A Medical Device Daily

Inovio Biomedical (San Diego), focused on the development of DNA-based vaccines for cancers and infectious diseases and on a system used as an alternative to surgery to treat localized cancers, reported the closing of the sale to institutional and accredited investors, based in Singapore and North America, of nearly 4.6 million shares of its common stock at $3.52 a share, resulting in gross cash proceeds of about $16.17 million.

The per-share price of the Inovio stock represents about a 7% discount to the closing price of Inovio's common stock on May 14, the date of execution of the definitive sale agreements.

"While we continue to execute the commercialization strategy for our solid tumor therapy using bleomycin, this financing gives Inovio a strong balance sheet that will allow us to further leverage the recent successes in our DNA delivery programs," said Dr. Avtar Dhillon, Inovio Biomedical CEO.

Inovio is focused on developing its DNA delivery technology for gene-based therapies and commercializing its Selective Electrochemical Tumor Ablation (SECTA) therapy. It is developing human applications of electroporation, which uses brief, controlled electrical pulses to increase cellular uptake of a useful biopharmaceutical and, in the case of DNA-based treatments, levels of gene expression.

The company says that initial human validation of its delivery technology has shown safety, tolerability and the ability to enhance immune responses induced by DNA-based immunotherapies. The SECTA therapy for locally treating solid tumors is designed to selectively kill cancerous cells and minimize detriments often caused by surgical removal of predominantly healthy tissue typically treated around a tumor.

Vasogen (Mississauga, Ontario) reported the close of its previously reported financing for $16 million in gross proceeds through the sale of its common shares at a price of $3.25 a share.

Vasogen also issued 5-year warrants to purchase another 3.7 million common shares at $3.16 a share. If all of 3.7 million warrants are exercised, the company will receive another $11.7 million in gross proceeds. Vasogen now has about 22.4 million shares of common stock outstanding.

Net proceeds from the financing are about $14.6 million.

The company said it plans to use the proceeds for working capital, including activities associated with the commercialization of its Celacade technology in Europe, continued development of its Celacade technology, and development of its lead drug candidate, VP025.

Rodman & Renshaw and JMP Securities are acting as placement agents in connection with this transaction and Rodman & Renshaw managed the placement and sale of the securities.

The placement agents will together receive 295,044 three-year warrants to purchase common shares at $3.81 per share.

Vasogen is developing therapies to block the inflammation associated with the development of cardiovascular and neurodegenerative disorders. The company's lead product, the Celacade technology, is designed to activate the immune response to apoptosis, a process that regulates inflammation.

Celacade is in late-stage development for the treatment of chronic heart failure and has received CE-marking for this indication.

In other dealmaking news: Andover Medical (North Andover, Massachusetts), single-source provider of orthopedic, podiatric and urological durable medical equipment (DME) and incontinence treatment solutions, reported closing a $1.7 million follow-on private financing on May 3. Gross proceeds from the private offering totaled $1.7 million.

Investors' purchased 34 units of company securities, representing 6% Series B convertible preferred stock at $50,000 a unit, each unit consisting of $50,000 face value of 50 shares of Series B convertible preferred stock, convertible at 35 cents a share into 142,850 shares of common stock; Class A Warrants exercisable for five years at 35 cents a share to purchase 142,850 shares of common stock; and Class B warrants exercisable for five years at 35 cents a share to purchase 142,850 shares.

The proceeds of the financing will be used for working capital, including pending acquisitions.

"This additional round of financing of $1.7 million was made available to investors after closing our recently announced $5.6 million equity financing in March of this year," said Edwin Reilly, CEO of Andover. "Now . . . Andover is more favorably positioned to execute as we build-out and realize the synergies from the creation of this national network."