A Medical Device Daily

Somanetics (Troy, Michigan) reported that its board of directors has authorized the company to repurchase up to an additional $15 million of its common shares (for a total of $45 million of its common shares). Purchases may be made from time to time in the open market or in privately negotiated transactions.

The prices, timing and amount of, and purposes for, any purchases will be determined by the company's CEO, CFO or CAO. From this past April 3, the date its initial share repurchase program commenced, through June 30, Somanetics has spent about $27.7 million (including commissions) to purchase 1,631,329 shares at an average purchase price of $16.97 per share.

As of June 30, Somanetics had 12,014,124 shares outstanding. The company said it expects to fund the repurchase program with cash and cash equivalents on hand.

Somanetics manufactures the Invos Cerebral/Somatic Oximeter, a non-invasive patient monitoring system that continuously measures changes in the blood oxygen levels in the brain and elsewhere in the body in patients with or at risk for restricted blood flow.

In other financing news:

• Sequenom (San Diego) reported that the underwriters of its previously disclosed common stock offering that priced on June 25 have exercised in full an option to purchase an additional 825,000 shares of its common stock.
  Including the additional shares being purchased, the offering will total 6,325,000 shares at a price of $15.50 a share, resulting in net proceeds to Sequenom of nearly $92 million after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and other expenses.
  Sequenom expects to use the proceeds from the offering for the development of diagnostic tests for use on its MassArray system and other platforms, and for general corporate purposes. The closing for this sale of additional shares is scheduled to take place on or about July 8, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.
  Lehman Brothers and UBS Investment Bank are joint book-running managers in this offering. Co-managers are Leerink Swann & Co., Lazard Capital Markets, Oppenheimer & Co. and Rodman & Renshaw.
• AlloCure (Salt Lake City) a company developing cell therapies for the treatment of acute kidney injury, reported the closing of a $14.5M Series A financing. The round was led by SV Life Sciences (Hamburg, Germany), with Novo A/S (Denmark, Germany) joining the syndicate.
  Despite major advances over the past 30 years, acute kidney injury remains treatment resistant and presents a growing critical problem for a significant number of patients around the world.
  "AlloCure has not only established itself as a leader in developing cell therapies to treat kidney patients," said Lutz Giebel, managing partner of SV Life Sciences. "They have also built an attractive and sound business model addressing this growing and unmet medical need."
  The investment is key to furthering the company's progress in developing these treatments and entering clinical trials. It said it hopes to offer acute kidney injury patients a safe and effective treatment option for this disease in the not-too-distant future.
  "The AlloCure team has developed an impressive scientific foundation which has enabled it to obtain all the regulatory approvals necessary to begin its Phase I clinical trial," said Thomas Dyrberg, senior partner at Novo. "We anticipate that substantial clinical progress will be made over the next few years."
  The company will use the investment to fund the progression of its acute kidney disease therapy through Phase II clinical trials over the next three years. Funds also will be used to develop a robust pipeline targeting other large medical markets where its cell therapy technology can address chronic unmet needs.
  AlloCure said it is poised to become the first company to commercialize effective cell therapies to treat various kidney diseases, organ transplants, multi-organ injury and a number of other difficult-to-treat diseases.