Renal Solutions, Inc., the exclusive provider of advanced sorbent hemodialysis products and services, announced that it closed a $16.5 million Series B financing round. The round was led by new investors Triathlon Medical Ventures and PA Early Stage Partners, who were joined by several current investors including Birchmere Ventures, Blue Chip Venture Company, and Draper Triangle Ventures.

“This financing provides us with the capital necessary to introduce the Allient® Sorbent Hemodialysis System to the acute and chronic dialysis markets and to conduct clinical trials for the home market once we receive FDA approval,” said Peter M. DeComo, Chairman and CEO of Renal Solutions. “We are very pleased with this vote of confidence from our anchor investors and delighted to welcome our new investors."

Suzette Dutch, Managing Partner of Triathlon Medical Ventures, said, “We believe Renal Solutions' innovative technology and strong management team are poised to provide attractive returns by transforming the clinical care model for patients affected by renal failure. We look forward to working with the entire investor group to further assist the successful commercialization of this revolutionary technology.”

Source: Renal Solutions

-- Gift to Create the Paul R. Gross, MD, Professorship --

The Annenberg Foundation is donating $2 million to the Department of Dermatology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. This gift will provide major support for educational programs – critical to the training of the next generation of leaders in academic and clinical dermatology. The endowment will create the Paul R. Gross, MD, Professorship, and will support the Director of Educational programs, as well as associated educational expenses.

“The Annenberg Foundation’s steadfast support has strengthened Penn in countless ways over many years,” says Amy Gutmann, President of the University of Pennsylvania. “The Foundation’s commitment to encouraging more effective ways to share knowledge benefits not only Penn, but all of humanity.”

Training of new dermatologists has been a priority of the Department of Dermatology at Penn since its founding in 1874. Penn has one of the most sought-after residency training programs in dermatology because of its expertise in training residents in all aspects of the field – a breadth of training that few other departments of dermatology can match.

The Paul R. Gross, MD, Professorship will help Penn maintain its leadership in training the brightest and most talented dermatologists for the future. Training of medical students and clinical fellows is critical to the future of dermatology. For these reasons, it is vital for Penn to have a dedicated position aimed at promoting the clinical expertise that will keep new generations of dermatologists at the forefront of their field. This grant will ensure that Penn’s Department of Dermatology will have a world-class dermatologist – who has at least 50 percent of his/her time to devote to teaching – to help maintain its active and outstanding Residency Program.

“Leonore Annenberg’s generous gift of the Paul R. Gross, MD, Professorship is a fitting tribute to Dr. Gross, an excellent and compassionate physician who has been associated with the Department of Dermatology for over 40 years,” says John R. Stanley, MD, Milton B. Hartzell Professor and Chair, Department of Dermatology. “Dr. Gross has always maintained his diagnostic and therapeutic skills to be at the forefront of dermatological knowledge, which is the exact goal that we want to instill in our residents for their future careers.”

“To have this new professorship named in my honor was completely unexpected and totally thrilling,” adds Paul R. Gross, MD, Emeritus Head of the Dermatology Section at Pennsylvania Hospital. “I am particularly pleased that this new chair will support the director of residency education, since my efforts have been largely directed toward this goal. Undoubtedly, this magnificent gift will help to ensure the continued pre-eminence of Penn Dermatology both nationally and internationally.”

Dr. Gross received both his undergraduate (1958) and medical (1962) degrees at the University of Pennsylvania. Following his MD studies, he did a year of internship at Philadelphia General Hospital and two years in the U.S. Public Health Service.

His relationship to Penn’s Dermatology Department dates to 1959, when he participated in a medical student summer research program. On completion of his professional training in 1968, Dr. Gross was appointed head of the Dermatology section at Pennsylvania Hospital, which was recruiting young, ambitious, academically-oriented physicians. The nation’s first hospital was about to re-emerge as a "teaching" hospital where highly-skilled private practitioners could succeed based on their abilities and their willingness to work. Thirty-five years later, he retired as section head, continuing in private practice as a clinical professor and consultant physician at Pennsylvania Hospital.

Source: University of Pennsylvania

InKine Pharmaceutical Company, Inc. (Nasdaq: INKP - News) announced that it has earned a $1.0 million milestone payment from Zeria Pharmaceutical Company, LTD., InKine's licensee for sodium phosphate tablets for use as a colonic purgative, bowel cleansing agent or laxative for sale in Japan. Under the terms of the license agreement, $1.0 million was payable to the Company upon the submission of a new drug application to Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare (MHLW) for the licensed product. An additional milestone will be payable to InKine under the license upon the MHLW approval of a new drug application for the licensed product. Under the terms of the Company's license, the ALW Partnership, the owners of the Visicol® patent, shall receive a royalty from InKine in the amount of $300,000 as a result of the Zeria milestone payment.

"Development milestone payments such as these represent the continuing realization of our global strategy to create collaborations to fully maximize the value of Visicol®," said Leonard S. Jacob, M.D., Ph.D., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of InKine. "We are delighted to work with our collaborators to effectively deliver our products to patients around the world," added Dr. Jacob.

Source: InKine Pharmaceutical