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Atairgin Technologies nears $20 million in funding

Atairgin Technologies Inc., an Irvine-based biotechnology company targeting women’s health issues, is nearing completion of a $20 million round of funding, according to officials.

The company, which doesn’t count any sales yet, was finalizing funding details as of late last week, said Chief Executive Patrick Walsh. Roth Capital Partners Inc. of Newport Beach is set to lead the round.

Atairgin’s main product is a test for ovarian cancer based on blood assessments that detect extracellular lipids that are elevated during the early stages of the disease.

The company’s technology has the potential to increase ovarian cancer survival rates because it detects the disease at an early stage, according to Walsh. He cited statistics showing that 90% of the roughly 30,000 women who are diagnosed yearly with the disease die within five years if not diagnosed early.

“Ovarian cancer has a much quicker onset,” Walsh said.

Atairgin plans to use the expected funding to complete its ovarian cancer diagnostic trial, which is set to have 1,600 patients. After the trial is done, Atairgin plans to have a Food and Drug Administration approval application completed by the second quarter, Walsh said.

The company also intends to complete construction on Atairgin’s facilities in Irvine’s University Research Park and initiate a clinical trial for breast cancer later this year. There also are plans to apply Atairgin’s technology for pregnancy management and reproductive health services, he said.

The users of Atairgin’s products would include oncologists, gynecologists and hospitals, said Walsh, who was previously president, chief operating officer and a board member of Gensia Sicor Pharmaceuticals, a unit of Irvine-based Sicor Inc.

Atairgin was founded in 1996 in Pullman, Wash., and moved to Irvine in 1999 in order to accelerate its development. Atairgin employs 35 people locally and another 20 at its clinical trial sites in the U.S. and Canada. Walsh said he hopes to add between 30 and 50 new workers between now and the end of 2001, depending on how Atairgin’s other products come along.

The latest round of funding would bring Atairgin’s total raised to $33 million.

“(Raising money) is a challenge in any environment. When you have such promising products, however, it makes it easier,” Walsh said.

The bid to fund Atairgin has turned Walsh into a San Francisco 49ers fan, he said. The company’s early investors include Dr. Jim Klint, the football team’s physician and a practicing oncologist for 20 years. Other backers include 49ers General Manager Bill Walsh (no relation) and former players, including Harris Barton, who was an offensive tackle, and Brent Jones, a tight end.

Other early investors included San Francisco’s Fremont Ventures, which led an earlier Atairgin funding round and has two of its partners on the company’s board, as well as Oakwood Medical Investors, a St. Louis biotech venture fund headed by a gynecologist.

Potential Atairgin rivals include Fullerton-based Beckman Coulter Inc. and Abbott Laboratories Inc., among others. n

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