A Diagnostics & Imaging Week

Natus Medical (San Carlos, California), a provider of devices for the newborn care, hearing and neurology markets, reported that it completed a public offering of 4.6 million shares of its common stock at a price of $19.50 a share, including 600,000 shares sold as a result of the underwriters' exercise of their over-allotment option in full.

The company will receive net proceeds from the offering, including the sale of the over-allotment shares, of about $84.3 million before expenses. At the completion of the offering Natus had about 27,566,000 shares issued and outstanding.

Cowen and Co. and UBS Investment Bank were joint bookrunning managers for the offering and Natixis Bleichroeder, Needham & Co., Raymond James & Associates and Roth Capital Partners were co-managers.

SafeStitch Medical (Miami) reported that it had completed the sale of 1,861,505 shares of common stock to a number of private investors for an aggregate of about $4 million.

The company said it intends to use the funds for general working capital purposes, including the continued development and testing of its products.

"This infusion of capital will help us to continue the expansion of our in-house R&D capabilities," said Dr. Stewart Davis, SafeStitch's COO. "Our current product development is progressing on track, and our gastroplasty device could be in human clinical trials as early as the end of this year."

SafeStitch is developing endoscopic and minimally invasive surgical devices. Its product portfolio includes a gastroplasty device for endoscopic bariatric surgery (obesity surgery) and endoscopic repair of gastroesophageal reflux disorder, as well as an endoscopic device for excision and diagnosis of Barrett's esophagus.

The company also plans to market a standard bite block, as well as the first airway bite block, to be used during endoscopy, and is developing the Smart Dilator for esophageal strictures. It also is developing products for hernia repair and natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery.