Investors Put Money Into Affymax, Opsona

Institutional investors will buy $42 million worth of Affymax stock in a private transaction. The company's first drug to enter the clinic, Hematide, a synthetic-peptide-based erythropoiesis-stimulating agent, is in Phase III trials for treating anemia associated with chronic renal failure. Separately, Ireland's Opsona Therapeutics, which focuses on autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, has raised $23 million from investors that include the Novartis Venture Fund. Opsona has opened a new lab in Switzerland and plans to complete human proof-of-concept studies using small molecules and biopharmaceuticals to modulate the innate immune system.