A Medical Device Daily

SpinalMotion (Mountain View, California) reported that it has secured $27.4 million in Series D funding. The company also said it has submitted a pre-market approval (PMA) application to FDA for its Kineflex lumbar artificial disc.

The company said that securing Series D funding is a significant milestone. SpinalMotion plans to use the additional funds for completing its Kineflex/C cervical disc PMA application and developing its next-generation artificial discs. In total, the company has enrolled and completed two-year follow-up on more than 750 patients in its U.S. clinical trials. SpinalMotion continues to make progress on its lateral lumbar disc study, with roughly 20% enrollment completed.

"Our success in raising money indicates strong support from the investors who know us best," said David Hovda, president/CEO. "We welcome our new investor, DAFNA Capital Management, and look forward to continuing our progress in developing motion preserving technologies for spinal patients."

The lumbar PMA clinical study involved 21 U.S. sites and a two-year patient follow-up period, SpinalMotion said. During the study, the SpinalMotion Kineflex lumbar disc was compared to another FDA-approved lumbar artificial disc.

"Submitting our lumbar PMA caps more than six years of work in product development, clinical studies, and patient follow up," Hovda said. "We are very pleased with this milestone and the support of our clinical centers, and we look forward to working with FDA in the coming months."

In other financing activity:

• Quest Diagnostics (Madison, New Jersey), provider of diagnostic testing, information and services, said it intends to offer $750 million in two series of senior notes due in 2010 and 2011.

Quest said it would pay accrued and unpaid interest up to the date of the settlement, which is expected to be Nov. 20.

The company said it intends to use the net proceeds from the offering to repurchase any notes tendered under its concurrent tender offer, and for general corporate purposes, including acquisitions, capital expenditures, share repurchases and repayment of other indebtedness.

BofA Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, RBS and Wells Fargo Securities will be joint book-running managers for the debt offering.

• Zimmer (Warsaw, Indiana) reported that it has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission an automatic shelf registration statement on Form S-3 registering the offering and sale of an unspecified amount of equity and debt securities and that it intends, subject to market conditions, to commence a public offering of senior notes of a benchmark size.

Zimmer said it intends to use the net proceeds of the offering to repay the outstanding U.S. dollar balance of its credit facility and for general corporate purposes, including the financing of its stock repurchase program.

Banc of America Securities, Citigroup Global Markets and J.P. Morgan Securities are serving as active joint book-running managers of the offering.