Onbiovc

For 4Q11 the perma-resident, oncology sector, saw its volume
overtaken by an accelerating healthIT sector whose ten deals accounted
for $82.5M. Not surprising, the sevencancer companies accumulated a
considerably higher aggregate dollar raise, closing on $188.3M; the
largest deal being a $44M Series A for Burlingame, CA-based CleaveBiosciences, who is focused on protein degradation controlled by the
ubiquitin proteasome system and the autophagy system, working to
exploit regulation opportunities in thesecancer cell survival and
proliferation pathways. Neck-and-neck in deal volume with the oncology
sector were the seven diagnostic entities who accounted for $175.3M ininstitutional capital. Biocartis, the Belgium-based molecular diagnostics
company skewed the cohort as a result of their $100M Series C
financing. The ambitious Biocartisplatform is focused on simultaneously
detecting and quantifying up to 30 molecular biomarkers in a single
assay.
Medical devices continue to accelerate in both deal volumeand
capital raised, in 4Q11 we observe the cardiovascular and surgical
device subsectors percolate to the top of the list. The four CV deals
accounted for $83.9M and thesurgical devices garnered $45M. To
eliminate any confusion around the “surgical” nomenclature, these four
companies were 480 Biomedical (bioresorbable scaffolds),TransEnterix
(flexible laparoscopy), Medrobotics (flexible medical robots enabling
surgical access and visualization) and EndoEvolution (automated
suturing).
On the heels of theBiocartis $100M financing was an $89M round
completed by San Francisco-based Portola Pharma, to advance their
Phase III product Betrixaban, an oral Factor Xa inhibitor