Polyneuron, Synerkine, Harmony, EIP Pharma and AITI Life Sciences all raised cash in recent weeks to tackle various conditions involving the nervous system. More recent venture funding deals... 

A plan to increase small business access to US government funds has met fierce opposition from some biotech and pharmaceutical companies, which are protesting that the changes to a research grant programme would "stifle innovation".

A preview of the emerging health care companies profiled in the current issue of Start-Up. This month's profile group, "New Approaches to Neuropathic Pain," features profiles of Aestus Therapeutics, Arcion Therapeutics and Spinifex Pharmaceuticals. Plus these Start-Ups Across Health Care: Centrose, Semprus BioSciences and Voyage Medical.

Centrose's automated sugar synthesis platform CarboConnect can quickly and economically synthesize drugs with a wide variety of natural and unnatural sugars attached to them. The inspiration came from sugars found in natural products. Many of the antibiotics produced by microorganisms and plants contain sugars, but they are structurally different from sugars found in animal physiology. The company has already completed some proof-of-concept studies on derivative drugs in which unnatural sugars increased potency and in some cases changed the mechanism of action.