A Medical Device Daily

Nanosphere (Northbrook, Illinois), a nanotechnology firm, Monday filed for an initial public offering, hoping to raise up to $100 million.

Nanosphere makes a genetic-testing system, and is developing diagnostic tests for a variety of medical conditions, including cancer, cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases.

Current genetic testing techniques are complex and are usually performed only at specialized labs or academic research centers. Nanosphere says it is aiming to commercialize a low-cost testing system that would be sold to hospitals.

The company plans to use about $50 million from the offering to finance research and to develop its product manufacturing, according to the IPO filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Another $40 million would be earmarked for marketing, while any remaining money would be used for working capital and other general costs.

Founded nine years ago, Nanosphere said it has raised more than $100 million in private money, including a $57 million venture capital investment last year from a group led by Boston-based Bain Capital (Medical Device Daily , May 24, 2006). Chicago-based Lurie Investments, Nanosphere’s founding investor, is a major shareholder in the company.

So far, Nanosphere’s revenues, which were just over $1 million last year, have come primarily from research contracts and government grants, with “minimal” sales stemming from its actual genetic testing system, according to the filing.

The firm’s future revenues — and any profits, which it doesn’t have now — depend on getting regulatory approval for its testing systems and then commercializing them, the filing said.

Underwriters for Nanosphere’s planned IPO are Credit Suisse, Piper Jaffray, Leerink Swann, and Allen.

SyntheMed (Iselin, New Jersey) said it has completed the initial closing of a private placement in which it received $2.8 million in gross proceeds.

At the closing, the company issued and sold 2.8 million shares of common stock at $1 a share to a consortium of accredited overseas investors. The company has authorized the sale of an additional 3.2 million shares in the private placement on the same terms. SyntheMed has agreed to file a registration statement with the SEC covering the resale of the privately-placed shares within 30 days following final closing of the placement, which is anticipated to occur at or before the end of the month.

SyntheMed is a biomaterials company engaged in the development and commercialization of anti-adhesion and drug delivery products based on its bioresorbable polymer technology.

In other financings news:

• The Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse (PLSG; Pittsburgh) reported that it has invested a total of $350,000 in three Pittsburgh-based companies: Celsense, Glucose Sensing Technologies, and Falcon Genomics.

The PLSG’s $150,000 investment in Falcon Genomics will support the validation of the Cancer BioChip System (CBCS), a high-throughput assay system for individualized cancer target identification and validation using silencing RNA.

The PLSG’s $100,000 investment in Glucose Sensing Technologies will support the development and testing in vitro of a prototype catheter that will be used to continually measure blood glucose levels in an intensive care unit (ICU) setting.

The PLSG’s $100,000 investment in Celsense will be used to help the company further the commercialization of Cell Sense, its flagship product. Cell Sense is an MRI tracer agent that labels cells in culture. When labeled cells are transferred to a living subject, the transplanted cells can be imaged in their anatomical context using MRI.

The PLSG, a public/private partnership, invests in and supports the growth of biosciences companies in southwestern Pennsylvania.

• Illumina (San Diego) reported that a resale registration statement has been filed on Form S-3 with the Securities and Exchange Commission in connection with its prior sale of $400 million aggregate principal amount of its 0.625% convertible senior notes due 2014. The registration statement became effective automatically upon filing and registers the offer and sale, by the security holders identified in the registration statement, of the notes and the shares of common stock underlying the notes. The notes were initially sold to qualified institutional buyers in an offering that closed in February 2007.

Illumina makes next-generation life science tools and integrated systems for the large scale analysis of genetic variation and biological function.

• Diagnostics company Beckman Coulter (Fullerton, California) reported that, as required by its December 2006 convertible notes offering, it filed a registration statement with the SEC for the resale by selling security holders of $600 million aggregate principal amount of its 2.50% convertible senior notes due 2036 and the common stock issuable under certain circumstances upon conversion of the notes. The registration statement became effective immediately upon filing. Beckman Coulter will not receive any proceeds from the resale of any of the securities by the selling security holders.