Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Omrix founder Taub in LifeBond $8m funding round


Biosurgical products developer LifeBond Ltd. has raised $8 million in its second financing round. Pitango Venture Capital and Robert Taub led the round. 

Taub founded Omrix Biopharmaceuticals Ltd. and led the company until it was sold to Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) for $438 million in 2008. Following the sale, Taub said that he would seek new investment opportunities, and the investment in LifeBond is the first. 

About Lifebond.

LifeBond is developing a series of next-generation biosurgical products which incorporate a proprietary adhesive platform that mimics the biochemical cross-linking cascade of late stage blood coagulation.  The adhesive formulation forms a network similar to the fibrin network of blood clots but has demonstrated adhesive strength even greater than that of blood-derived fibrin sealants.  LifeBond’s technology functions through the rapid and biocompatible in situ cross-linking of structural proteins.  As they cross-link, proteins in the physiological environment undergo a process of gelation to form an adhesive hydrogel matrix.  The properties of the cross-linking reaction and the hydrogel matrix can be controlled to fit a variety of applications.