Pelikan Technologies (Palo Alto, California) has raised $69 million in Series F financing to support commercial launch of its electronic lancing device and next-generation blood glucose system.

Clarus Ventures led the preferred stock equity financing. Also participating in the financing round are HBM BioVentures, Global Life Science Ventures, Mannheim Holdings and BioOne Capital. Dennis Henner, PhD, a managing director at Clarus Ventures, has joined Pelikan’s board of directors in connection with the financing. UBS Investment Bank was placement agent for Pelikan for the private placement.

Pelikan also reported receiving pre-approval for a $20 million venture loan facility from General Electric Capital and Oxford Finance, bringing the total financing to $89 million.

Dirk Boecker, MD, PhD, president/CEO of Pelikan, told Diagnostics & Imaging Week that the amount of this financing round reflects investor confidence in the company. In particular, he says it shows confidence in the company’s Pelikan Sun electronic lancing device that is already on the market in Europe and Australia and is expected to launch in the U.S. during 1Q08.

“We are in the final stretch for the company to commercialize Pelikan Sun [in the U.S.],” Boecker said.

He added that the large investment also is a sign that glucose monitoring is a “big growing market, $7.4 billion to $7.5 billion as we speak.”

Pelikan estimates the blood glucose monitoring market is growing at an annual rate of 6% to 7% a year.

“The closing of this financing will allow us to achieve critical development and commercial launch milestones for our products,” Boecker said. “The next 12- to 18-month period promises to be a very exciting time for Pelikan as we drive global sales growth of our Pelikan Sun lancing device and start marketing of the world’s first next-generation, fully-integrated blood glucose monitoring system.”

The Pelikan Sun lancing device addresses the pain and convenience issues associated with lancing, Boecker said. He said the device is unique because it is designed to accurately and precisely drive the lancet at an individually controlled speed to the exact intended depth while minimizing pain and improving wound healing.

“The result for the patient is they experience a almost painless lance, they barely feel it at all,” Boecker said. “As important is that the fingers actually heal.”

In addition to using the proceeds from this financing to support commercialization of the Pelikan Sun and to complete development of the company’s blood glucose system for an anticipated 2008 launch, Boecker said the money also would go toward the building of a new facility in Germany for a company that Pelikan bought in 2004.

In 2004, Pelikan acquired a company then known as Inventus Bio Tec (M nster, Germany) and immediately renamed it Albatros Technologies. The acquisition provided Pelikan with the Inventus GlucoSens sensor, a high-performance, electrochemical technology intended to measure blood glucose.

In other financings:

• Hologic (Bedford, Massachusetts), which specializes in diagnostic imaging products and interventional devices dedicated to serving the healthcare needs of women, reported the pricing of $1.5 billion aggregate principal amount of convertible senior notes due 2037.

The convertible senior notes mature in 2037 and will pay cash interest semiannually at a rate of 2% per annum until Dec. 15, 2013, after which their principal will accrete at a rate of 2% per annum. Commencing with the interest period beginning Dec. 15, 2013, the notes will also pay contingent interest under certain circumstances based on the trading price of the notes. The notes will be convertible at an initial conversion rate of 12.9555 shares of common stock per $1,000 original principal amount of notes (equivalent to a conversion price of roughly $77.1875 a share), subject to adjustment. The initial conversion price represents a 25% premium over the closing sale price of Hologic’s common stock Dec. 4. The sale of the convertible senior notes is expected to close Dec. 10. Hologic granted the underwriters an option to purchase up to an additional $225 million aggregate principal amount of the convertible notes to cover over-allotments.

Hologic said it intends to use the net proceeds from the offering to repay a portion of its outstanding senior secured indebtedness.

• Third Wave Technologies (Madison, Wisconsin) reported that it has secured a five-year, $25 million line of credit with Deerfield Management, a healthcare investment fund. The credit facility is available to provide Third Wave with additional capital as it executes its plan for leadership in the HPV and hospital laboratory markets.

Should Third Wave elect to borrow funds, amounts outstanding under the line of credit will bear interest at 7.75% per annum. A 2% per annum non-usage fee will be assessed on the undrawn amount. In consideration for providing the credit facility, Third Wave has issued to Deerfield a five-year warrant to purchase 1.815 million shares of Third Wave stock at $8.36 a share.

Third Wave develops molecular diagnostic reagents for a variety of DNA and RNA analysis applications. The company offers a number of products based on its Invader chemistry for clinical testing. It offers in vitro diagnostic kits, and analyte specific, general purpose, and research use only reagents for nucleic acid analysis.

• Asuragen (Austin, Texas), a privately held molecular diagnostics company and molecular biology service provider, reported that it has secured $18.5 million in Series B financing. This funding round follows a $49 million Series A round the company closed in March 2006.

The Series B round was raised from a combination of previous investors from the Series A round and new investors. PTV Sciences, a new investor, joined previous investors including Telegraph Hill Partners and Growth Capital Partners in the new round.

In addition to its diagnostic research program, the company is developing microRNAs as cancer therapeutics and is conducting pre-clinical development of its lead candidates.

• Nanogen (San Diego), a developer of advanced diagnostic products, has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) a preliminary proxy statement for a special meeting of its stockholders.

At the meeting, the stockholders will be asked to approve a series of measures that the company said it believes will increase the financing alternatives available to it, including approval of the company’s debt financing in August 2007 and approval of an increase in the number of its authorized shares of common stock.

Additionally, the company is seeking stockholder approval for the board at their discretion during the next year to affect a reverse split of its common stock in order to improve trading of its stock and to maintain its listing on the Nasdaq Global Market.

Approval of the proposals set forth in the proxy statement is an important and continuing component of the company’s restructuring activities reported in September that included the possible sale of the company’s microarray business. The company reported last month that it would close the operations of its array business and reduce staff by about 20%.

Nanogen said the restructuring is expected to reduce expenses by more than $20 million per year and to significantly reduce the cash required to fund the business until positive cash flow is achieved. The company expects to achieve cash flow breakeven in late 2008 and will seek stockholder approval of measures that it believes will enable the company to finance itself as a component of future success.

The company’s products include real-time PCR reagents and kits based on the company’s probe technology branded as MGB Alert and Q-PCR Alert, and a line of rapid point-of-care diagnostic tests used in urgent care settings to aid in the diagnosis of heart failure conditions.