total of $73 million the company has raised since 2003. Investors including American River Ventures, Camden Partners, Integral Capital Partners, Menlo Ventures, Psilos Group, Shea Ventures, TPG Biotechnology Partners, and Valhalla Capital.
—San Diego-based Vital Therapies, which has been developing an artificial liver to support a patient with compromised liver function for as long as 30 days, raised $2.5 million in debt and rights to securities, according to a recent regulatory filing. The company raised more than $28.1 million in a Series C round of financing from investors that included Delphi Ventures, DFJ DragonFund China, HBM BioMed China, Heights Capital Management, MedVenture Associates, Toucan Capital, Valley Ventures and Versant Ventures, according to VentureWire. The company was founded in 2003, and has raised a total of roughly $40 million.
—Biocom, the San Diego life sciences industry group, has launched a website to help biotech companies find clinical research organizations (CROs). Beth Kuch, Biocom’s new marketing and communications manager, told me in an email the new Web-based directory includes a drug development guide that provides a detailed description of each phase of drug development, and includes a list of member CROs that understand the key disease areas and can provide needed R&D services in each specific phase.
—Marshall Edwards, a cancer drug development company that moved to San Diego a couple years ago, said it’s changing its name to MEI Pharma, and its common stock will begin trading under a new ticker symbol (NASDAQ:[[MEIP]]) on Monday. In a statement, CEO Daniel Gold said, “Over the past two years we have successfully relocated our headquarters to the U.S., acquired a robust intellectual property portfolio, assembled world-class drug development expertise and advanced our two most promising oncology candidates into clinical trials.”
