LifeSpan BioSciences reaps $19M.(in final private funding round)

Byline: Clifford Carlsen

Bioinformatics developer LifeSpan BioSciences Inc. took advantage of continued strong private financing support for drug development tools, quadrupling its initial venture valuation in a $19 million final private funding round.

The Seattle database and pathology research company commanded $4.08 a share from new investors SAIC Venture Capital Corp., the venture arm of San Diego engineering and research company Science Applications International Corp., and Zurich-based venture capitalist equity4life. The round represents a 133% jump in share price from the company's $1.75-a-share second institutional round of April 1999, when it raised $13.2 million from Taiwanese biotech financier Alliance Biomedica, …