Plus deals involving BioVaxys/IMV, Immunome/Ayala, Nascent/Manhattan BioSolutions, AVROBIO/Tectonic, Sanofi/Synthekine, NAYA/Florida Biotechnologies as well as deals in brief and tech transfer agreements.

A preview of the emerging health care companies profiled in the current issue of Start-Up. This month's profile group, "Despite Challenges, Congestive Heart Failure Draws A Crowd," features profiles of miRagen, NellOne Therapeutics, Phrixus Pharmaceuticals and Sorbent Therapeutics. Plus these Start-Ups Across Health Care: Ambicare, Anulex Technologies, NeoTract and Sistemic.

Phrixus Pharmaceuticals Inc. aims to repurpose a compound that may be able to boost the blood-pumping capacity of damaged hearts. Carmeseal was originally developed in the 1950s by BASF as a surfactant called poloxamer-188. If results seen in several animal cardiovascular models can be reproduced in humans, Phrixus’ compound could become an emergency room treatment for acute decompensated heart failure.

Across the industry, cardiovascular R&D budgets are shrinking, and in some cases, practically disappearing. Some large companies are de-emphasizing the cardiovascular space, citing factors ranging from the size and high expense of clinical trials to the challenge of proving benefit when most experimental therapies are tested in tandem with current standards of care. Nonetheless, for those companies still willing to venture into the cardiovascular arena, congestive heart failure (CHF) offers a huge, lucrative indication to pursue. Several start-up firms are targeting CHF and related conditions by a variety of mechanisms, including polymer therapeutics, microRNA targeting and gene therapy. In this issue, we profile four such start-ups: miRagen Therapeutics, NellOne Therapeutics, Phrixus Pharmaceuticals and Sorbent Therapeutics.