A Medical Device Daily

Cord Blood America (CBAI; Los Ageless), an umbilical cord blood stem cell preservation company, reported securing $200,000 in capital that it said it will use to complete a potential acquisition, not yet named, for which a letter of intent has been issued.

It said that the funds are being provided by "a leading institutional investment firm from New York City."

Matthew Schissler, CEO of Cord Blood America, said that the funding is a debt placement, "which we chose for similar reasons to our previous debt placements. Most importantly, it minimizes dilution, protecting our current shareholders."

He said the debt will be serviced primarily with cash flow from the acquisition.

Schissler said completion of the debt placement prior to completing the acquisition is "extremely important to principals of selling companies." He said that CBAI can continue to attract new acquisitions because of its ability to secure capital prior to closing.

CBAI is the parent company of CorCell (Philadelphia), which facilitates umbilical cord blood stem cell preservation for expectant parents and their children. Collected through a non-invasive process, cord blood stem cells offer a resource for treating a growing number of ailments.

In other financing activity:

• BioWizard (Philadelphia), an online information portal specifically designed for the biomedical research community, announced today that it has closed a first-round of financing of $675,000. BioWizard will use the funding to further enhance its web-based portal and to initiate marketing.

BioWizard secured the funds through Series A Preferred Stock from MentorTech Ventures, an early-stage venture capital fund that invests in information technology, marketing technology and medical device companies with a focus on companies originating at the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia).

"MentorTech Ventures brings much more than the financial capital. The team's substantial intellectual and social capital is a valuable asset that we plan to leverage as we continue to build the company," said Jeffrey Boily, chairman of BioWizard.

"There is a significant demand in the biomedical research community for an interactive web community like BioWizard," said Michael Aronson, managing director of MentorTech Ventures and a member of the BioWizard board. "Founded by a team of current University of Pennsylvania graduate students, BioWizard is a perfect fit for our portfolio."

BioWizard is a free, web-based community for life scientists and physicians. BioWizard says it is "leveraging . . . more than one million unique visitors a day to build the BioWizard user community." Access to the portal is free for life scientists and is funded by the site's advertisers.

• Health Care REIT (Toledo, Ohio) said that it intends to offer 5 million shares of its common stock and will grant to underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 750,000 shares to cover any over-allotments.

The shares of common stock will be registered under Health Care REIT's existing shelf registration statement on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Health Care REIT said it will use the proceeds to invest in additional senior housing and healthcare properties. Pending that use, proceeds will primarily be used to repay borrowings under the company's unsecured line of credit arrangements.

Health Care REIT is a self-administered, equity real estate investment trust that invests across the full spectrum of senior housing and healthcare real estate.