expressed protein targets and achieve reproducible results with a more streamlined workflow and higher throughput.

The PLA method can also be embodied for in situ applications for direct detection in cells or tissues. For these applications, the PLA technology uses two oligo-labeled antibodies and rolling circle amplification (RCA) with visualization by microscopy to offer a quantitative alternative to immunohistochemistry — a visualization technique to localize target proteins in fixed samples. Unlike immunohistochemistry, the PLA technology enables researchers to better quantify the distribution and localization of biological markers in different part of tissues, cell types or sub-cellular structures, the company noted.

Olink retains rights to certain incarnations of the PLA technology including in situ applications in the life science research market, and all rights in the area of in vitro diagnostics. Applied Bio develops instrument-based systems, consumables, software, and services for the life-science market.

Olink commercializes products and technologies for analysis of biomolecules.

Misonix to distribute SIAD’s SonicOne

Misonix (Farmingdale, New York), a developer of ultrasonic technology for the treatment of cancer and other chronic health conditions, has entered into a distribution agreement with SIAD Healthcare (Milan, Italy) for its SonicOne Ultrasonic Wound Care System in Italy. SIAD has agreed to minimum purchase order provisions for the SonicOne for three years, which began Sept. 30.

SIAD will provide promotional activities within Italy that include the development of collateral marketing material, participation in trade shows and presentation of clinical papers. The agreement represents an expanded relationship between Misonix and SIAD, as the distributor has been marketing Misonix’s neuroaspirator in Italy since 2004, the companies noted.

The SonicOne is designed to allow healthcare practitioners to remove necrotic tissue, biofilm, and other impediments to successful wound healing. Treatment with the SonicOne enables the creation of a wound bed of receptive tissue to accept current and future bio-active therapies, which is particularly important for the treatment of chronic wounds.

The benefits of ultrasound as applied with the Sonic- One are that it is naturally bacteriocidal, reduces the pain associated with standard sharp debridement performed manually with a scalpel, and stimulates the wound bed to develop key components of wound healing.

Misonix makes ultrasonic devices and laboratory equipment.