A Medical Device Daily

Asuragen (Austin, Texas), an oncology molecular diagnostic company and molecular biology service provider, reported that it has secured $49 million in Series A funding.

Asuragen is a new company resulting from the sale, in March 2006, of the Research Products Division of Ambion (Austin) to Applied Biosystems Group (Foster City, California) in a deal valued at $273 million (Medical Device Daily, Dec. 29, 2005), with the company then formed in March (MDD, March 5, 2006).

Asuragen said it will dedicate the funds towards general operating needs and to pursue strategic licenses relating to the development of its cancer diagnostic and therapeutic programs.

The initial A-round of investment was led by Telegraph Hill Partners (San Francisco), and included Growth Capital Partners (Houston) and other firms that invested in Ambion.

“We believe Asuragen's proven capabilities in molecular technologies have the potential to support major advances in the diagnosis and treatment of oncological diseases,” said Matt Mackowski, managing director of Telegraph Hill.

Matt Winkler, founder and CEO of Asuragen, said, “We have a solid foundation of compelling technologies that set us apart from other companies. With this level of funding, combined with our expertise in miRNAs and pending patents, we are in a strong position to develop highly effective early cancer detection tools.

Appointed as the president of Asuragen is Rollie Carlson, coming from Abbott Laboratories (Abbott Park, Illinois) with experience in molecular diagnostic and pharmaceutical business areas. He managed the worldwide Vysis molecular diagnostic business following its acquisition by Abbott Laboratories.

Asuragen is comprised of two of Ambion's former divisions, Diagnostics and Services, along with the formation of a new Discovery group for developing new technologies that the company said “will become cutting edge clinical products” and expand Asuragen's product portfolio, which consists of Signature Genetic Testing and Oncology Testing products, as well as controls and standards engineered using its patented Armored RNA technology.

Asuragen recently formed a partnership with Digene (Gaithersburg, Maryland) to market its Signature cystic fibrosis screening products.

Asuragen defines its vision as becoming “a fully integrated, diagnostic reagent company focused on molecular oncology and early detection of cancer, with emphasis in microRNAs.” It defines its expertise as in assay development, business infrastructure and an established cGMP manufacturing facility that allow it to span the spectrum of discovery, production and commercialization.

In other financing activity:

• Endologix (Irvine, California) reported entering into definitive agreements with several institutional investors for the sale of about 6.1 million shares of its common stock at $3.30 per share in a direct equity placement for gross proceeds to the company of approximately $20 million.

The offering is expected to close on June 2, in accordance with the company's shelf registration statement.

Canaccord Adams acted as the exclusive placement agent on the transaction.

Endologix said proceeds from the financing will be used to accelerate Endologix's sales force recruitment and expand its marketing efforts in the U.S. for its Powerlink System products, and for working capital to support the expected growth in sales of its Powerlink System.

“This financing enables us to fully execute our national expansion strategy and to achieve our goal of increasing our sales force to 40 to 50 representatives by year end,” said Paul McCormick, president and CEO of Endologix. “Importantly, we believe we now have sufficient capital resources to operate our business to cash flow positive operations.”

Endologix's Powerlink System is an endoluminal stent graft for treating abdominal aortic aneurysms.

• MedicalCV (Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota) reported that it has affected its previously reported 1-for-10 reverse stock split. The company's common stock began trading yesterday on a split-adjusted basis under the new trading symbol MCVI.

Every 10 shares of the company's common stock have been combined into one share of common stock, without any change in the par value of the shares.

The number of outstanding shares of MedicalCV's common stock has been reduced from about 91.2 million to about 9.1 million. No fractional shares were issued, and shareholders who would have been entitled to fractional shares will receive cash.

MedicalCV's core technology is the Atrilaze Surgical Ablation System for use in cardiac tissue ablation procedures in open-heart surgery currently being utilized as means to treat atrial fibrillation in concomitant open-heart surgical procedures.

The company this week reported submission of a 510(k) application to the FDA seeking clearance for its use in treating AF (Medical Device Daily, June 1, 2006).