A Medical Device Daily

RoundTable Healthcare Partners (Lake Forest, Illinois), an equity firm focused on healthcare, reported the closing of a captive $200 million subordinated debt fund. RoundTable said that the fund initially was targeted at $150 million and was oversubscribed by the firm's existing investors. Employees of RoundTable were the single largest investor in the fund.

RoundTable said that the fund would make fixed-rate, subordinated-debt investments alongside the equity investments of RoundTable's equity funds. The equity funds were established in 2001 and 2005 with aggregate commitments of $900 million.

Lester Knight, managing partner of RoundTable and a founding partner, said, “Having a captive subordinated debt fund allows us to increase the speed and certainty of our transaction financings.”

Three on the transaction team have been promoted to support the firm's activities. David Koo, a founding principal, was promoted from partner to senior partner. R. Craig Collister, who joined the firm in 2002, has been promoted to partner, and Joshua Saipe has been promoted to vice president.

The RoundTable team reported completing nine platform investments and multiple add-on acquisitions. Realizations in the first fund have resulted from the sale of Sabex (Boucherville, Quebec) and American Medical Instruments Holdings (Lake Forest, Illinois).

Osiris Therapeutics (Baltimore) reported filing an amendment to the registration statement for its previously reported initial public offering (IPO), reflecting its intention to offer 3.5 million shares of its common stock at $11 to $13 a share.

Up to an additional 525,000 shares are expected to be made available to the underwriters to cover over-allotments, if any. All shares of the stock to be sold will be offered by Osiris.

In its original filing in May, Osiris said the offering could garner up to $80 million (Medical Device Daily, May 15, 2006). In that filing it said it would use net proceeds to conduct Phase III trials of Prochymal to treat graft-vs.-host disease (GvHD) and Chondrogen for the regeneration of meniscus, assuming the latter successfully completes its ongoing Phase I/II trial. Funds also will support other R&D activities.

The shares will be offered by an underwriting syndicate led by Jefferies and Co. as the bookrunning manager, with Lazard Capital Markets and Leerink Swann and Co. as the co-lead and co-manager, respectively.

Osiris is a stem cell company focused on developing products to treat inflammatory, orthopedic and cardiovascular conditions. It sells Osteocel for regenerating bone in orthopedic indications. Prochymal is entering Phase III clinical trials and is, Osiris said, the only stem cell therapeutic currently designated by FDA as both an orphan drug and fast track product.

The company's pipeline of biologic candidates under evaluation includes Chondrogen for regenerating cartilage in the knee, and Provacel, for repairing heart tissue following a heart attack.