A Medical Device Daily

IPC The Hospitalist Company (North Hollywood, California) has filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering of up to $105 million, though the offering price and amount of shares have yet to be determined.

The company said it will use any proceeds from the offering to repay its outstanding debt under its Comerica facility and will use any remaining proceeds for general corporate purposes, including to fund the acquisition of physician practices and for working capital.

IPC is a provider of hospitalist services in the U.S., saying that it believes that it is the largest dedicated hospitalist company in the country, based on revenues, patient encounters and number of affiliated hospitalists.

Hospitalist medicine is described as an emerging specialty organized around inpatient care, primarily delivered in hospitals, and focused on managing and driving the care of hospitalized patients. Hospitalists put emphasis on a patient’s care from the time of admission to discharge, working in consultation with primary care physicians, other referring physicians and medical providers.

It said it intends to trade its shares on the NASDAQ Global Market under the symbol IPCM.

Saint Vincent Catholic Medical Centers of New York, one of the largest healthcare systems in the New York Metro area, has received a $320 million senior secured credit facility from GE Healthcare Financial Services (Chicago).

The financing, consisting of a $50 million revolving credit facility and $270 million real estate based term loan, will support the hospital’s exit from Chapter 11 Bankruptcy.

The healthcare system said it will use the facility to refinance its existing debtor-in-position credit facility which was provided by GE Healthcare Financial Services in December 2005, fund obligations under the plan of reorganization and provide liquidity for working capital and other general corporate needs.

GE Capital Markets acted as sole lead arranger and bookrunner and GE Healthcare Financial Services serves as the administrative agent for the credit facility.

“GE Healthcare Financial Services has been a supportive partner throughout the restructuring process. Their flexibility and responsiveness were critical to successfully executing our turnaround plan,” said Alfred Smith IV, chairman of Saint Vincent Medical Centers’ board of directors. “We have reached the turning point in our reorganization, and we are now focused on the future and our abilities to provide higher quality medical, behavioral health, and continuing care to our patients. This financing positions Saint Vincent’s to execute our vision of becoming a smaller but stronger health care system serving the people of New York.”

In other financing news:

• Cyntellect (San Diego) reported that it has completed a $3 million second closing on its Series D preferred private financing transaction. This closing follows the initial Series D closing of $15.1 million announced on July 25.

Bru II Venture Capital Fund (Reykjavik, Iceland) was the sole participant in the second closing.

In aggregate, Cyntellect said it has raised $18.1 million in the Series D round and under the terms of the transaction the Series D investors may also choose to commit an additional investment of up to $10.3 million.

The company said it plans to use the funds to accelerate the development and commercialization of its cell manipulation products.

Cyntellect’s core technology combines key aspects of laser based medicine and semiconductor manufacturing technology to enable high-speed in situ analysis and manipulation of living cells. The technology can be applied broadly to drug discovery research (e.g. accurately identifying new drug targets or testing and predicting the physiological effects of potential drugs). The technology is also being used to improve the productivity of manufacturing therapeutic protein drugs and may prove valuable in manipulating cells as direct therapeutic agents.

The Series D round was led by Third Security’s latest investment fund under management, New River Management V.

• Mentor (Santa Barbara, California) reported that, after consulting with Institutional Shareholder Services and certain of its shareholders, its board of directors has adopted a policy regarding designation of preferred stock.

At the upcoming annual meeting of Mentor shareholders on Sept. 17, shareholders are being asked to approve an amendment to Mentor’s restated articles of incorporation to increase the total number of shares of authorized capital stock and to provide for the issuance of preferred stock in one or more series, with rights, preferences, privileges and restrictions to be determined by the board of directors in its discretion.

The Mentor board has adopted a policy requiring that, unless approved by the vote of the shareholders, any designation of preferred stock in connection with the adoption of a shareholder rights plan include provisions effecting the termination of that plan within one year. The policy also requires that other uses of preferred stock be limited to bona fide capital raising or business acquisition transactions.

Mentor is a supplier of medical products for the global aesthetic market.