A Medical Device Daily

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.

HepaLife Technologies (Boston), a company developing an artificial liver device for liver failure, said it has completed a private placement of its securities consisting of shares and warrants to institutional and accredited investors for aggregate gross proceeds of roughly $4.53 million. Palladium Capital Advisors was placement agent.

The private placement consisted of 10,660,705 units, each unit consisting of one share of the company's common stock and one two-year stock purchase warrant for an additional share of stock at 55 cents a share. The unit price was $0.425.

HepaLife said it plans to use the proceeds for general corporate purposes. To the extent that the warrants are exercised, HepaLife could receive up to $5,863,000, the proceeds of which, if any, will be used for working capital purposes.

In connection with the private placement, Palladium was due a sales commission equal to $90,828 or 2% percent of the gross proceeds, which firm has elected to receive in the form of 213,713 units.

Along with the completion of the private placement, Harmel Rayat, HepaLife's CFO, director and controlling shareholder, agreed to convert the entire outstanding principal amount ($877,800) of his loan to the company into an aggregate of 2,065,412 units, each consisting of one share of HepaLife's common stock and one Series C warrant, at a conversion price of $0.425 a unit. Rayat also agreed to accept $150,000 in full payment and satisfaction of the accrued and unpaid interest on the loan in the amount of $249,945. The securities issued to him are "restricted securities."

Frank Menzler, HepaLife's president/CEO, said the financing and the company's strengthened financial position as a result of Rayat's conversion of his loan and reduction of the unpaid interest, will enable the company to "aggressively pursue" the continued R&D of its artificial-liver device.

Intended for the treatment of liver failure, the HepaLife Bioartificial Liver consists of three basic components: a plasma filter, separating the patient's blood into blood plasma and blood cells; the bioreactor, a unit filled with the patented PICM-19 liver stem cell line which biologically mimics the liver's function; and the HepaDrive, a perfusion system for pumping the patient's plasma through the bioreactor while controlling gas supply and temperature for best possible performance of the cells.

In other financing news, 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 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.