Cleveland Clinic spinoff Tolera Therapeutics is more than halfway to its goal of a $1.65 million round of financing for its immunomodulation therapy for organ transplant.Cofounded by Dr. Maria Siemionow, the leader of the Cleveland Clinic surgery team that performed the nation’s first near-total face transplant in 2008, Tolera is developing a drug intended to [...]

An early stage, Midwest biotech startup with a unique approach to treating damaged nervous system tissue is looking for its first round of capital.Axonia Medical has raised $1 million of the $3 million it hopes to secure in a series A financing that would carry the Kalamazoo, Michigan-based biotech through large animal trials of its [...]

Synthes is back in court, this time as the plaintiff in a lawsuit against Stryker Corp. (NYSE: SYK) accusing the Michigan-based medical device company of trying to obtain “an improper competitive advantage.”The complaint,filed in federal court in Philadelphia, also singled out three former sales staff from Synthes’ San Francisco sales unit who resigned from the [...]

LifeLine Ventures seems pretty much like any other venture capital fund except for one thing: the $100 million fund was sourced entirely from one investor.Not surprisingly, the Farmington Hills, Michigan-based fund’s managing director Ranjit Kommineni declined to identify that investor. (Kommineni is likely the envy of VCs everywhere for his one-stop fundraising.)“We’re more business guys; [...]

A Michigan company developing a treatment to help restore vision in patients with retinal degeneration hopes to have its lead candidate in clinical trials in 2012.RetroSense Therapeutics, an Ann Arbor startup company, is targeting patients with blindness from retinal pigmentosa (RP) and advanced dry age-related macular degeneration (dry-AMD) for its new therapy derived from genes [...]

A Michigan company has raised money to continue developing a medical device use to clear away film and blockages in breathing tubes.EndOclear’s technology is meant for patients who need a ventilator for more than 48 hours. Although endotracheal tubes are cleaned in the ICU, some tubes accrue a thick biofilm that inhibits patients’ breathing [...]

A Michigan company expects its new intravenous delivery system to be on the market next year after securing a fresh round of capital.Tangent Medical Technologies has developed a closed-system IV device, NovaCath, that will stay comfortably on a patient longer, prevent blood spills and avoid patient exposure to pathogens. The University of Michigan spinoff secured [...]

Stryker Corp.’s (NYSE:SYK) coffers look significantly thinner these days, after the company blew through about 71 percent of its cash and cash equivalents during the first half of 2011 on acquisitions.The Kalamazoo, Mich.-based medical device maker, which started out 2011 with $1.76 billion in cash and cash equivalents now has just [...]

Stryker Corp.’s (NYSE:SYK) second-quarter sales slid more than 3 percent, despite a top-line rise of 16.3 percent, as the Kalamazoo, Mich.-based medical device maker digested a pair of big acquisitions.Stryker posted earnings of $309 million, or 79 cents per diluted share, on sales of $2.05 billion during the three months ended June 30. That compares [...]

Stryker Corp. (NYSE:SYK) inked new deals for its joint preservation arm and its interventional spine division this week.The Kalamazoo, Mich.-based company added its inflatable vertebral augmentation system (iVAS) to its national agreement with supply contracting company Novation LLC.The deal makes Stryker the single source for balloon-assisted spine augmentation for health care groups [...]