A Medical Device Daily

Rivulet Communications (Herndon, Virginia) reported the completion of its third private funding round of $11.5 million. Rivulet's technology is designed to enable "flawless" HD medical video on the hospital IP network, according to the company.

The new financing round included ATA Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Performance Equity Management and Scorpion Capital Partners. The funds will be used to invest in market and sales development activities targeted toward integrators and prospects, and also to deliver a next-generation product line to fuel substantial growth, Rivulet said.

"In these tough economic times, the healthcare industry is investing in initiatives to improve efficiency, and Rivulet has unique offerings to serve critical requirements," said CEO Ed Kennedy. "Working with leading operating room integration firms, Rivulet's market access has expanded dramatically in the past year. Completing our third round of funding will allow us to expand our leadership role in visual networking and storage systems for healthcare."

Rivulet said it would be rolling out several product announcements and will be at the AORN 56th Annual Congress, March 14-19, McCormick Place West Building in Chicago.

In other financing activity:

• EpiCept (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey) said it has repaid the outstanding principal balance, together with all remaining fees, of its $10 million senior secured debt facility with Hercules Technology Growth Corp. The company said it has no further obligations under this agreement.

• Owens & Minor (Richmond, Virginia) reported that on Feb. 18 G. Gilmer Minor, III, chairman of the board, sold 100,134 shares of Owens & Minor stock. His decision to sell the shares was based upon the advice of his financial and estate planning advisors to broaden his retirement portfolio in which Owens & Minor stock represented a substantial majority, the company said.

"Now that I am retired, I have sought advice from financial and estate planning advisors to help me attain some degree of liquidity, continue with my charitable contributions, and take care of my family," Minor said. "My decision to sell shares was driven solely by the advice of my advisors to diversify my investments. My enthusiasm and confidence in the company's future is as strong as it has ever been, and I plan to remain a shareholder for many years to come."

Minor retains ownership of roughly 200,000 shares of Owens & Minor stock.

Owens & Minor distributes national name-brand medical and surgical supplies and is a healthcare supply-chain management company.

• Aspect Medical Systems (Norwood, Massachusetts) said it has repurchased, in privately negotiated transactions, an aggregate of $7 million face value of its 2.5% convertible senior notes due 2014, for aggregate consideration of about $3.8 million in cash, including accrued interest. In June 2007, Aspect issued $125 million of its 2.5% notes. As a result of these and prior repurchases, $58 million of the 2.5% notes remain outstanding.

Aspect develops brain-monitoring technology. To date, its Bispectral Index (BIS) technology has been used to assess nearly 31 million patients and has been the subject of over 3,100 published articles and abstracts, the company said.

• Pearl Therapeutics (Redwood City, California) said it has secured $8 million in venture debt financing. Oxford Finance Corporation and Silicon Valley Bank, a member company of SVB Financial Group, provided the capital, which will be drawn in two tranches.

The funds will supplement the $33.5 million in equity financing Pearl has secured to date, and will be used for general growth purposes as Pearl advances development of its expanding pipeline of products, the company said.

Pearl says it is developing a portfolio of meaningfully differentiated products to treat respiratory diseases including COPD and asthma.