A Diagnostics & Imaging Week

Innovative Biosensors (IB; Rockville, Maryland), a company developing tests to identify harmful pathogens, reported the completion of an $11.5 million Series B financing which included equity and debt.

The Series B was led by Life Sciences Partners (LSP) and involved $9.5 million in equity capital. The company also increased its existing debt facility to $2 million from Silicon Valley Bank.

This financing follows on the prior Series A financing of $6.25 million raised in 2005. Previous Series A investors, including Harbert Venture Partners, Chart Venture Partners, New Markets Growth Fund and CNF Investments, participated in this round.

The new proceeds will be used to accelerate the commercialization of IB's sensitive, and rapid biosensor-based technology for the detection of hospital and community acquired infections. Based on the Canary technology developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (Cambridge, Massachusetts) Lincoln Labs, IB's technology is designed to allow for highly accurate and sensitive diagnostic tests with results available in minutes.

In conjunction with the additional financing, IB added two new members to its board, Dr. Jorg Riesmeier and Dr. Caroline Popper.

"Completing this round of financing with LSP and Silicon Valley Bank will ensure the rapid commercialization of our technology in the clinical diagnostic arena. Our success in the environmental marketplace and commercial potential in the IVD space has enticed the interest of additional investors, who may yet join this round," said Joe Hernandez, IB's president and CEO.

Natus Medical (San Carlos, California), a company that makes newborn care, hearing, and neurology products, said it plans to sell 3.5 million shares of its common stock in a public offering. The company has not yet disclosed an offering price or an expected proceeds amount.

The company expects to grant a 30-day over-allotment option to underwriters to buy an additional 15% of the shares offered.

All of the shares are being sold by Natus and offered by Cowen and Co. and UBS Investment Bank as joint bookrunning managers. Natixis Bleichroeder, Needham & Co., Raymond James & Associates, and Roth Capital Partners are acting as co-managers.

According to the company's filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the last reported sale price of Natus' common stock was $21.10 a share.

Natus said it would use the proceeds from the offering to repay outstanding debt and for general corporate purposes, which may include acquisitions of or investments in companies and technologies that complement its business, capital expenditures or additions to the company's working capital.

Last month Natus reported that Roth, the sole underwriter of its previous public offering of 770,000 shares of common stock valued at roughly $13.4 million, exercised its over-allotment option. By purchasing another 115,500 shares, Roth brought the total shares offered to 885,500 and the expected proceeds to $15.5 million based on a per share price of $18.27.

Also in April, the company agreed to acquire SonaMed (Waltham, Massachusetts), a private company that makes the Clarity Screener and associated disposable supplies to help medical practitioners screen newborns for hearing loss. Natus agreed to acquire all outstanding shares of SonaMed capital stock in a cash deal, but financial terms were not disclosed.

SonaMed is one of several companies Natus has acquired since 2006, the year it went public, according to its SEC filing. The company acquired Excel-Tech (Oakville, Ontario) in November 2007 for $64 million in cash; Olympic Medical (Seattle) in October 2006 for $16.9 million in cash Deltamed (Paris) in September 2006 for $4.1 million in cash; and Bio-logic (Mundelein, Illinois) in January 2006 for $69.3 million in cash.