A Diagnostics & Imaging Week

Hologic (Bedford, Massachusetts), a provider of diagnostic imaging and digital imaging systems targeting women's health, reported entering into an agreement for a $75 million senior unsecured revolving credit facility, due Jan. 23, 2007.

"The initial use of this credit facility will be to fund a portion of the cash purchase price for Suros Surgical Systems [Indianapolis]," said Glenn Muir, executive vice president/CFO. "Longer term, the contemplated expanded facility should give us financial flexibility to continue to grow our business."

Hologic first disclosed its plan to buy Suros in April (Diagnostics & Imaging Week, April 20, 2006).

Bank of America is administrative agent and JP Morgan Chase Bank is syndication agent. The engagement for the facility contemplates a syndication to increase the amount to $150 million and the term to five years.

Hologic's core business units are focused on osteoporosis assessment, mammography and breast biopsy, direct-to-digital X-ray for general radiography applications and mini-C-arm imaging for orthopedics.

VeraLight (Albuquerque, New Mexico) reported completing a $17.5 million Series B financing that it said would be used to complete development, testing and introduction of the VeraLight Scout diabetes screening system.

The company's Scout technology utilizes fluorescence spectroscopic technology, does not require patient fasting or a blood draw, and provides results in about 60 seconds.

The subject places the palm side of the forearm onto the portable tabletop system. Scout shines various wavelengths of light on the skin to stimulate fluorescence that is measured by the machine to provide an indication of diabetes risk based on the presence of biological markers called advanced glycation endproducts (AGEs) found in skin. Studies have shown that AGEs correlate well with diabetes and are a predictor of its serious complications, VeraLight said.

The current round of funding was lead by the Psilos Group, a new investor in the company. In addition, CMEA Ventures joins previous investors vSpring Capital, Wasatch Venture Fund, Dow Chemical and the Southern Ute Growth Fund. With the financing, Lisa Suennen, managing director of Psilos Group, and David Collier, MD, managing director of CMEA Ventures, have been named to VeraLight's board.

David Van Avermaete, CEO of VeraLight, said, "We are delighted to have . . . the backing of such a successful group of investors to achieve our corporate mission of introducing technology and products that allow early diabetes detection and treatment."

The company received an initial $5 million round of syndicate funding last fall, led by vSpring. It received seed funding from InLight and additional grant financing from the National Institutes of Health (Bethesda, Maryland).

Results from a clinical study presented at the annual scientific sessions of the American Diabetes Association (Alexandria, Virginia) in June showed that a prototype of the VeraLight Scout was able to identify 20% more pre-diabetes and Type 2 diabetes patients than the standard fasting glucose test.

VeraLight was established in 2004 as an independent spinout of InLight Solutions to focus on non-invasive diabetes screening. VeraLight develops and acquires intellectual property, products, and services that contribute to this mission.