A Medical Device Daily

Immucor (Norcross, Georgia), a company providing automated instrument-reagent systems to the blood transfusion industry, reported that its board has authorized an additional 2 million common shares for repurchase under its current stock repurchase program.

Including the new authorization, the company has a total of 2.6 million shares available for repurchase. To date in its first fiscal quarter of 2010, the company has repurchased about 279,000 shares for a total of $4.7 million.

"Share repurchase is a good use of our free cash flow," said Dr. Gioacchino De Chirico, Immucor's president/CEO. "We believe in the long-term potential of Immucor and remain committed to actions that deliver value to our shareholders."

Purchases under the company's stock repurchase program may be made from time to time as market conditions warrant and subject to regulatory considerations. The program may be discontinued at any time. The company said it plans to fund the program from cash on hand.

Emisphere Technologies (Cedar Knolls, New Jersey) reported that it has received commitments from two institutional investors to purchase $4 million of securities in a registered direct offering. Emisphere entered into a securities purchase agreement with these investors pursuant to which Emisphere has agreed to sell an aggregate of 5,714,286 shares of its common stock and warrants to purchase up to 2,685,714 additional shares of its common stock. Each unit, consisting of one share of common stock and a warrant to purchase 0.47 of a share of common stock, will be sold for a purchase price of 70 cents.

The warrants to purchase additional shares will be exercisable at an exercise price of 70 cents per share beginning immediately after issuance and will expire 5 years from the date they are first exercisable. The offering is expected to be consummated by August 24, subject to customary closing conditions.

Emisphere also reported that it has entered into a separate securities purchase agreement with MHR Fund Management to purchase $4 million of securities in a private placement pursuant to which Emisphere has agreed to sell an aggregate of 6,015,037 shares of its common stock and warrants to purchase up to 3,729,323 additional shares of its common stock. Each unit, consisting of one share of common stock and a warrant to purchase 0.62 of a share of common stock, will be sold for a purchase price of $0.665. The warrants to purchase additional shares will be exercisable at an exercise price of 70 cents per share beginning immediately after issuance and will expire 5 years from the date they are first exercisable.

Emisphere said it expects to receive total net proceeds from both transactions of about $7.6 million after deducting placement agent fees and other offering expenses. Proceeds from these transactions will be used to fund the company's operations and meet its obligations as they may arise, it said.

Rodman & Renshaw, a subsidiary of Rodman & Renshaw Capital Group, acted as the exclusive placement agent for the registered direct transaction and advisor for the private placement.

Emisphere develops drugs in oral form for drugs that are otherwise injectable.