A Medical Device Daily
Avid Radiopharmaceuticals (Philadelphia), a developer of molecular imaging products for neurodegenerative diseases, reported it has raised a $26 million Series C financing round
The round was led by Safeguard Scientifics, which provided $7.3 million. Safeguard co-led the round with AllianceBernstein Venture Fund, with additional funding provided by Pfizer Strategic Investments Group, Lilly Ventures, RK Venture Group, and BioAdvance.
Avid is a clinical-stage company developing molecular imaging products with the potential to revolutionize early detection, diagnosis and monitoring of brain disorders, including neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD) and Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB). Avid said it intends to use the proceeds from this financing to advance its pipeline of molecular imaging agents.
Collectively, AD, PD and DLB represent nearly 80% of the memory disorders that affect patients in the U.S., the company said.
As part of this transaction, Gary Kurtzman, MD, VP of Life Sciences at Safeguard, has joined Avid's board of directors.
The company has a collaboration in place with Bayer Schering Pharma (Berlin) to develop its first PET molecular imaging agent for AD. In addition, Avid is currently conducting clinical studies on a pipeline of next generation PET and SPECT agents. The company also has collaborative relationships with leading molecular imaging researchers at the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia) and the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor).
Encorium Group (Wayne, Pennsylvania) reported that it has entered into purchase agreements with two institutional investors for the sale of units consisting of Encorium common stock and warrants for a purchase price of $2.86 per unit.
The unit consists of 1,748,252 shares of common stock and warrants to purchase 874,126 shares of Encorium Common Stock at an exercise price of $4.12 per share for a period of five years, commencing six months from the date of issuance. The transaction is expected to provide gross proceeds of approximately $5 million to Encorium before deducting costs associated with the offering.
Savvian Advisors acted as placement agent for the sale of the units.
Encorium said it expects to use the net proceeds to fund organic expansion and, as opportunities arise, for complementary acquisitions, as well as for general corporate purposes and working capital.
Encorium is a global clinical research organization that designs and manages complex clinical trials and patient registries for the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries.
In other financing news:
• Medical Properties Trust, (MPT; Birmingham, Alabama) reported that it is investing $50 million in healthcare real estate in the San Diego, California market.
The real estate investment is in the campus of Paradise Valley Hospital (National City, California), operated by Prime Healthcare Systems, MPT's largest tenant.
The new investment includes a sale/leaseback and a loan collateralized by real estate in equal amounts of $25 million. Terms of the financing are similar to other recent transactions, including annual rate escalations equal to the increase in the Consumer Price Index beginning in January 2008.
The Paradise Valley Hospital campus includes an acute care hospital, three fully leased medical office buildings and an outpatient pavilion with campus-wide square footage of about 440,000.
MPT is a self-advised real estate investment trust that acquires and develops net-leased healthcare facilities. These facilities include inpatient rehabilitation hospitals, long-term acute care hospitals, regional acute care hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers and other single-discipline healthcare facilities.
• LifeCare Holdings (Plano, Texas) reported that it has completed an amendment to its existing $326.2 million senior secured credit facilities which modifies certain financial covenants.
The amendment will result in an increase in the interest rate payable under the senior secured credit facilities. LifeCare's senior secured credit facilities consist of a $75 million revolving credit facility and a $251.2 million Term Loan B facility.
Based upon amounts currently outstanding under the senior secured credit facilities and current interest rates, the company estimates that the amendment will result in an increase in annual interest expense of about $1.9 million.
LifeCare operates 19 long term acute care hospitals located in nine states. Long term acute care hospitals specialize in the treatment of medically complex patients who typically require extended hospitalization.