A Medical Device Daily

AGA Medical (Plymouth, Minnesota) reported that it plans to raise $275 million through an initial public offering of stock. AGA's first attempt at an IPO was in 2008 for up to $200 million (Medical Device Daily, June 26, 2008). But a crippled stock market altered the company's plans. AGA said it will use proceeds from the current offering to pay down debt and for expansion capital.

Privately held AGA earned $9.1 million in 2008 on sales of $167 million, according to the updated prospectus filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday. The company expects to offer 8.5 million shares. The underwriters may purchase up to an additional 2.1 million shares. The lead underwriters include Citi, Bank of America (New York) Merrill Lynch (Jacksonville, Florida) and Wells Fargo Securities (Charlotte, North Carolina).

In other financing activity:

• Direct Flow Medical (Santa Rosa, California) reported it has raised another $40 million in venture capital to develop a replacement heart valve for patients too frail to undergo open-heart surgery. The technique is less invasive than conventional open heart surgery.

• Bmeye (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) the non-invasive cardiovascular monitoring company reported the successful completion of its Series B financing round, raising €6 million ($8.87 million). New investors Earlybird (Corvallis, Oregon), who led this round, and 360 Capital Partners (Luxemberg,) participated in the financing, along with other existing BMEYE shareholders as LSP (Life Sciences Partners; Amsterdam, the Netherlands) and Techfund (Paris).

Bmeye has been selling Nexfin, an FDA and CE approved cardiovascular monitor which uses an easy to apply finger sensor to produce accurate beat-to-beat, non-invasive blood pressure and cardiac output data displayed on an intuitive touch screen. Proceeds from the financing will support the accelerated growth program of the company based on further product introductions and development of the sales channel.

• BiO2 Medical (Wheat, Colorado) has received $500,000 in venture capital funding that the company will use to further commercialize a technology that will help prevent blood clods from reaching the lung.

BiO2 Medical received its initial $1 million in funding from angel investors in 2007. The company was awarded an additional $1 million from the Texas Emerging Technology Fund late last year.

• United BioSource (UB; Bethesda, Maryland) reported that Berkshire Partners (Boston) private equity firm, has made a $125 million growth equity investment to support the company's evidence-based acquisition and service offering expansion strategy. UB integrates scientific and operational expertise with technology solutions to support global development and commercialization of medical products for life science companies.