Phoenix recently disclosed in a regulatory filing that it raised more than $4.5 million in equity funding from three investors. The company expects to raise a total of about $10 million as part of the funding round, and will likely raise the remaining money by this spring, Sengbusch says.

Outlook Development Group, a Franklin, WI-based commercial real estate firm, is leading the round, Sengbusch says. The other participants are all investors who had backed Phoenix previously, he says.

The company, which has been in business since 2005 and shortened its name from Phoenix Nuclear Labs two years ago, employs about 90 people, 70 of whom are full-time, Sengbusch says. He declined to share revenue projections for 2019, but says the company expects to become profitable on an annual basis this year.

Phoenix plans to use some of the new money to fund the construction of two buildings at a planned new corporate headquarters in Fitchburg, WI, a suburb just south of Madison, Sengbusch says. The company will use one of the facilities, which it broke ground on last fall, to perform neutron radiography and other imaging work on new product prototypes Phoenix’s customers are developing, among other things. Phoenix expects it will open that facility in mid-2019, and move into the second building, its new headquarters, sometime next year.

Read more at Xconomy.

Madison-based biotechnology firm FluGen Inc. has raised a $5.6 million debt funding round to continue its development of a universal flu vaccine.

“We’re doing something no one’s ever done, to our knowledge,” Radspinner said. “What we did was to give about 100 volunteers, half of them received our vaccine, half received a placebo, and then a month later they were all given the flu.”

FluGen then measured whether the patient became ill or not, and the severity of symptoms. It expects the results of the first challenge study in the first quarter of 2019.

Read more at BizTimes.

Phoenix LLC, known for making the strongest compact neutron generators in the world, will hit another milestone by breaking ground for its new state-of-the-art neutron imaging center in Fitchburg, WI located at 5125 Lacy Road in Fitchburg, WI.

“This commercial neutron imaging center, the first non-reactor facility of its kind, is another indicator that Wisconsin’s technology sector is at the forefront of several growing industries including medical and industrial imaging,” said Sengbusch. “It’s incredible to be part of a team that is passionate about developing cutting-edge technologies and deploying them in ways that improve our world.”

Read more at PRNewswire.

Invenra, an antibody drug discovery and development company with novel multispecific platforms and product candidates, announced the close of a $7M Series B financing round. The financing will be used to expand the company to meet growing demand for partnerships using its’ B-Body™ multispecific technology as well as continuing development of its internal pipeline.

Venture Investors led the round with participation from existing investors including Series A leader Wisconsin Investment Partners. The State of Wisconsin Investment Board (SWIB) also joined as a new investor.  Additionally, Paul Weiss, Managing Director at Venture Investors, will join Invenra’s Board of Directors.

Read more at Invenra.

FluGen, Inc. announced today that the company’s novel M2 deleted, single replication (M2SR) influenza vaccine was safe and well tolerated, generated a dose-response effect for both humoral and mucosal antibodies, and produced robust T-cell responses in a first-in-human phase 1a trial of 96 healthy volunteers ages 18-49 years.

“The strong safety and immunogenicity data we see in this study are consistent with a vaccine that could provide broad and durable protection against influenza,” said Robert Belshe, M.D., one of the study’s lead authors, and the Diana and J. Joseph Adorjan Endowed Professor of Infectious Diseases and Immunology, Emeritus, at Saint Louis University.

Read more at BusinessWire.

An early-stage clinical trial testing the safety and immune-stimulating ability of an experimental nasal influenza vaccine in healthy 9- to 17-year-old children and teens has begun enrolling participants at a Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Unit (VTEU) site at Saint Louis University, St. Louis, Missouri. The VTEU is funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health.

The investigational vaccine, developed by FluGen, Inc. of Madison, Wisconsin, is made from a strain of seasonal influenza virus (H3N2) that has been genetically designed to replicate only once in the body. Studies in animals showed that the “single replication” virus does not cause disease but nevertheless prompted a robust immune response akin to that of a natural influenza infection. Investigators hypothesize that volunteers who receive the candidate vaccine will have a robust immune response not only against H3N2 strains that match those in the vaccine but also against influenza strains that are mismatched to the vaccine strain. A previous Phase 1 trial of this candidate vaccine in healthy adults showed that it was safe and generated a robust immune response and a Phase 2 trial in healthy adults is currently underway (that trial is not supported by NIAID.)

Read more at NIAID.com.

Invenra is pleased to announce and welcome back, Mark F. Kubik as Chief Business Officer. Mark will lead the Invenra business development team, developing and managing new business opportunities in addition to leadership of alliance and portfolio management, and overseeing its pipeline of immuno-oncology bispecific (B-Body™) antibodies and strategic partnerships.

Mr. Kubik has over 25 years of experience in business development, alliance and portfolio management and drug discovery and development. The bulk of this work has focused around successfully leading transformative deal creation and productive alliances in the therapeutic monoclonal antibody (mAb) and empowered antibody areas. Previously, Mark had led Invenra’s early business development efforts as SVP, Business Development and was responsible for several important mAb discovery partnerships and strategic guidance. Mark’s leadership also directed Invenra toward its current strategic focus on multispecific mAbs in Immuno-Oncology for its own pipeline and for strategic partners.

Read more at BusinessWire.

HealthMyne has signed a joint development agreement with Mayo Clinic to evaluate the Quantitative Imaging Decision Support (QIDS)® platform in their Scottsdale, AZ facility for Therapy Response Assessments, which allows for a standardized method of determining the effectiveness of various treatment protocols used in cancer care. In current practice, due to significant inefficiencies in the process, these assessments are generally limited to patients involved in clinical trials.

HealthMyne’s QIDS platform enables better patient management decisions for hospital providers worldwide by connecting the Point-of-Read (Radiology) with the Point-of-Care starting with Oncology and expanding to other specialties over time. The QIDS platform drives collaboration by providing the multidisciplinary care team with intuitive, workflow-integrated software that leverages imaging and clinical data to enhance the quality and cost of care. The Clinical Decision Support (CDS) modules in the platform–Cancer Screening, Tumor Conferences, Therapy Response, Incidental Findings, Thoracic, others–significantly automate and streamline inefficient and cost-intensive clinical processes to allow busy clinicians to focus their energies on precise patient management.

Read more at EINNews.com.

Today, Kiio and Quartz Health Solutions unveiled the results of a one-year study to evaluate the impact of Kiio’s digital program on the challenges presented by low back pain. Quartz offered Kiio, customized and white-labeled to Quartz as MobileBack_℠, to plan members with a history of low back pain and living near Madison, Wisconsin. The results demonstrate tremendous improvements among Kiio participants compared to a non-participant group.

Participants achieved significant pain reduction and were extremely satisfied with their experience, with 86% of participants saying they had learned to better manage their pain. Participants reported that they used the digital program more regularly because of its easy 24/7 access, interactive digital coaching, and the accountability tools that kept them on track.

Read more at BusinessWire.

Silatronix^®, Inc., the global leader in organosilicon (OS) electrolyte materials, is announcing receipt of commercial orders from various customers in North America and China for its OS3^® product, a lithium-ion battery (“LiB”) electrolyte co-solvent. Initial shipments of Silatronix OS3 to these customers are scheduled for 3rd quarter of 2018.

From its portfolio of OS advanced functional solvents, Silatronix has qualified OS3 as its first commercial product in the LiB market. The customers currently placing orders for OS3 will be using the material in LiBs for multiple applications, including military, drone, and consumer electronic products. In total, Silatronix has OS3 design evaluations in process with over 35 organizations in the global LiB industry.

Read more at BusinessWire.com.