A Medical Device Daily
Techniscan Medical Systems TMS; (Salt Lake City), a developer of ultrasound technology for breast imaging, reported closing a Series E funding round of $13 million.
Lead investor is the Esaote Group (Genova, Italy), a producer of ultrasound and MRI technologies, with Esaote joined by return backers from TechniScan’s board and several angel investors.
“With the partnership with Esaote, we now have all the pieces we need to complete our technology testing and begin the next set of clinical trials that will take us all the way to the finish line,” said David Robinson, CEO of TMS.
Pending final FDA approval, Robinson said he expects commercial sales of the UltraSound CT Imaging System to start at the end of 2008.
TMS said it will begin its next set of clinical trials at the University of California San Diego and at the Mayo Clinic (Rochester, Minnesota) in May.
“By combining this sizable financing round with our current backlog of NIH-NCI grants,” Robinson said, “we are now in the lucky position of being able to conduct clinical trials more quickly and at more locations than we had previously planned. The company is hopeful that we can secure additional clinical investigation sites by late in 2008 here in Salt Lake City and at other luminary hospitals throughout the U.S. and Europe.”
With the financing, TMS and Esaote entered into an original equipment manufacturing (OEM) agreement enabling TMS to integrate Esaote’s products and technologies in products developed by TMS, and TMS technology to be used in future Esaote ultrasound systems. The companies have also executed an exclusive distribution agreement for the European market and are looking to develop further agreements for additional commercial cooperation in the American market.
TMS says that since July of 2001 it has raised nearly $30 million in equity financing and $4 million in federal grants from the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute.
Cyberonics (Houston) reported that it plans to initiate a share repurchase program of up to 1 million shares of its outstanding common stock.
The number of shares actually repurchased and the timing of any repurchases will depend on market conditions, and may be suspended or discontinued at any time. The new repurchase program supersedes the repurchase program disclosed by the company in May 2006.
In other financing news: BioMed Realty Trust (San Diego) said that its joint venture with Prudential Real Estate Investors (PREI) has entered into a construction loan with Wachovia Bank, National Association and other lenders to provide borrowings of up to about $245 million in connection with the construction of 650 East Kendall St., a roughly 300,000 square foot life sciences building in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Proceeds from the loan will be used in part to repay a portion of the j-v’s existing $550 million secured acquisition and interim loan facility from KeyBank National Association and certain other lenders and to fund the balance of the cost to complete construction of the project, Biomed said.
The j-v also extended the term of the existing secured acquisition and interim loan facility to April 3, 2009.
The loan has a maturity date of Aug. 13, 2010, and is secured by the 650 East Kendall St. property and related collateral.
BioMed provides real estate to the life science industry. The company’s tenants primarily include biotech and pharmas, scientific research institutions, government agencies and other entities involved in the life sciences.