Uptake Medical, the Seattle-based developer of a minimally invasive device to treat chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, has raised $3.4 million out of a total equity offering worth $13.3 million, according to a regulatory filing. Uptake is developing a device that’s supposed to seal off access to diseased parts of the lung where air gets trapped, without leaving any implantable device behind. It is competing with Redmond, WA-based Spiration, among others. Uptake raised another $3.1 million in debt back in May, according to a regulatory filing.

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It was a relatively light week for deals in the Northwest, perhaps owing to the holiday weekend. But there was still action in biotech, marketing software, and alternative energy.

—Kennewick, WA-based Infinia raised $14.1 million in debt financing out of a $50 million offering. The company, which is backed by Vulcan Capital, Khosla Ventures, and other investors, develops solar power generation technology that uses free-piston Stirling engines and power systems.

—Luke reported on the story behind Vulcan Capital’s investment in BiPar Sciences, the Brisbane, CA-based cancer biotech firm that was recently sold to Paris-based Sanofi-Aventis for $500 million. Vulcan led the seed financing round for BiPar back in 2005, and pumped $13 million in capital into it through its lifetime. The sale will earn Vulcan more than $100 million in cash, which managing director Steve Hall says has helped put the firm in the top 10 percent of all U.S. venture funds over the past five years. BiPar’s drug, BSI-201, could be a fundamental advance against breast cancer, ovarian cancer, and other tumors.

—Bellevue, WA-based Visible Technologies, a startup that makes software for online brand reputation management and customer service, raised $6 million in debt financing. Visible Technologies was founded in 2003, and is backed by Bellevue-based Ignition Partners and New York-based WPP.

—Seattle-based Survey Analytics, a marketing and customer relations software startup, scored a partnership with the White House to power the Open Government Dialogue website, which seeks to solicit ideas from the public on how the government can be more transparent, participatory, and collaborative. Financial terms of the deal were not given. Survey Analytics, which has been bootstrapped since 2004, has developed a software platform for hosting and managing feedback communities called IdeaScale.

—Luke reported that Seattle-based Uptake Medical, which is developing minimally invasive technology to treat emphysema, raised $3.1 million in a debt financing. Uptake makes a device that seals off access to diseased parts of the lung where air gets trapped. The technique does not leave an implantable device behind. The latest funding adds to the $3 million bridge financing the company raised for its clinical trials in December.

—HealthUnity, a Bellevue, WA-based maker of software for connecting healthcare IT systems, raised $2 million out of a $4 million equity financing, Luke reported. The company was founded in 2004 and is led by CEO Prem Urali, a former group manager in the BizTalk Server division at Microsoft.

—Luke also reported that Oncothyreon, a Seattle-based developer of cancer drugs, received commitments from several investors to buy new shares and warrants for $11.1 million. The deal was underwritten by Boenning & Scattergood. Oncothyreon (NASDAQ: ONTY) has been diversifying its pipeline, and has gotten renewed interest from investors in its cancer immunotherapy program, since Seattle-based Dendreon has had recent success in that field.

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CMC Icos Biologics, the Bothell, WA-based contract manufacturer of biotech drugs, said today it has signed a deal to manufacture an experimental drug for acute lung injury. CMC will make IC14, an antibody drug, for Brisbane, Australia-based Implicit Bioscience. The treatment, which is scheduled to enter Phase II trials next year, was previously tested in 150 patients by Icos for its potential against inflammatory diseases.

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Maybe it’s because everyone is trying to get their deals announced before the holidays, but it was a busy week in the Northwest, with plenty of activity in mobile software, online media, and medical devices.

—Bellevue, WA-based BlueKai, an Internet marketing firm, raised $10.5 million in Series B funding, led by Waltham, MA-based Battery Ventures. Existing investor Redpoint Ventures also contributed to the round. BlueKai is creating a marketplace for online consumer data.

—Luke reported that Seattle-based Uptake Medical, a maker of medical devices, raised $3 million to carry out a pair of clinical trials for a technique to treat emphysema and other deadly lung-obstructing diseases. The capital was raised from all of Uptake’s previous investors, including Prism VentureWorks, Onset Ventures, and WRF Capital.

—Seattle-based mobile startup Zumobi teamed up with outdoor retailer REI to release a free software application, called the REI Snow Report, for getting instant …Next Page »

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Aires Pharmaceuticals may have a way to help patients with a rare, deadly lung disease get a little more oxygen, and maybe even live a little longer. The San Diego startup is developing an inhalable form of nitrite that could improve the lives of patients with high blood pressure in the vessels leading to the lungs, known as pulmonary arterial hypertension.

I got the rundown on Aires’ game plan from CEO Wendy Johnson. She found this company’s core technology through her other role as a venture partner with ProQuest Investments. She’s also a 20-year veteran of the San Diego biotech scene, most recently at Salmedix.

Aires has been around a couple years, but has been laying low until it got its cornerstone intellectual property nailed down last month with a license from the National Institutes of Health. The concept is to develop what it calls “Aironite,” a technology which delivers an inhaled nitrite that converts into nitric oxide in a low-acidity or low-oxygen environment in the body. That’s important because the compound can open up tightened blood vessels while also having an anti-inflammatory effect, Johnson says. This sort of treatment could be taken in addition to some other drugs such as Actelion Pharmaceuticals’ bosentan (Tracleer), Pfizer’s sildenafil (Revatio), and Gilead Sciences’ ambrisentan (Letairis). These drugs can extend lives of patients five to seven years, and Aires thinks its medicine can add a couple more years.

“The drugs work, but everyone fails eventually,” Johnson says. “It’s only a matter of time.”

Pulmonary arterial hypertension is a rare disease that affects about two people out of a million in the U.S., says the Pulmonary Hypertension Association. About 16,000 in the U.S. get treatment, according to Aires. Even so, it has grown into a big market since Actelion’s bosentan was the first oral drug approved by the FDA for this disease in 2001. The market is now worth more than $1 billion, Johnson says.

Aires got started a couple years ago with seed capital from Proquest to pursue this idea, and has put about $6 million into the company to date, Johnson says. She’s currently trying to raise another $25 million to bankroll clinical trials. The company has about 10 employees, including Gary Elliott, a former colleague of Johnson’s at Salmedix who is in charge of product development, and Lewis Rubin, acting chief medical officer. Rubin is a leading investigator in pulmonary arterial hypertension who’s taking a leave from a research post at the University of California, San Diego. “He’s seen all of these drugs in trials before,” Johnson says.

Aires feels comfortable talking publicly about its technology now because it has just wrapped up its first clinical trial of its inhaled nitrite, Johnson says. The basic conclusion, from the first 33 patients, is that the drug can be delivered safely, and in high enough concentrations that it should have an effect, Johnson says. The next trial is going to involve 80 volunteers who simulate a low-oxygen environment that patients with this condition experience—sort of like breathing thin air high on a mountainside. The researchers will want to see whether the Aires drug can reverse this state, at different doses, and measure the effect over several hours to see how long it lasts.

These are still very early days for this treatment. …Next Page »

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