MabVax Therapeutics, a San Diego biotech developing novel vaccines and human antibodies for the treatment of cancer, plans to raise $4 million from investors, according to a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company, which has raised about $500,000 so far, was founded in 2006 to develop polyvalent versions of existing monovalent vaccines against small cell lung cancer, sarcoma, melanoma, and other cancers. MabVax says it plans to develop fully human monoclonal antibody products at the same time.

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San Diego-based Sorrento Therapeutics has raised $2.3 million in a one-time equity investment, according to a filing yesterday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The biotech, which specializes in new methods for developing 100-percent human monoclonal antibodies, was founded in 2006 and lists Steve Zaniboni, Antonius Schuh, and Henry Ji as executives and directors.

Zaniboni was named in February as the chief financial officer at Xifin, which provides Software as a Service to support laboratory billings and financial management operations. He previously worked as CFO at San Diego’s AviaraDx, Arcturus Bioscience, and Sequenom, and held financial management positions at several life science companies in the Boston area.

The filing did not identify Sorrento’s investor. But Miami-based OpkoHealth said earlier this month it had made an investment in Sorrento Therapeutics in exchange for a one-third stake in the San Diego biotech. Opko says it also received an exclusive license to the Sorrento antibody library for the discovery and development of therapeutic antibodies in the field of ophthalmology.

Ji is named on several recent patents relating to new ways for amplifying and cloning a specific region or sequences of immunological genes to generate antibody libraries.

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Cambridge, MA-based biotech company Dyax (NASDAQ:DYAX) announced today it had signed a pair of licensing agreements with French drugmaker Sanofi-Aventis potentially worth $500 million. The deals, which involve a $25 million payment this year, grant the French company an exclusive worldwide license for the development and commercialization of Dyax’s fully human monoclonal antibody DX-2240, as well as a nonexclusive license to its antibody phage display technology. Dyax’s stock was up $0.72 (more than 20 percent) in late morning trading, to $4.28.

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