A Medical Device Daily

Calypso Medical Technologies (Seattle) reported the completion of a $50 million round of venture capital financings, led by Skyline Ventures and Frazier Healthcare Ventures. Bay City Capital and InterWest Partners were also major investors in the financing, the company noted.

Calypso develops real-time localization technology used for the precise tracking of tumor targets. The company said the proceeds from this financing will be used to support its commercial expansion, both domestically and internationally, as well as the development of products to support new clinical indications and the continued integration of the Calypso System with existing linear accelerators and other radiation therapy technologies.

The company's platform technology, also known as GPS for the body, uses miniature implanted Beacon transponders to provide precise, continuous information on the location of the tumor during external beam radiation therapy. Any movement by the patient, including internal movement of the tumor, may cause the radiation to miss its intended target and hit adjacent healthy tissue. In contrast to other tumor targeting solutions, Calypso said its system provides continuous tumor position information, objectively and without ionizing radiation, thereby enabling an increase in the radiation delivered to the tumor while reducing radiation misapplied to normal tissue.

"Making sure that a tumor is located where the linear accelerator assumes it to be is critical in external beam radiation therapy," said John Freund, managing director of Skyline Ventures. "We believe that Calypso's proprietary GPS for the Body technology represents a fundamental advance in radiation therapy. Calypso allows radiation oncologists to increase the dose delivered to the tumor while decreasing unwanted side effects, for a fraction of the cost of a new linear accelerator."

Eric Meier, president/CEO of Calypso, said the financing validates the investment community's "continued confidence in the vision of the company, the team, the unique benefits of our product platform and its potential in the marketplace."

Also participating in this financing round were existing investors Versant Ventures, BB Biotech, Arnerich Massena & Associates, Apothecary Capital, RiverVest Ventures, Merlin Nexus, Early Bird Ventures, Glenview Capital Management, Integra Ventures, AEOW, Kaiser Permanente Ventures, Mosaix Ventures, SB Life Science Ventures, Mitsui & Co. Venture Partners and Rockport Ventures.

In other financing activity/ American Medical Systems Holdings (Minneapolis) reported the results of its exchange offer in which the company offered $1,000 principal amount of its newly issued 4% convertible Senior subordinated notes due 2041 in exchange for each $1,000 principal amount of its outstanding 3.25% convertible senior subordinated notes due 2036, for up to $250 million, and no less than $100 million, aggregate principal amount of 2036 notes.

The company said that $289.5 million aggregate principal amount of 2036 notes were validly tendered, representing roughly 93% of the aggregate principal amount of the 2036 notes outstanding upon commencement of the exchange offer.