In its largest financing to date, Ambrx Inc. brought in $52 million in a Series C round to support upcoming clinical work with its lead compounds, starting with a long-acting PEGylated human growth hormone.

Proceeds also will be used to expand its protein modification platform, known as ReCODE, and provide general working capital. Since the company's 2003 inception, it has raised a total of $88 million, including a $23.4 million Series B round closed in April 2005. (See BioWorld Today, April 11, 2005.)

The San Diego-based firm focuses on using its ReCODE (reconstituting chemically orthogonal directed engineering) technology to improve existing protein drugs by genetically engineering the proteins with amino acid building blocks - beyond the 20 naturally occurring amino acids. The resulting products are designed to have better efficacy and safety than the existing protein-based products.

Ambrx's lead candidate, a long-acting version of a PEGylated growth hormone, is expected to start clinical trials in early 2007.

Behind that, the company plans to begin clinical testing on a PEGylated interferon alpha molecule that's part of a collaboration with F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., of Basel, Switzerland. Under the terms of that agreement, Roche agreed to fund research and development of PEGylated interferon alpha molecules, and will retain exclusive worldwide commercialization rights. Ambrx is entitled to license fees, research funding, milestones and royalties on sales. Roche also made an equity investment in Ambrx.

London-based Aposite led the Series C round, and was joined by other new investors Menlo Park, Calif.-based Glynn Ventures, the Dow Employees' Pension Plan and Union Carbide Employees' Pension Plan. Existing investors were Tavistock Life Sciences, of San Diego; Maverick Capital, of New York; 5AM Ventures, of Menlo Park; Versant Ventures, also of Menlo Park; Aravis Ventures, of Zurich, Switzerland; CMEA Ventures, of San Francisco; and Roche Venture Fund.

Aposite's Allan Marchington joined Ambrx's board.

In other financings news:

• Advancis Pharmaceutical Corp., of Germantown, Md., entered a $12 million senior secured credit facility with Merrill Lynch Capital, consisting of an $8 million term loan and a $4 million revolving loan facility. The company expects to use proceeds to repay existing indebtedness of about $1 million and for general corporate purposes, including the commercialization of its Keflex product line and development of its once-daily Pulsys anti-infective drug candidates.

• Corautus Genetics Inc., of Atlanta, said Boston Scientific Corp., of Natick, Mass., converted its $15 million in convertible notes payable by Corautus, plus about $1.6 million in accrued interest, into Corautus equity. In exchange, Corautus issued about 2.5 million shares of Series E preferred stock to Boston Scientific with a liquidation preference of about $6.71 per share. As a result of this transaction, Boston Scientific holds shares representing 25 percent of Corautus' voting securities and received the right to appoint a board member, as well as the right of first negotiation for distribution rights of future product candidates. The two companies began collaborating in 2003 to develop a gene delivery technology aimed at cardiovascular disease. (See BioWorld Today, Aug. 1, 2003.)

• Pathwork Diagnostics, of San Jose, Calif., created when Predicant Biosciences, of South San Francisco, acquired Pathwork Informatics, raised $11 million in venture funding to develop and commercialize genomic diagnostic tests for oncology. Prospect Venture Partners, Advent Venture Partners, Novus Ventures, Venrock Associates and Versant Ventures are participated in the financing. Deborah Neff, Predicant's CEO, was named president and CEO of the merged company, and Pathwork Informatics founder Glenda Anderson was appointed chief technology officer. Richard Bastiani was named chairman. Other board members include Richard Klausner; Kenneth Nussbacher; James Tananbaum, of Prospect Venture Partners; Shahzad Malik, of Advent Venture Partners; and Greg Lahann, of Novus Ventures.