A Diagnostics & Imaging Week
Mindray Medical International (Shenzhen, China), a developer of medical devices in China, reported the pricing of its secondary offering of 9,827,220 American Depositary Shares (ADSs) at $24.50 per ADS.
Each ADS represents one Class A ordinary share, par value HK$0.001 per share, of Mindray. All of the ADSs in this offering are being offered and sold by the selling shareholders of Mindray. Mindray will not receive any proceeds from the sale of the ADSs in this offering.
Goldman Sachs (Asia), J.P. Morgan Securities and UBS are the joint bookrunners for the offering. The underwriters have a 30-day option to purchase another 1,474,083 ADSs from the selling shareholders in this offering.
Established in 1991, Mindray offers products across three primary business segments: patient monitoring, diagnostic laboratory instruments, and ultrasound imaging.
European patent for prostate marker
Ciphergen Biosystems (Fremont, California) said the European Patient Office (EPO) has issued it Patent No. 1 224 466, titled “Prostate Cancer Marker Proteins,” for aiding in prostate cancer diagnosis. The patent describes a method that measures certain protein biomarkers present in the blood of patients with prostate cancer vs. patients who do not have prostate cancer.
“Our intellectual property portfolio is growing in size and strength,” said CEO Gail Page. “We continue to generate promising data for biomarkers that may be useful for prostate cancer diagnosis, disease monitoring, or prediction of recurrence.”
Ciphergen’s diagnostic program in prostate cancer includes the evaluation of a panel of biomarkers that may serve as potential tests for prostate cancer diagnosis, progression and recurrence.
In May 2006, Ciphergen and Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore) reported the discovery of two biomarkers that, when combined with prostate-specific antigen (PSA), were highly predictive of likelihood of recurrence of prostate cancer.
The data came from two studies, one examining more than 400 men with prostate cancer and the other examining 50 pairs of men followed for five years with prostate cancer matched for age, cancer stage and other clinical parameters.
Ciphergen said results suggest the potential for a test to aid in the diagnosis of prostate cancer; aid in the stratification of risk of highly aggressive prostate cancer, independent of other clinical variables; reduce over-treatment of prostate cancer in cases not likely to be lethal; and shift treatment to those cases that are particularly likely to be lethal.
Inventors on this patent include Dr. Tai-Tung Yip, senior research fellow at Ciphergen and inventor of the SELDI technology, and Christine Yip, senior scientist at Ciphergen. Patent applications in the U.S. and Japan are pending.
Medicsight corporate name now MGT
Medical imaging software company Medicsight (London) has changed its corporate name to MGT Capital Investments.
The company said the new name reflects its position as the parent company to Medicsight plc, a developer of computer-aided detection (CAD) technologies and software, and Medicexchange plc, an online multi-vendor sales channel for diagnostic, treatment and surgery planning solutions.
Tim Paterson-Brown, company CEO, said the re-branding “more accurately represents our position as an investment company creating shareholder value by supporting the growth of our healthcare information technology subsidiaries. This initiative should eliminate any confusion between the American Stock Exchange-listed parent company and our CAD-company subsidiary.”
MGT said it now has cash and cash equivalents of $40 million and is “well positioned to accelerate the commercialization of the business solutions developed by its subsidiaries,” as well as seeking additional opportunities complementary to its business strategy.