A Diagnostics & Imaging Week
Volcano (Rancho Cordova, California) reported that it intends to sell, subject to market and other conditions, 6 million shares of newly issued common stock in accordance with a shelf registration statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company said it intends to grant the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 900,000 shares of common stock.
Based on the company’s $17.18 stock closing price on Monday, the company stands to raise up to $118.54 million from the offering before expenses.
Last month, Volcano filed with the SEC to sell up to $200 million in securities.
Volcano has about 38.7 million shares outstanding, according to its most recent quarterly report, filed in August.
Volcano offers a suite of devices designed to facilitate endovascular procedures and enhance the diagnosis of vascular and structural heart diseases and guide therapies.
J.P. Morgan Securities, Banc of America Securities and Piper Jaffray & Co. will serve as joint book-running managers in the offering, with Bear, Stearns & Co. serving as co-manager.
In other financings news:
Optherion (New Haven, Connecticut), a company developing products to diagnose and treat dry and wet Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD) and other chronic diseases involving the alternative complement system, reported that it has raised $37 million in start-up financing.
Optherion’s initial focus is to develop disease-modifying therapies to prevent loss of vision in patients with dry AMD, the leading cause of blindness in people over 60 in the developed world, as well as a portfolio of tests that predict, diagnose and monitor progression of the disease.
A parallel area of company research is the development of diagnostics and therapeutics for Membranoproliferative Glomerulonephritis Type II (MPGN-II, also known as Dense Deposit Disease). This is an end-stage renal disease with an orphan-sized market prevalence, which typically manifests in individuals between 5 and 25 years of age. It is often caused by the same genetic variations underlying AMD.
The company’s technologies are also being investigated for the diagnosis and treatment of other chronic diseases related to the alternative complement system.
The company’s intellectual property estate is based on discoveries at the University of Iowa (Coralville) by Dr. Gregory Hageman and at Yale University (New Haven, Connecticut) and Rockefeller University (New York) by Dr. Josephine Hoh as well as work by investigators at other universities.
Among the sources of capital for the financing are: Quaker BioVentures, Domain Associates, Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation, Purdue Pharmaceutical Products, Pappas Ventures, Biogen Idec New Ventures and GE Healthcare Financial Services.
Laboratory Corporation of America (LabCorp; Burlington, North Carolina) reported that its zero coupon subordinated Liquid Yield Option Notes (LYONs), due 2021, and Zero Coupon Convertible Subordinated Notes (Zero Coupon Notes), due 2021, are convertible into common stock of LabCorp at the rate of 13.4108 per $1,000 principal amount at maturity of the LYONs, dated as of Sept. 11, 2001, between LabCorp and The Bank of New York, as trustee and conversion agent. The Zero Coupon Notes are convertible into cash and LabCorp common stock, if any, subject to the terms of the Zero Coupon Notes and the Indenture, dated as of Oct. 24, 2006, between LabCorp, the trustee and the conversion agent.
LabCorp offers clinical assays ranging from routine blood analyses to HIV and genomic testing.