A Medical Device Daily

TransMedics (Andover, Massachusetts), a company developing solutions for more effective organ transplants, reported closing a $25.5 million Series D equity financing led by funds affiliated with and advised by Tudor Investments.

TransMedics has developed the Organ Care System, which it described in a statement as the "first and only technology capable of maintaining a human organ in a warm, functioning, 'living' state outside of the body (hearts beat, kidneys make urine, livers produce bile), to optimize their health and allow ex vivo clinical evaluation for the first time ever." It said the system is designed to increase the availability of donor organs and reduce the cost of treatment for those with end-stage organ failure.

The system has obtained CE Marking and has received an investigational device exemption from the FDA to begin clinical studies in the U.S.

The company said that the funding will be used for commercial launch of the company's Organ Care System in Europe, for completing U.S. clinical trials, and for accelerating the development of the Organ Care System's platform for other organs, such as the lung, liver and kidney.

The investment round led by diversified investment management firm Tudor also included investments from TransMedics' current stockholders: 3i, Alta Partners, CB Health Ventures, Flagship Ventures, Posco BioVentures, Sagamore Bioventures, Sherbrooke Capital and VantagePoint Venture Partners.

Leerink Swann & Company acted as exclusive placement agent to TransMedics on this financing.

"We have made excellent progress with our European clinical and commercialization programs and succeeded in obtaining U.S. FDA approval for the initiation of our U.S. heart clinical program," said Dr. Waleed Hassanein, president/CEO of TransMedics. "With this recent round of capital, TransMedics is on track to expand our European commercialization activities as well as our clinical initiatives to prove our value proposition, not only throughout Europe, but worldwide."

Michael Stansky, managing director at Tudor Investments, said, "We're pleased to be part of this success and hope to help continue the momentum of one of the most significant advancements in organ transplantation in decades."

In other financing activity:

• Guardian Technologies International (Herndon, Virginia), a provider of security and healthcare solutions based on what it calls "Intelligent Imaging Informatics" (3i), reported completing the second and final closing of a private placement of its securities. Investors purchased $5,150,000 of securities, $2,575,000 purchased at first closing, $2,575,000 on second closing.

Midtown Partners & Co. acted as the placement agent.

At the second closing, Guardian issued $2,575,000 in principal amount of Series A 10% senior convertible debentures, on the same terms as the debentures issued at the first closing. At first closing, Guardian issued warrants to purchase 4,453,707 shares of its common stock at $1.15634 a share, subject to anti-dilution and price reset provisions, one-half of which became exercisable Nov. 8, 2006, the remaining one-half exercisable April 12, 2007, the date of the second closing.

Bill Donovan, president/COO of Guardian, said, "Proceeds from this financing will be used to continue business development activities for our threat detection technology, PinPoint; and for continued investment in the development of sophisticated image clarification, tissue characterization and computer-aided detection technologies for medical applications, to repay a portion of the bridge loan made to us by our CEO, and for working capital purposes. Although there can be no assurance, following the second closing of the financing, we expect to be in a financial position that will allow us to fund certain strategic growth initiatives that would position Guardian to be cash self-sufficient."

Guardian is a pioneer in the development of new imaging techniques and applications for the detection of threats and earlier detection of diseases.

• Health Care REIT (Toledo, Ohio) reported the pricing of its underwritten public offering of 5.5 million shares of common stock at $44.01 a share.

The offering was increased in size from 5 million shares in response to investor demand. The company has granted the underwriters an option to purchase an additional 825,000 shares during the next 30 days to cover any over-allotments. The company estimates that the net offering proceeds will be about $230.8 million (and about $265.4 million if the underwriters' over-allotment option is exercised in full).

The joint bookrunning managers for the offering are UBS Investment Bank and Deutsche Bank Securities.

The company said it intends to use the net proceeds from this offering to invest in additional healthcare and senior housing properties.

Health Care REIT invests across the full spectrum of senior housing and health care real estate, including independent living/continuing care retirement communities, assisted living facilities, skilled nursing facilities, hospitals, long-term acute care hospitals and medical office buildings.