A Medical Device Daily

PolyRemedy (Mountain View, California), a manufacturer of a robotic system for the delivery of nano-material-based wound dressings at the point-of-care, reported closing a Series B financing of $25 million with several venture capital firms.

The financing was co-led by Advanced Technology Ventures (ATV) and IDG Ventures Boston and included participation from Series A investor, MedVenture Associates and new investor Harris & Harris Group.

PolyRemedy was founded by Oleg Siniaguine, PhD, the company’s chief technology officer and a member of the company’s board. Tapping into his micro- and nanotechnology and robotic industry knowledge, Siniaguine is attempting to use a new approach to automate the wound care dressing fabrication process at the point of care, according to PolyRemedy.

The PolyRemedy system is designed to enable clinicians to provide a custom-made unit of wound dressings for patients with wounds such as diabetic ulcers and enable the capture and monitoring of patient data to refine clinical protocols, control costs and demonstrate evidence-based improved rates of wound healing.

PolyRemedy also reported that Dan Eckert has joined the company as president/CEO and board member, and that Tom Rodgers from ATV and Michael Greeley from IDG Ventures will join the company’s board, which includes Annette Campbell-White from MedVenture.

“Wound care management is a multi-billion dollar market which has historically been difficult to manage and costly for healthcare providers, patients and their families,” said Eckert. “The PolyRemedy delivery system enables clinicians to fabricate personalized advanced dressings for their patients, on-demand and at the point of care.”

“More than half-a-million patients receive wound care treatment daily today at an estimated overall cost of $20 billion per year,” said Greeley. “With a growing shortage of wound care nurses, no effective method exists to standardize the level of patient care in the clinic and the home, and we believe PolyRemedy is well positioned to provide a significant cost-effective advantage to healthcare providers and patients.”

Laser Energetics (LEI; Mercerville, New Jersey) reported a financing agreement for a $12 million equity investment. The investment is priced at a substantial premium to the current market price. The investment is being made by an unnamed company, with which LEI said it has an existing business relationship.

The transaction, subject to due diligence and the customary closing conditions, is expected to close within the next 30 days.

“The $12 million will give us the ability to immediately ramp up our production capacity to meet the demand for our BrightStar laser systems,” said Robert Battis, CEO of LEI. “It will also accelerate our research and development efforts, allowing us to bring both new technology and refinements to our existing technologies to the market in a very rapid fashion.

LEI develops laser products with applications in Industry, science, medicine and the military.

In other financing news: Alkermes (Cambridge, Massachusetts) reported initiating an accelerated share repurchase program under which it will repurchase $60 million of its common stock.

The company said the repurchase will be funded with the company’s existing cash, including proceeds from the recent sale of its stake in Reliant Pharmaceuticals (Liberty Corner, New Jersey).

This repurchase program falls under the previously disclosed authorization by Alkermes’ board to repurchase up to $175 million of the company’s common stock. Previously, Alkermes had repurchased $33.3 million of its common stock under the plan. With the initiation of the additional repurchases, Alkermes said it has committed $93.3 million dollars to repurchasing its common stock.

Morgan Stanley is acting as the counterparty for Alkermes’ repurchasing program, which the company said it expects to complete by the end of May.

Alkermes uses proprietary technologies to create innovative medicines designed to yield better therapeutic outcomes for patients with serious disease.