Fresh off Medicare win, CardioDx lines up $58 million financing round

CardioDx Inc. lined up $58 million in a two-tranche round – about $30 million now and the remainder later this year – as it expands following recently won Medicare coverage of its heart disease diagnostic test. Singapore-based investor Temasek joined a slew of existing CardioDx backers, including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Mohr Davidow Ventures, TPG Biotech and GE Capital, in the financing, the Palo Alto company said Monday.

Growing Nodality strikes drug-development deal with Pfizer

Nodality Inc. scored a deal Thursday to help Pfizer Inc., the world's largest drug maker, better develop drugs. The multi-year deal, financial terms for which weren't disclosed, initially will focus on autoimmune diseases, particularly lupus. Plus, Pfizer has an option to use Nodality's technology to develop companion diagnostics.

Crescendo tries to convince insurers to pay for its rheumatoid arthritis test

If you have rheumatoid arthritis, the course of your treatment can be determined this way: The doctor looks at, squeezes and evaluates 28 joints for swelling or tenderness then plugs that information into a formula that spits out a score. So-called DAS28 tests are less than perfect, as you might guess. What's more, they are largely subjective and time consuming. It is difficult to figure out when to increase or discontinue a patient's use of the Genentech-developed RA drug Rituxan, for example, or to switch to another drug. DAS28 tests are used more for clinical trials than in clinical practice, but the leaders of Crescendo Biosciences Inc. are sure there's a better way for RA patients, physicians and the health-care system.

Life Technologies buys DNA test developer Navigenics

Life Technologies Corp. bought genetic-information company Navigenics Inc., the company said Monday, giving the testing equipment giant an inroad to process lab tests for doctors.

Carlsbad-based Life Technologies (NASDAQ: LIFE) did not disclose the value of the deal, but it said it is its "first step" toward building out its molecular diagnostics business through internal development, partnerships and select acquisitions.

Foster City-based Navigenics, run by San Francisco Business Times 40 Under 40 award winner Vance Vanier, develops DNA tests that tell doctors if patients have genetic markers for certain diseases. It is one of a handful of companies that have taken advantage of faster, more accurate systems, like those offered by Life Technologies, to tap into consumers' interest in predicting and preventing diseases.

IPierian turns its stem cell technology on Alzheimer's, antibody drugs

After fits and starts, iPierian Inc. will focus on developing monoclonal antibodies targeting Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative conditions, the company said Monday.

The South San Francisco stem cell technology and drug development company -- whose top-drawer investors include Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers    , Google Ventures and venture groups tied to GlaxoSmithKline and Biogen Idec -- said its antibody drugs will zero in on tau protein and the Complement pathway.

IPierian’s goal over the next six months is to identify a suite of antibodies for the tau and Complement programs, said CEO Nancy Stagliano, and to raise another round of financing by the end of the year.

Ultimately, iPierian is aiming to begin a human trial with one of those potential drugs in 2014, Stagliano said.

Auxogyn raises $20 million

Auxogyn Inc., a Menlo Park startup aimed at helping in vitro fertilization clinics select fertilized eggs with the best chances to survive inside the mother, closed the final tranche of a $20 million Series A financing.
Spun out of the Stanford University lab of Renee Reijo Pera, Auxogyn’s algorithm-based Eeva system is designed to help IVF clinics place embryos into mothers on the third day after fertilization, rather than day five.

Veracyte thyroid test gets boost with Genzyme deal

When biotech drug developer Genzyme Corp. said Friday that it will market a thyroid nodule analysis test, South San Francisco-based Veracyte Inc. got a big boost.
Although terms of the deal were not disclosed, Genzyme’s promotion means the Afirma test from Veracyte will get higher visibility. Genzyme, which was bought last year by French drug developer Sanofi, markets Thyrogen for patients with well-differentiated thyroid cancer.
After a Johns Hopkins study last year found that Afirma’s use could save money for the health care system, I spoke with Veracyte co-founder and CEO Bonnie Anderson.

Tom Perkins to government: Get out of the VC business

Vaunted venture capitalist Tom Perkins wants government out of his business.
Citing the Department of Energy’s $535 million loan guarantee to bankrupt solar panel manufacturer Solyndra Inc. of Fremont and plans for more of what he called government-led venture capital, Perkins predicted every Solyndra-like government investment would fail.
“It will all fail. Every one will fail,” Perkins said at a reception launching a new book about the early days of biotech giant Genentech Inc., which Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers initially financed in 1976 with a $100,000 investment.

Genentech's early days offer lesson for today's biotechs

We don’t do book reviews at the San Francisco Business Times — but at the risk of my email inbox flooding with requests, I must say that I found Sally Smith Hughes’ new book about the early days of biotech powerhouse Genentech fascinating.
Much of the story has been heard before — your typical boy-meets-technology story — ending up with scientist Herb Boyer and venture capitalist Bob Swanson hooking up to form the South San Francisco company that largely created a new industry and changed the face of drug development.
But there’s an underlying (unintentional?) message in the way Hughes, a historican of science at the University of California, Berkeley’s Bancroft Library, presents the story in the aptly named “Genentech: The Beginnings of Biotech.” It’s all about balance.

One-on-one with Intersect ENT's Lisa Earnhardt

Lisa Earnhardt has a message for those who suffer from chronic rhinosinusitis: There is a better way.
By definition, “chronic” rhinosinusitis is inflammation of the sinuses that lasts 12 weeks or more. It can be accompanied by a swelled feeling in the face, fatigue, headache and loss of taste, to name a few. (Just thinking about it makes my head hurt.) Of the 30 million people in the United States who suffer from CRS, about a half-million elect to correct it through surgery.
Often, however, even with surgery, the symptoms return.
But Earnhardt thinks her company, Palo Alto’s Intersect ENT Inc., has a better answer. Its Propel stent is placed in the sinus cavities right after sinus surgery, keeping the sinuses open and releasing a corticosteroid over a period of time.
Then Propel disappears — it is absorbed into the body.

IPierian returning to stem cell roots under new CEO

IPierian Inc. is heading back to the future.
Staked financially by some of the best-known firms in life sciences, like GlaxoSmithKline and Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, and intellectually by top-notch research from Harvard University, South San Francisco-based iPierian looked to ride a wave of drugs built around induced pluripotent stem cell technology.

Crescendo Bioscience raises $56M, gives buyout option to Myriad

Myriad Genetics Inc. will invest $25 million in Crescendo Bioscience — with an option to buy the South San Francisco molecular diagnostics company — as Crescendo raises an additional $31 million in a Series C round.
The investment by Salt Lake City-based Myriad is structured as long-term debt and is nondilutive to current stockholders, Crescendo said in a press release Thursday. Myriad, best known for its monopoly on a genetic test for breast cancer risk, has a three-year option to buy Crescendo for cash at a predetermined multiple of revenue. That price is based on the growth rate of Crescendo when the option is exercised.

Implant company NeuroPace raises $49M

NeuroPace Inc. has secured $49 million in venture capital funding that could end up being as much as $61.9 million, according to a regulatory filing on Tuesday.
The Mountain View-based company specializes in implantable devices for treating neurological disorders by responsive brain stimulation.

XDx heart transplant test wins 'medically necessary' tag from Aetna

Molecular diagnostics company XDx Inc. won an important victory as national insurance provider Aetna Inc. determined that the Brisbane company’s heart transplant test is “medically necessary” more than one year after a transplant.
Aetna’s (NYSE: AET) decision would likely help validate the AlloMap test further, and that has an impact on cash flow and the bottom line. Notably, 89-employee XDx often has to appeal each test when insurers initially say they won’t pay for it. Sometimes that goes all the way to an administrative judge.

Medical device maker Spiracur raises $35 million