A Diagnostics & Imaging Week

Advanced Magnetics (Cambridge, Massachusetts) reported that it will offer 2 million shares of its common stock in an underwritten public offering. The company also will grant the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to another 300,000 shares of common stock. All of the shares are being offered by Advanced Magnetics.

Morgan Stanley & Co. Incorporated is acting as the sole book-running manager for the offering. Bear Stearns, & Co. Inc. is acting as joint lead manager for the offering, Deutsche Bank Securities, Jefferies & Company and ThinkEquity Partners are acting as co-managers for the offering.

Advanced Magnetics utilizes its nanoparticle technology for the development and commercialization of therapeutic iron compounds to treat anemia and novel imaging agents to aid in the diagnosis of cancer and cardiovascular disease.

Combidex, a product under development, is a molecular imaging agent consisting of iron oxide nanoparticles for use in conjunction with MRI to aid in differentiating cancerous from normal lymph nodes. In March 2005, the company received an approvable letter from the FDA for Combidex, subject to certain conditions.

The company has two commercial products, Feridex I.V. and GastroMARK, imaging agents approved in the U.S., Europe and other countries.

In other financing news:

• Axis Three (Los Angeles), a developer of surgical simulation tools for the medical industry, reported that it has recently secured additional funding of between $1.8 million and $2 million and that it has added two new executives to its management team.

David Kirk has joined Axis Three as VP of corporate strategy and Pedram Hariri has joined the company as director of sales and business development.

The company also reported beta launch of its XS-300 surgical simulation platform. The company said the product was developed in collaboration with plastic and reconstructive surgeons and will shortly be tested in U.S. and European practices.

Jim Blumel, CEO of Axis Three, said that the XS-300 surgical simulation platform “provides precise surgical simulation and represents a paradigm shift in the surgeon-patient experience. We collaborated with plastic and reconstructive surgeons to develop an intuitive system that provides accurate measurement data, surgical planning tools, and a better experience for both the surgeon and patient.”

Through a licensing agreement, Axis Three has integrated image capture technology developed by Siemens Medical Solutions (Malvern, Pennsylvania) with its own software to create a platform that it says can be tailored to various surgical needs.

The company has offices in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and Los Angeles.

• SensiGen (Ann Arbor, Michigan), a biotechnology company focused on developing gene-based molecular diagnostics, reported that Ann Arbor SPARK, a non-profit organization, has approved a $250,000 investment in SensiGen from the Michigan Pre-Seed Capital Fund. The funds will be used to help SensiGen establish a new research laboratory in Ann Arbor and to accelerate development of the company’s AttoSense molecular diagnostic technology.

As outlined in an earlier report to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Cambridge Heart (Bedford, Massachusetts) has filed a registration statement with the SEC for the resale of shares of common stock issuable upon conversion of the 5,000 shares of Series C preferred stock acquired by St. Jude Medical (St. Paul, Minnesota) in connection with a co-marketing agreement between the companies.

St. Jude will be responsible for marketing the company’s HearTwave II Microvolt T-Wave Alternans System and sensors to cardiologists and electrophysiologists in North America.

As part of that agreement, St. Jude purchased $12.5 million of preferred stock in Cambridge Heart, convertible into common stock at $2.99 a share.

St. Jude will market and sell the system to cardiologists and electrophysiologists in North America, and Cambridge Heart will manage the installation of systems, customer training servicing. The agreement covers North America only.

Cambridge Heart develops products for the non-invasive diagnosis of cardiac disease, particularly the identification of those at risk of sudden cardiac arrest.

• Fonar (Melville, New York) reported that Rayond Damadian, MD, its founder, president and chairman, has purchased 8,500 shares of company stock in the open market, bringing his ownership to 120,302.12 shares of common stock.

In making the announcement, the company said that Damadian has not sold a share of Fonar stock in more than a decade. The purchase was made pursuant to the company’s corporate governance guidelines for insider stock purchases.

Damadian said, “It is my view that right now is the most exciting period in Fonar’s 28-year history. Fonar Corporation has the ‘electric lights’ while all other MRI vendors remain with the ‘gas lights’. Fonar’s priority in this Upright MRI field is well deserved, after all it has labored to originate MRI and make the medical power of MRI technology available to the world.”