Spectranetics (Colorado Springs, Colorado) reported that it will raise about $43 million through a sale of common stock and will grant underwriters a 30-day option to purchase another $6.5 million of additional common stock to cover over-allotments.

Spectranetics manufactures and distributes single-use medical devices used in minimally invasive surgical procedures within the cardiovascular system for use with its proprietary excimer laser system.

Guy Childs, CFO for Spectranetics, declined to comment on the uses of the new financing. He told Medical Device Daily that a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, to be entered later this week, would supply additional details.

Jefferies & Co. will be the sole book runner and lead managing underwriter. First Albany Capital will be the co-lead manager, and Montgomery & Co. and Rodman & Renshaw will be acting as co-managers for the offering.

Medtronic (Minneapolis) reported the closing of its sale of $2.2 billion principal amount of convertible senior notes, due 2011, and $2.2 billion principal amount of convertible senior notes, due 2013, to qualified institutional buyers. It said the aggregate principal amount of convertible senior notes sold reflects the full exercise by the initial purchasers of their option to purchase additional convertible senior notes to cover over-allotments.

The company said that the net proceeds from this offering were about $4.33 billion.

In other financing activity:

• DDS Technologies USA (Boca Raton, Florida), reported receiving about $2.2 million through the exercise of almost all of the short term warrants issued in the Series A transaction of April 2005.

DDS, a development-stage company, holds the patent to a processing technology intended to maximize the net output of a broad spectrum of organic products. The DDS system utilizes a new longitudinal micrometric separator, along with other technologies, to micronize and separate various fractions (proteins, fiber, starch, etc.) and convert processing waste streams into products for further processing or resale. With the technology fragments of organic and inorganic matter are “crushed to collision“ through violent accelerations and decelerations causing the disaggregation of the structure. As part of the process, the matter is separated into the various fractions contained therein. The technology can also be applied to inorganic products.

• Baylor College of Medicine (BCM; Seattle, Washington) reported signing a contract to license Study Manager EDC, a software package designed to electronically capture clinical trial data, developed by Advanced Clinical Software (ACS; also Seattle). Financial terms were not disclosed.

The announcement comes less than a year after Baylor's purchase of Study Manager CTMS, a clinical trial management system made by ACS.

Together, the two integrated web-based software products – one for managing research operations, the other for capturing and reporting clinical trial data – provide a standard research platform with a single user interface that will be deployed across several hospitals where Baylor conducts its research activities.

“In order to stay at the forefront of clinical research, we've realized that we need to push our research capabilities to the next level,“ said Helen Shepherd, director of research infrastructure programs for BCM. “Study Manager is a key piece of our research infrastructure, and the electronic data capture module will give our physician investigators and their research staff a flexible and compliant tool for creating and managing case report forms, adverse event documents and other source documents.“

Founded in 1993, ACS develops solutions designed to make clinical research faster, safer, and more efficient. It says that Study Manager, its flagship product, is used by more than 1,700 organizations ranging from small research centers and physician practices to major institutions and healthcare systems.

• Health Management Associates (HMA; Naples, Florida) reported that it is offering, subject to market and other conditions, $400 million of senior notes, maturing in 2016. HMA said it intends to use the net proceeds from the sale of the notes to repay amounts outstanding under its senior revolving credit facility.

HMA is an operator of non-urban general acute care hospitals in communities situated throughout the U.S.

Citigroup Corporate and Investment Banking and Merrill Lynch & Co. are managing the sale of the notes and propose to offer the notes from time to time for sale in negotiated transactions to be determined at the time of each sale.

• Cantel Medical (Little Falls, New Jersey) reported that its board authorized the company to repurchase up to 500,000 shares of its approximately 15.6 million outstanding shares of common stock.

Repurchases will be made using the company's own cash resources or borrowings and may be commenced or suspended at any time.

Cantel manufactures specialized medical device reprocessing systems for renal dialysis and endoscopy, dialysate concentrates and other dialysis supplies, disposable infection control products primarily for the dental industry, endoscopy and surgical products, water purification equipment, sterilants, disinfectants and cleaners, hollow fiber membrane filtration and separation products for medical and non-medical applications, and specialty packaging for infectious and biological specimens.