A Diagnostics & Imaging Week
Genoptix (Carlsbad, California) said it has closed its previously reported IPO of 5 million shares and that the underwriters of the offering have exercised in full their 30-day option to purchase an additional 750,000 shares of common stock, which includes 450,000 shares sold by Genoptix and 300,000 shares sold by certain selling stockholders.
The purchase price of the shares was $17 per share. Genoptix sold a total of 4,735,714 shares in the offering, resulting in net proceeds of about $72.7 million after deducting the underwriting discounts and commission and the estimated offering expenses.
The offering is being made through an underwriting syndicate led by Lehman Brothers acting as sole book-running manager. Banc of America Securities is acting as joint lead manager and Cowen and Co. as co-manager.
Genoptix is a specialized laboratory service provider focused on delivering personalized and comprehensive diagnostic services to community-based hematologists and oncologists.
The company’s offerings center on Compass, a package that allows the company’s hematopathologists to evaluate a sample, determine the appropriate tests, and deliver a report back to the physician. Compass includes a histopathology analysis to determine the nature and extent of the disease, six-color flow cytometry to characterize and measure cells, cytogenetics tests to reveal chromosomal abnormalities, polymerase chain reaction to follow progression of the disease and response to therapy, and circulating tumor cell tests for metatstatic breast cancer patients.
The company first disclosed its IPO in August.
In other financing activity:
• Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings (LabCorp; Burlington, North Carolina) reported that its board has authorized a new stock repurchase program under which it may purchase up to an aggregate of $500 million of its common stock from time-to-time. The company also reported that it has repurchased $131 million of stock during the fourth quarter to date and has $198.2 million remaining authorization under an existing share repurchase plan.
The company said it intends to pursue an accelerated pace of repurchases to take advantage of the current share price which the company said it believes does not fully reflect the value of its business or prospects.
LabCorp offers clinical assays ranging from routine blood analyses to HIV and genomic testing.
• Ophthalmic Imaging Systems (OIS; Sacramento, California), a digital imaging company, reported that it issued $2.75 million of 6.5% convertible notes due 2010 in a transaction led by The Tail Wind Fund.
OIS said it expects to use the net proceeds from the offering of the notes to fund potential future acquisitions.
Under the terms of the notes, the investors have the right by 2010 to convert the notes into OIS common stock at a fixed conversion price equal to a 5% premium to the volume weighted average price (VWAP) for the trailing 12 days of trading as of Oct. 29. In addition, the company issued 616,671 five year warrants with an exercise price equal to a 20% premium to the VWAP for the trailing 12 days of trading as of Oct. 29, equal to $1.87.
“This offering provides OIS with the capital necessary to aggressively seek out potential acquisitions that will expand upon our offerings and help us execute our business strategy,” said Gil Allon, Chief Executive Officer of OIS. “We believe OIS has a tremendous infrastructure in place from which to expand our business. Once our intended merge with MediVision Medical Imaging [Yokneam, Israel] is complete, we will be able to rapidly implement our strategic growth plan.”
OIS, a majority-owned subsidiary of MediVision, is a provider of ophthalmic digital imaging systems. The company makes digital imaging systems and informatics solutions for the eye care market.
• The Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse (PLSG) reported that it has invested $150,000 in Applied Isotope Technologies (AIT; San Jose, California).
AIT is an early-stage reagent manufacturer focused on developing reagents, standards and kits designed to measure the toxicity of metal-speciated forms in urine and other biological fluids using a mass spectrometer technology called Speciated Isotope Dilution Mass Spectrometry (SIDMS). SIDMS is an EPA-approved method being used nationally to measure toxicity levels of speciated metals in soil samples, according to PLSG.
SIDMS was invented by one of AIT’s founders, Howard “Skip” Kingston of Duquesne University (Pittsburgh).
The PLSG’s investment will help AIT launch new products to larger markets in general biochemistry and clinical biochemistry, with the eventual goal of developing test kits and complete testing systems for the in vitro diagnostics sector.
“Today, there is significant focus on environmental health and the thousands of chemicals to which human beings are being exposed,” said John Manzetti, president/CEO of the PLSG. “AIT is helping by making products that will permit accurate measurement of how the human body deals with exposure to poisons and facilitate finding new chemimarkers and/or biomarkers that result in better diagnostic tools.”