A Diagnostics & Imaging Week

Advanced Magnetics (Cambridge, Massachusetts) reported an offering of 1,233,214 shares of common stock, garnering net proceeds of about $31.7 million.

The company said it would use the proceeds to fund clinical development programs, including continued development of ferumoxytol as an iron replacement therapeutic, and for general working capital purposes.

The securities were issued in accordance with the company's shelf registration; ThinkEquity Partners is the book runner.

Advanced Magnetics is a developer of super-paramagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles used in pharmaceutical products to treat anemia, as well as imaging agents used for the diagnosis of cardiovascular disease and cancer.

Paradigm Medical Industries (Salt Lake City) said it has completed the sale of $1.5 million in secured convertible notes, through Laidlaw & Co. (New York) and an institutional investor. The notes are to be purchased by the investors in three tranches of $500,000 each.

The company received the first tranche upon signing definitive investment agreements on Feb 28. It will receive the second tranche upon the filing of a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the third upon the effectiveness of the registration.

"Additional capital is needed at this point to provide the company with adequate funds to expand global sales and marketing programs, especially for the P60 Ultrasound BioMicroscope," said Paradigm Medical CEO Raymond Cannefax. "We now will have adequate funds to purchase additional inventory to satisfy expected strong customer demand for all of our products."

The notes are due three years after issuance and are secured by Paradigm Medical's assets, including inventory, accounts payable and intellectual property. The notes are convertible into shares of the company's common stock at any time during their term.

The conversion price is equal to the lesser of a) 2 cents a share or b) the average of the lowest intra-day trading prices during the 20 trading days immediately prior to the conversion date, discounted by 40%.

Interest on the notes is payable at 8% a year, payable quarterly in cash, with six months of interest payable up front. The notes are callable, with prepayment allowed at any time that the price of Paradigm Medical's stock is 10 cents a share or less.

The company also is required to issue warrants to the investors to acquire an aggregate of 12 million shares of common stock, at an exercise price of 10 cents a share. The warrants will have a five-year term from the date of issuance.

Paradigm Medical manufactures diagnostic equipment and consumable products.

In other financing news, diagnostics company MedMira (Halifax, Nova Scotia) reported acquiring C$6.5 million in equity financing from the Morningside group. Morningside will buy 10,833,333 equity units at 60 cents a unit, for total proceeds of C$6.5 million in cash and retirement of a C$775,000 promissory note.

Each equity unit consists of one common share and one-half of a common share purchase warrant. Each full warrant entitles Morningside to purchase one common share of MedMira at 69 cents a share for a two-year period.

MedMira said that the financing will enable it to capitalize on key markets, such as over-the-counter tests for HIV, leverage its co-infection line of tests, and bring the Maple Biosciences technology to market.

Morningside will become a 19% shareholder of Med-Mira, which could increase to 25% if all warrants are exercised. Morningside has the right to nominate one director to MedMira's board.

George Chang, CFO of Morningside, said, "We are committed to working collaboratively with MedMira's executive team as the company advances to the next phase of growth."

MedMira manufactures in vitro flow-through rapid diagnostic tests that provide rapid diagnosis in just three minutes for the detection of human antibodies in human serum, plasma or whole blood for diseases such as HIV and hepatitis C.