Nexus Dx, a stealthy San Diego biotechnology company that appears to be an emerging diagnostics maker, has raised $9 million in new equity funding and $6 million in debt and options, according to a pair of regulatory filings.
The documents don’t say who is providing the money, but they list Risa Stack, a partner with Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, as a director, along with William Gerber and Lionel Carnot, a pair of partners with Bay City Capital, a San Francisco venture firm. Nexus Dx lists James D. Merselis as president and CEO in the documents.
Merselis, as well as representatives for Kleiner Perkins and Bay City, didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment about the company. But if Merselis’ track record is any clue about what he might be doing in San Diego at Nexus Dx, the safe bet would be portable medical diagnostics. Merselis most recently made news in July 2008 when he was hired as CEO of San Jose, CA-based Alverix, a company that developed low-cost, handheld diagnostics with the accuracy of lab instruments, according to its website.
Before the stint at Alverix, Merselis was CEO of HemoSense, a company that developed diagnostics to help doctors manage the risks with blood-thinning drugs like warfarin that patients get after suffering a stroke. He also has 22 years of experience at Boehringer Mannheim Diagnostics, which is now part of Roche Diagnostics, according to a statement from Alverix when he took that job.
Gerber, one of the two Bay City partners on the Nexus Dx board, also has a long record in diagnostics. He was the CEO of Bothell, WA-based Epoch Biosciences before that company was acquired by San Diego-based Nanogen in 2004.
