A Medical Device Daily
Cytori Therapeutics (San Diego) reported that it has entered into agreements to raise about $16.8 million through the sale of 2,918,255 shares of common stock to Olympus (Tokyo), as well as new and existing institutional investors, at $5.75 per share. Olympus has agreed to purchase a total of 1,913,043 shares.
Yasunobu Toyoshima, general manager of Olympus, said, “The additional commitments from the strong investor syndicate reflect the unique and attractive business model that Cytori is bringing to regenerative medicine.”
Olympus continues to hold an option to purchase up to 2.2 million shares of Cytori stock through December 2006 as part of a separate equity agreement entered into in May 2005. The shares were offered by Cytori in accordance with a shelf registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Piper Jaffray & Co. served as the sole placement agent. The closing is expected to take place within 30 days for Olympus and within three days for the institutional investors, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions. The purchase price was determined by Cytori's closing price on Aug. 9.
Cytori is developing cell-based therapeutics utilizing adult stem and regenerative cells derived from adipose tissue, its therapies targeting cardiovascular disease, gastrointestinal disorders and new approaches for aesthetic and reconstructive surgery.
To facilitate processing and delivery of these cells, Cytori has developed the Celution System to isolate and concentrate a patient's own stem and regenerative cells in about an hour.
In other financing activity:
• InSightec (Tirat Carmel, Israel/Dallas) reported that it has signed an agreement for an internal $15 million round of financing from its existing investors: Elbit Medical Imaging (Tel Aviv), GE Capital Equity Holdings and MediTech Advisors.
The investment will take the form of convertible notes, convertible to InSightec ordinary shares. In addition, existing investors have been granted contingent warrants exercisable for Insightec ordinary shares subject to fulfillment of certain conditions.
InSightec said the funds will be used for its R&D efforts, marketing and sales activities and general corporate purposes.
Dr. Kobi Vortman, president and CEO of InSightec, said, “The ExAblate 2000 treatments of uterine fibroids continue to grow globally with excellent clinical results driving market adoption and with more than 30 leading sites globally. In parallel, InSightec is expanding the research into new oncology areas: bone metastases, breast cancer, liver tumors and brain tumors. The preliminary results from the treatment of bone metastases and breast cancer are demonstrating that this technology has the potential to become an important treatment alternative in these applications.”
InSightec – founded in 1999 and owned by EMI, General Electric, MediTech Advisors and employees – develops MR-guided Focused Ultrasound technology. Its U.S. headquarter is in Dallas, Texas.
The ExAblate 2000 is the first FDA-approved system (in October 2004) to use MRgFUS technology that combines MRI – to visualize tissues in the body, plan the treatment and monitor in real time treatment outcome – and high-intensity focused ultrasound to thermally ablate uterine fibroid tissue. MR thermal feedback allows the physician to control and adjust the treatment in real time to ensure that the targeted tumor is fully treated and surrounding tissue is spared. ExAblate received FDA approval for the treatment of symptomatic uterine fibroids in October 2004.
• Cohera Medical (Pittsburgh), a company seeking to commercialize surgical adhesives, reported closing a Series A financing round of $6.79 Million.
It said the proceeds will be used to support Phase I clinical trials for its lead product, TissuGlu, a biodegradable adhesive based on a technology developed at the University of Pittsburgh.
Patrick Daly, president and CEO of Cohera, said, “We expect to maintain the momentum and energy we have created over the last six months, and look forward to introducing TissuGlu to the surgical community.”
With the support of the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse (PLSG), a private/public life sciences partnership, and Innovation Works, Cohera was spun out of the university in January of 2006 to commercialize TissuGlu and related products.
Dr. Doros Platika, president/CEO of PLSG, said, “Cohera has enormous potential to be a home run for its investors, founders and the region and represents valuable confirmation that our efforts to build the regional life sciences industry are succeeding!”
• PLSG also reported investing $100,000 in RedPath Integrated Pathology (Pittsburgh), a provider of cancer testing that integrates traditional pathology practice with molecular genetic analysis.
“RedPath's patented platform approach, PathFinderTG, has made tremendous advances in the diagnosis of cancer,” said Platika. “The company has struck the right balance between pathology, molecular analysis and the information sciences to successfully apply genomic advances in the clinical setting.”
RedPath's PathFinderTG is used to resolve “uncertain” diagnoses by answering questions from pathologists and clinicians when standard testing is inconclusive. The company says it has been validated for use in various specialties, such as cancers of the gastrointestinal tract, pancreas, and brain.
PLSG is a public/private partnership, founded by the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University, UPMC Health System, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.