A Medical Device Daily

Patient Safety Technologies (PST; Temecula, California) reported that it has closed on $2.485 million in equity financing in a first closing of a private placement. The proceeds will go towards further enhancing sales and marketing at its SurgiCount Medical (also Temecula) subsidiary.

Investors in the first closing of the private placement purchased 1,987,936 shares of the company's common stock at a price of $1.25 a share and received a five-year warrant to purchase an additional 1,192,761 shares at an exercise price of $1.40 a share. The investors paid $2.059 million in cash and agreed to extinguish $426,000 in existing debt owed them by PST.

Under the terms of the placement, the company may sell up to an aggregate of $4 million worth of common stock and warrants by no later than June 19. PST has agreed to register for resale the shares of common stock sold in the offering.

"This round of financing allows us to hire additional staff to meet the increased interest that we are enjoying in our product, primarily as a result of recent environmental changes as well as an overall increased awareness of SurgiCount and its Safety-Sponge System," said CEO Bill Adams.

SurgiCount makes the SurgiCount Safety-Sponge System, comprised of surgical sponges and towels affixed with an inseparable 2-D data matrix barcode and a SurgiCounter scanner to record each sponge before and after an operation.