• Dragon Pharmaceutical Inc., of Vancouver, British Columbia, sold about 3.5 million shares of restricted common stock to a vendor at an offering price of 43 cents per share, for a total of about $1.5 million.

• ISTA Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Irvine, Calif., filed a shelf offering to periodically sell up to $100 million in common and preferred stock, debt securities and warrants. The company plans to use the proceeds for general corporate purposes.

• Protiva Biotherapeutics Inc., of Vancouver, British Columbia, said it completed a convertible debenture financing with commitments of C$3.5 million (US$3.3 million). Participating were existing investors, including the Working Opportunity Fund managed by GrowthWorks Capital, BDC Capital, the Canadian Medical Discoveries Fund and Kinetic Capital. The company is developing products based on its Stable Nucleic-Acid Lipid Particle technology, an encapsulation and delivery system for cell-targeting nucleic acid payloads, such as short interfering RNA.