A Diagnostics & Imaging Week

Epocal (Ottawa), a private developer of point-of-care blood diagnostic products, reported the closing of a $31 million Series C equity financing.

The Series C round was led by Highland Capital Management (Dallas) and also included participation from founding investor, Genesys Capital Partners.

The company said that proceeds of the financing will be used to commercialize Epoc, the company’s FDA 510 (k) approved blood diagnostic platform, as well as develop its immunoassay technology.

The company says that its Epoc system, an “enterprise” point-of-care blood analysis platform, combines smart-card-like diagnostic cards containing biosensors and fluidics-on-flex circuits with bedside card readers. The readers communicate wirelessly to a mobile handheld computer or PDA for immediate bedside results and to a portal on a hospital network for centralized data management.

The platform delivers lab quality results to the bedside at a significantly lower manufacturing cost of conventional point-of-care testing solutions, the company said. The product development pipeline includes cards for a variety of test applications including immunoassay biomarker tests, general chemistries, hematology and hemostasis.

Aquilo Partners, a life science investment bank, was placement agent for the transaction.

Accuri Cytometers (Ann Arbor, Michigan), a life sciences company developing bench-top flow cytometer systems, reported completing a $5 million Series B financing.

The company said it intends to use the proceeds for the ongoing testing and upcoming commercial launch of the Accuri C6 Flow Cytometer system. Pete Shagory of BVP and Tim Petersen of Arboretum will join the company’s board of directors.

Designed for routine use by biomedical researchers in their own labs, Accuri’s flow cytometer system is a full featured benchtop cell analysis system that is designed to provide capabilities comparable to industry-leading flow cytometers in a more user-friendly format and at a fraction of the cost.

“We are receiving positive feedback from early beta customers who are helping us refine the system to ensure that we are delivering on the performance standards, quality and ease-of-use that are central to our mission,” said Jennifer Baird, CEO of Accuri. “This critical round of funding will carry Accuri through broader beta testing and position us for full commercial launch next year.”

The round was led by Baird Venture Partners (BVP), the U.S.-based venture capital fund of Baird Private Equity. Arboretum Ventures co-led the financing. Both firms are new investors in Accuri.

In other financing news: Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings (LabCorp; Burlington, North Carolina) reported that its zero coupon subordinated liquid yield option notes (LYONS) due 2021 and zero coupon convertible subordinated notes due 2021 may be converted.

LYONs are convertible into common stock of LabCorp at the rate of 13.4108 per $1,000 principal amount at maturity of the LYONs, subject to the terms of the LYONs and the indenture, dated as of Sept. 11, 2001, between LabCorp and The Bank of New York, as trustee and conversion agent.

In order to exercise the option to convert all or a portion of the LYONs or zero coupon notes, holders must validly surrender them by July 2.

There is $1.07 million aggregate principal amount of LYONs outstanding at March 31, 2006, which upon conversion LabCorp would be required to settle in shares.

LabCorp said that the shares required for settlement of the LYONs and the zero coupon notes are already included in its computation of fully diluted earnings per share.

• Fonar (Melville, New York), an MRI maker, said it has affected a reverse stock split at a ratio of 1:25 of its outstanding common stock and all other classes of its outstanding stock.

As a result of the hearing held before the NASDAQ Listing Qualifications Panel on Feb. 15, Fonar’s request for continued listing on The NASDAQ Stock Market was granted, subject to the condition that on or before May 1, the company must have evidenced a closing bid price of $1 or more for a minimum of 10 consecutive trading days.

Fonar said that the panel’s decision was based on its determination that the reverse stock split would likely cure the bid price deficiency and allow it to maintain longer-term compliance.

• Synergetics USA (O’Fallon, Missouri) reported that Jerry Malis, its director and chief scientific officer, and Donna Scheller, the wife of Gregg Scheller, its director and CEO, have adopted prearranged stock trading plans allowing them to sell a portion of their company stock over time as part of their tax and estate planning.

Synergetics designs devices used in ophthalmic surgery and neurosurgery and other healthcare applications.

• Matritech (Newton, Massachusetts) reported that it agreed with the holders of more than 90% of the outstanding principal value of its Series A 15% secured convertible promissory notes to defer these holders’ receipt of principal and interest payments scheduled for April 13 to May 13. The company said it expects to make the payments on May 13 in shares of its common stock, consistent with its past practice.

Matritech, a developer of protein-based diagnostic products for the early detection of cancer, is using its patented proteomics technology to develop diagnostics for the detection of a variety of cancers. The company’s first two products, the NMP22 test kit and NMP22 BladderChek test, are FDA-approved for the monitoring and diagnosis of bladder cancer.