A Medical Device Daily

Cardiac Dimensions (Kirkland, Washington) reported that it has closed $35.5 million in new venture capital.

This Series D financing was co-led by Johnson & Johnson Development Corp. (JJDC) and Lumira Capital, and included Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, West River Capital, and Montgomery & Co. Also participating were existing investors Frazier Healthcare Ventures, Interwest Partners, MPM Capital, and Polaris Venture Partners.

The company said the funds will be used to execute clinical trials in the U.S. and Europe supporting the Carillon mitral contour system.

Montgomery & Co. served as the exclusive private placement agent on this financing. The Carillon system is a percutaneous treatment of functional mitral regurgitation (FMR) and is currently under evaluation in pilot studies in Europe, South America, and Australia.

The Carillon combines an implantable device and delivery system. The implant consists of a shaping ribbon between distal and proximal anchors. The device is delivered percutaneously via jugular access under fluoroscopic guidance. The implant is designed to be positioned, adjusted, and gently anchored in the coronary sinus/great cardiac vein to reshape the annulus around the mitral valve to reduce mitral regurgitation.

GE Healthcare Financial Services (Chicago) has provided $123.5 million in senior credit facilities to Ambulatory Services of America (ASA; Nashville, Tennessee). The senior debt financing includes a $20 million revolving line of credit, $70 million first lien term loan, and a $33.5 million second lien term loan. GE Healthcare Financial Services acted as sole lead arranger and sole book-runner for the financing and administrative agent for the first lien loans. GE Healthcare Financial also made a $5 million equity investment in ASA.

ASA said it used the proceeds to acquire the assets of Innovative Dialysis Systems, (IDS; Long Beach, California) and 33 dialysis centers managed by IDS in California, Ohio, Oregon, Wyoming and the territory of Guam. The acquisition created one of the largest diversified providers of renal dialysis care and radiation oncology services in the U.S. Following the acquisition, ASA owns interests in and operates 38 dialysis centers, nine radiation oncology centers and six cardiovascular sites of service in 11 states and Guam. It manages two additional dialysis centers.

ASA is a diversified healthcare services company that owns and operates alternative site services in partnership with physicians. The company currently operates in three lines of business — dialysis care, radiation oncology care and cardiovascular care.

Raymond James & Associates acted as financial advisor to Ambulatory Services of America for the transaction.

In other financing news:

• LineaGen (Salt Lake City), a biomarker discovery company created to discover and commercialize significant molecular diagnostic innovations in a variety of healthcare areas, reported the company's launch with the close of a $5.8 million Series A funding round led by vSpring Capital and Sanderling Biomedical Ventures. Mesa Verde Venture Partners was the third strategic investment partner in the round. The company said that the capital raised will be used to establish a world-class molecular diagnostic commercialization entity for exploration into the nature, causes and treatment of some of the world's most pressing medical and healthcare challenges. LineaGen's initial focus includes diagnostic tools for the advancement of personalized healthcare by furthering genetic understanding, diagnosis and targeted treatment of significant disorders and diseases, including autism, multiple sclerosis, osteoporosis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The company has named Dinesh Patel of vSpring, Fred Middleton of Sanderling and Dan Wood of Mesa Verde to the company's board. One of LineaGen's core competitive advantages, according to the company, is its access to an "unmatched biomarker discovery research platform," used to help the University of Utah (Salt Lake City) identify more disease-related genes than any other institution in the world, and the multi-generational Utah Population Database is "the world's most comprehensive population and medical database" — comprised of more than 10 million records relating to more than 6 million individuals in Utah, Idaho and surrounding regions.
• Alsius (Irvine, California), which makes advanced patient temperature management therapies, reported that it has launched offers to holders of all 16,541,000 outstanding, publicly traded warrants, the opportunity to exercise the warrants on amended terms. Alsius is modifying the terms of the warrants to allow holders to receive one share of common stock for every 5.5 warrants surrendered, without paying a cash exercise price. In addition, for each 5.5 warrants a holder tenders in the cashless exercise, the holder can exercise one additional warrant by paying a reduced cash exercise price of $3.25 for one share of common stock. Exercising warrants at the reduced cash price is not a requirement to participating in the cashless exercise. The offer commenced yesterday and will continue for a period of 20 business days, expiring on Jan. 18 at 5 p.m., EST, unless extended, terminated or withdrawn. Upon termination of the offer, the original terms of the warrants will be reinstituted and the warrants will expire on Aug. 16, 2009, unless earlier redeemed according to their original terms. "The purpose of the offer is primarily to reduce the number of warrants outstanding. The offer will also raise additional capital if holders take advantage of the reduced cash exercise price," said Bill Worthen, president/CEO of Alsius. Deutsche Bank Securities is acting as dealer manager in connection with the warrant offer.