A Medical Device Daily
BioStable Science & Engineering (Austin, Texas), a device company developing cardiovascular implants, reported its first round of venture capital funding – $5.5 million. The Series A equity financing was provided by Sant Ventures.
BioStable was founded earlier this year by five members of CarboMedics' (also Austin) senior management team, including former president Charles Griffin, former VP of R&D Rusty Phillips, former VP of engineering Al Beavan, former VP of quality assurance Doug Frank and former senior director of operations Don James.
CarboMedics developed products to treat valvular heart disease until the Sorin Group (Milan, Italy) acquired it in 2003. The BioStable management team has been working together for more than 20 years.
In August, Sant Ventures provided BioStable with $250,000 in seed financing and incubation space in preparation for the Series A round supporting the launch of its product development program. Joe Cunningham, MD, one of the firm's managing directors, will serve on BioStable's board of directors.
Rcadia Medical Imaging (Boston), developer of the COR Analyzer software for the automated analysis of coronary CT angiography (CCTA) studies, said it has closed a $3.3 million investment round led by BioVentures Investors (Cambridge, Massachusetts). Existing investors, including 20/20 HealthCare Partners, also participated in the financing.
Developed by Israeli image processing scientists, the COR Analyzer enables rapid and effective triage of chest pain patients. Immediately after a Coronary CTA study, the COR Analayzer identifies patients who need further evaluation for severe coronary artery disease, vs. those who can be safely discharged, the company said. While improving emergency department workflow, the Rcadia application also can lead to more rapid diagnosis, enabling appropriate treatments and avoiding unnecessary delays for patients without coronary artery disease.
Shai Levanon, Rcadia president/CEO, said that the proceeds of the financing will fund the full commercial launch of the COR Analyzer and the establishment of a U.S. office to support North American sales and marketing.
Simultaneous with the financing, Peter Feinstein, general partner, BioVentures Investors, and Alex Norbash, MD, chairman of radiology at Boston University Medical Campus, have joined Rcadia's board of directors.
In other financing activity:
• Osteotech (Eatontown, New Jersey), a provider of solutions for regenerative medicine, said its board has authorized a stock repurchase program under which up to $5 million of its common stock may be acquired.
President/CEO Sam Owusu-Akyaw said the authorization of the stock repurchase program demonstrates the board's confidence in the long-term prospects of the company.
"The management team and the board of directors feel our shares are currently undervalued and believe the repurchase program is an excellent way to enhance the long-term value of the company," he said.
The company said stock repurchases may be executed from time to time at current market prices through open-market and privately negotiated transactions in such amounts as management deems appropriate. The final number of shares repurchased will depend on a variety of factors including price, corporate and regulatory requirements and other market conditions, Osteotech said.
• Sirona (Long Island City, New York), a manufacturer of dental equipment, said its board has authorized a fair-value option exchange program for its 2006 Equity Incentive Plan. This exchange program, which is only available to employees and eligible consultants, is expected to provide additional incentive and retention value, Sirona said.
Participants will be able to tender options which have significantly higher exercise prices than the current market value and in return obtain a lower number of newly granted options. The exercise price of the new options will be the closing price of Sirona common stock on the Nasdaq Global Select Market on the exchange date, the date on which this offer expires. According to the company, the exchange program is designed so that the current fair value of the options surrendered is equal to the fair value of the replacement options, and the exchange offer will not result in additional expense.
The replacement options will have an additional year of vesting as compared to the surrendered options. Roughly 1.1 million options are eligible for exchange under the offer.