Transoma Medical (St. Paul, Minnesota) reported pricing an IPO valued at up to $54 million for 4 million shares of its common.

The company said that the shares were expected to price at $14 to $16 and the offering included shares sold by Transoma and by certain of its stockholders.

The company granted the underwriters an option to purchase up to an additional 632,640 shares of common stock at the same price to the public to cover any over-allotments.

Transoma initially reported filing for the public offering late last Fall (Medical Device Daily, Oct. 15, 2007).

The company said it intends to use the net IPO proceeds for working capital and general corporate purposes, and for potential acquisitions of businesses, technologies and products.

In its filing, the company said that it has not been profitable and has incurred net losses in each quarter since FY02, the year that it raised net proceeds of about $11.9 million in a private financing to commercialize its wireless, implantable technology as a diagnostic tool for patients with chronic cardiovascular disease.

It incurred net losses of $2.2 million, $4.2 million and $9.1 million, respectively, for its fiscal years ended June 30, 2005, 2006 and 2007.

The company said it expects to incur significant sales and marketing and manufacturing expenses as it continues to commercialize the Sleuth ECG, and additional development expenses as it seeks to invest in its DSI product line and commercialize future PMD products. It said it also expects to incur significant losses “for the foreseeable future.”

The company develops implantable, subcutaneous, wireless diagnostic and monitoring products, and says that it is focused on two distinct markets: the chronic cardiovascular disease (CVD) market, through its Patient Management Device (PMD) division, and the biomedical research market, through its Data Sciences International (DSI) division.

Transoma’s PMD division develops implantable, ambulatory monitoring systems that provide vital signs information for diagnosing various forms of CVD and for optimizing drug, interventional, surgical and device treatment alternatives.

The company says that its first PMD division product, the Sleuth Implantable ECG monitoring system (Sleuth ECG), is designed to capture, record, analyze and wirelessly transmit clinically relevant ECG data while minimizing the need for patient compliance and physician interaction. It received FDA 510(k) clearance on Oct. 1 for monitoring patients with clinical syndromes or situations at increased risk of cardiac arrhythmias and patients who experience transient symptoms that may suggest a cardiac arrhythmia.

The company’s DSI division is a supplier of wireless, physiologic monitoring equipment and a supplier of related data acquisition and analysis products used in biomedical research, including in preclinical drug discovery and development.

Piper Jaffray & Co. is acting as book-running manager, Thomas Weisel Partners is acting as joint-lead manager, and RBC Capital Markets, Canaccord Adams and BMO Capital Markets are acting as offering co-managers.

Peak Surgical (Palo Alto, California) a company that is developing a new category of tissue dissection systems, reported that it has raised $21 million in a Series “C” financing led by new investor Signet Healthcare Partners. The company also said that Joyce Erony, managing director of Signet Healthcare Associates, has joined Peak Surgical’s board of directors. Existing investors Lehman Brothers and Venrock Associates also participated in this financing round.

“The size, valuation and timing of this financing validates the progress we have made in advancing our pulsed plasma technology and developing our flagship product, the PEAK Surgery System,” said John Tighe, president/CEO of Peak Surgical. “This financing allows us to aggressively pursue the development plan and commercialization efforts for our PEAK Surgery System, which we believe represents a quantum leap over surgical instruments in use today and will revolutionize the way surgery is performed. We believe it may have applications in more than 2 million surgical procedures.”

The Peak Surgery System includes the Peak PlasmaBlade, a disposable cutting tool that offers the exacting control of a scalpel and the bleeding control of traditional electro surgery without the extensive collateral damage. Peak Surgical has filed a pre-market notification (510k) with FDA for the Peak Surgery System. The company also has started setting up manufacturing for the PEAK PlasmaBlade and is establishing a national sales force to distribute the device once the 510k has been cleared by the FDA.

Peak has raised more than $29 million to date in three rounds of private financing.

In other financing activity:

GE Healthcare Financial Services (Chicago) reported it has provided a $10 million loan facility to Archus Orthopedics (Redmond, Washington) a privately held developer of reconstructive implants to treat spinal disorders. Archus Orthopedics will use the venture loan to accelerate their growth and clinical development process.

“Venture loans are good examples of how we’re working with emerging medical device companies to give them access to non-dilutive financing while extending their cash runway,” said Anthony Storino, Senior Managing Director at GE Healthcare Financial Services’ life science finance group. “This agreement with Archus Orthopedics will help the company as it further develops its spinal solution platform.”

Ventas, (Louisville, Kentucky) reported that it has completed the sale of 4,485,000 shares of its common stock pursuant to the company’s existing shelf registration statement. The amount includes 585,000 shares of common stock that were sold pursuant to the exercise of the underwriter’s overallotment option. The company received net proceeds, before expenses, of $191.9 million, which the company will use to repay indebtedness outstanding under its revolving credit facility and for working capital and other general corporate purposes, including tofund future acquisitions. As previously reported, the shares were sold to UBS Investment Bank, as sole underwriter, at a price of $42.78 per share.

Ventas is a healthcare real estate investment trust.