Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Laguna Pharmaceuticals Gets $30M

La Jolla-based Laguna Pharmaceuticals, a developer of biopharmaceuticals aimed at treating cardiac arrhythmia, said this morning that it has raised $30M in a Series B funding, and relocated its headquarters to La Jolla. The company said the funding round came from Versant Ventures, Frazier Healthcare and BioMed Ventures along with Sante Ventures. Laguna Pharmaceuticals was previously known as ChanRx, and had been based in Cleveland, Ohio. As part of the funding, the company named Bob Baltera as CEO. Baltera had previously been CEO of Amira Pharmaceuticals, until he sold the company to Bristol Myers Squibb in 2011, and also had served at Amgen. Jerel Davis of Versant and Jamie Topper of Frazier also join the board with the funding. Laguna said its lead compound treats atrial fibrillation (AF) and atrial flutter (AFL)--the most common cardiac arrhythmia's today--and have been shown in studies to be an efficacy level near that of the leading treatment today, which is an electric shock to the heart. More information »

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