A Medical Device Daily

BG Medicine (Waltham, Massachusetts), a life-sciences company filed to raise $80 million in its initial public offering (IPO).

Until the company prices, it joins 12 other life science IPO hopefuls waiting in the wings. It hasn’t disclosed how many shares will be offered nor did it estimate a price range for the IPO. Most recently, Genoptix (Carlsbad, California) filed for an IPO of up to $86.25 million (Medical Device Daily , Aug. 3, 2007).

BG Medicine said it intends to use the net proceeds from the IPO for discovery and development activities, including expanding and enhancing laboratory infrastructure and acquiring clinical samples, licensing or acquiring additional product candidates or technologies, and establishing infrastructure to commercialize product candidates.

BG Medicine is currently working with the FDA on a Critical Path Initiative to discover new biomarkers of liver toxicity. It is also conducting a biomarker discovery project for tuberculosis drug development in collaboration with the TB Alliance (New York). BG has also collaborated with Royal Philips Electronics (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) to develop molecular healthcare products for application in areas such as molecular imaging and point-of-care diagnostics, (MDD, Aug. 14, 2006).

But despite high-profile agreements, the company is far from a heavy revenue generator.

In its regulatory filing, the company said it has incurred substantial losses since its inception in February 2000 and expects to incur losses for at least the next several years. For the years ended Dec. 31, 2005 and 2006, it incurred losses of $8.2 million and $4.7 million, respectively, and for the three months ended March 31, 2007, we incurred a loss of $1.5 million. “We expect to continue to incur substantial net losses for at least the next several years,” it said in its filing. Its accumulated deficit was about $38 million as of March 31.

Cowen International, Fortis, and Leerink Swann & Co. are listed as underwriters for the offering. BG Medicine is a life sciences company focused on the development of novel molecular diagnostics based on biomarkers to improve patient outcomes and contain healthcare costs.

In other financing news: ConforMIS (Lexington, Massachusetts) reported the completion of a $10 million senior debt facility with Merrill Lynch Capital, a division of Merrill Lynch Business Financial Services.

The $10 million debt facility will be used to support the growth of the business in preparation for a mezzanine round of financing. Proceeds from the debt facility will be used to expand the commercialization infrastructure, including expansion of the product design and manufacturing capabilities as well as the sales force.

“This credit facility will provide ConforMIS with increased financial flexibility to accelerate the commercialization of our family of patient-specific knee implants, while at the same time permitting the continued development of our expanding R&D product pipeline,” said Patrick Hess, CEO of ConforMIS.

ConforMIS is a privately held medical device company that provides minimally invasive implants for orthopedics and sports medicine through the use of its iFit Technology.