A Medical Device Daily

EnteroMedics (St. Paul, Minnesota) said it has agreed to sell 13,110,393 shares of its common stock, together with warrants to purchase an aggregate of 6,555,197 shares of common stock, in a private placement transaction with several accredited investors.

The shares will be sold for $1.15 a share, giving the company gross proceeds of $15.89 million before offering expenses. The warrants, which will have an exercise price of $1.38 a share, will be exercisable at any time beginning on the date that is six months and one day after the closing and ending four years after the closing of the private placement. The closing is expected to take place on or before Feb. 24. Canaccord Adams was sole placement agent for this offering.

EnteroMedics said the proceeds from the transaction will be used to fund clinical studies of VBLOC therapy in obesity, hypertension and diabetes, submission for regulatory approval of the Maestro system in the treatment of obesity upon receipt of satisfactory results from the EMPOWER pivotal trial, as well as for general working capital.

EnteroMedics develops devices that use neuroblocking technology to treat obesity and other gastrointestinal disorders. Its neuroblocking technology, VBLOC vagal blocking therapy, is designed to intermittently block the vagus nerves using high-frequency, low-energy, electrical impulses. EnteroMedics said it has met its enrollment goal under an FDA-approved Investigational Device Exemption for the EMPOWER study using the Maestro system, its initial product for the treatment of obesity. The company is currently recruiting patients outside the U.S. for a feasibility study examining VBLOC therapy's effects on blood glucose levels in diabetic patients.

In other financing activity, Vitrolife (Gothenburg, Sweden) reported that, for purposes of its offer to the shareholders of MediCult (Jyllinge, Denmark), its general meeting on Feb. 19 resolved, in accordance with the board's proposal, to authorize the board to issue new shares, to be paid in kind, on one or several occasions up to the next annual general meeting.

Vitrolife is a biotechnology/medical device company that makes products for the preparation, cultivation and storage of human cells, tissues and organs.