Private Company Edition: Fewer biotech companies raised venture capital in the second quarter, but the amount of capital raised was on par with the first quarter. Also, former BMS R&D exec Rupert Vessey joined Flagship Pioneering, two new VC funds emerged and Septerna raised a $150m series B round.

DIRECT, the first placebo-controlled trial of a laser myocardial revascularization technology, did not prove any benefit from the therapy, an announcement that has stirred a hornet's nest of controversy in the TMR/PMR industry. Laser companies and physicians who perform the procedures have been in damage control mode since the announcement. The event has exacerbated the challenges that laser companies were already facing in the early adoption phase of a new treatment paradigm. PLC Systems and Eclipse Surgical feel confident that their technologies are sufficiently different from that used in the DIRECT trial and are striving to reassure physicians, patients and investors. In its efforts to convince skeptical physicians or those put off by the DIRECT results, PLC is banking on its perfusion data and its positive 5-year results for its surgical TMR approach. Eclipse hopes positive results from its clinical trial will help it get approval for the first interventional approach.

E-Site is developing a platform to remove pathogens from a patient's bloodstream, using that person's own red blood cells. The start-up will focus on developing treatments for bacterial and viral infections, and possibly autoimmune diseases as well.