A Medical Device Daily

Corium International (Menlo Park, California), a privately-held transdermal drug delivery company, reported that it has completed a $25.1 million Series C financing led by Essex Woodlands Health Ventures (EWHV), Quantum Technology Partners, Aphelion Capital and one other investor, unnamed.

StrataGent Life Sciences, a portfolio company of EWHV, focused on needle-free delivery of drugs, will merge into Corium.

Corium and EWHV have also set terms for a $15.2 million Series D financing to occur within 24 months, subject to certain conditions.

Seven Hills Partners acted as Corium’s exclusive financial advisor and placement agent in these transactions.

The combined company will use the proceeds to develop Corium’s pipeline of advanced transdermal products employing its MicroCor microneedle technology and Corplex polymer adhesive technology. The company will also use proceeds to develop products based on StrataGent’s liquid microjet drug delivery technology.

Robert Thomas, currently CEO of StrataGent and former CEO of FoxHollow Technologies (Redwood City, California), will serve as CEO of the combined company, while Ron Eastman of EWHV will become the company’s chairman. Joining Eastman on the board will be Corium co-founder Gary Cleary and StrataGent co-founder Ravi Srinivasan.

“Corium and StrataGent create a formidable platform for developing and manufacturing advanced drug products delivered through the skin. In addition, Corium brings an existing and fast growing revenue pipeline that generates significant profits,” said Thomas.

In other financing news:

• Imalux (Cleveland), developer of the Niris imaging system based on optical coherence tomography (OCT) technology, reported the closing of its Series C preferred shares offering. Proceeds from the offering were $5.1 million, including conversion of $2.5 million of bridge financing.

Lead investors Early Stage Partners, ElectroSonics Medical, Reservoir Venture Partners, and Symark were joined by more than 20 investors in the financing, both prior and new.

“Imalux is now well positioned for the next stage in our business development,” said Bill Sanford, CEO/chairman. “Although the company is not presently seeking additional financing, the board has authorized the issuance of a further $2 million under the Series C offering terms and conditions to qualified strategic and financial investors who can add value to the company by accelerating the next significant financing or liquidity event.”

He added: “The new funding enables the company to fully implement our well planned clinical validation of the Niris imaging system. We have successfully placed Niris in over 20 of the world’s most respected medical institutions and have gained the support of leading clinicians and researchers, principally in the field of urology with emphasis on prostate and bladder procedures. We plan to have the System in additional 10-20 significant clinical sites in the U.S. and Europe within the next 12 months. A portion of the new funding will be used to support multi-center studies in bladder cancer that are already being implemented.”

• Healthcare Realty Trust (HRT; Nashville, Tennessee) reported that it intends to sell 2 million shares of its common stock to Stifel, Nicolaus & Co.

HRT also will lgrant Stifel Nicolaus a 30-day option to purchase up to another 300,000 shares of common stock. All of the shares in the offering will be sold by the company. Stifel Nicolaus will act as the sole underwriter for the offering.

Based on the closing market price on Sept. 20, net proceeds are estimated to be about $50 million. Closing of the offering is expected to occur today.

The company said the proceeds will be used primarily to fund acquisitions under contract and construction underway of medical office and outpatient facilities and for other general corporate purposes; and will temporarily repay a portion of amounts outstanding under its unsecured credit facility.

HRT is a real estate investment trust that owns, manages and develops real estate properties associated with the delivery of healthcare services throughout the U.S.

• GentivaHealth Services (Melville, New York), a provider of home health and related services, said it has filed a universal shelf registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for the periodic offering and sale of up to $300 million of debt securities, preferred stock, common stock and warrants after the SEC declares the registration statement effective.

At the time of any such offering, Gentiva would establish the terms and describe in its filed prospectus or prospectus supplement how the proceeds from the sale of any securities would be used.