A Medical Device Daily Staff Report

Artes Medical (San Diego, California) said it has priced its initial public offering (IPO) of 4.6 million shares of common stock at a price of $6 per share, well below the $12-$14 range it had previously disclosed in itsSecurities and Exchange filings (Medical Device Daily, Dec. 13, 2006). All of the shares are being offered by Artes.

If all 690,000 over-allotment shares are exercised, the company could raise up to $33.54 million, before expenses. This is significantly lower than the $60.2 million the company initially said it had hoped to raise via the $13-a-share mid-point price disclosed in the SEC filing for the offering.

Artes Medical’s shares of common stock will be listed on the Nasadaq Global Market under the symbol ARTE.

Artes said it intends to use the proceeds from this offering to build its sales and marketing organization and implement promotional and advertising campaigns related to the commercial launch of ArteFill — approved by the FDA in October 2006; to conduct its long-term, post-market safety study of ArteFill; to further automate and expand capacity at its manufacturing facilities; and to conduct further studies to evaluate the feasibility, safety and efficacy of ArteFill for other aesthetic applications. The company said it intends to use the remainder of the net proceeds from this offering for working capital and for other general corporate purposes.

Cowen and Co. and Lazard Capital Markets are acting as joint book-running managers for the offering, and Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. is acting as a co-manager for the offering.

Artes is focused on developing a new category of aesthetic injectable products for the dermatology and plastic surgery markets. The company’s initial product, ArteFill, is a non-resorbable aesthetic injectable implant for the correction of facial wrinkles known as nasolabial folds, or smile lines, which is being marketed as a treatment for men and women.

Bio-nanotech company pSivida (Boston/Perth, Australia) reported the placement of 14.23 million fully paid ordinary shares to Australian and European investors issued at A$0.26 each to raise $2.9 million before costs.

Each share was purchased with two free attaching options at a price of A 26 cents and a term of four years.

This raising is an interim financing measure prior to the expected closing of the definitive documents with Nordic Biotech Advisors for a $4 million corporate investment in pSivida and a $22 million investment over time in a special purpose vehicle (SPV). The SPV, the company said, is expected to fully fund pSivida’s portion of costs to develop its lead ophthalmic development product, Medidur for the delivery of a steroid (fluocinolone acetonide) for the treatment of the chronic eye disease diabetic macular edema (DME).

In other financing news:

• CryoLife (Kennesaw, Georgia), a biomaterials and biosurgical device company provided additional information regarding the exchange and service agreement with Regeneration Technologies (RTI; Alachua, Florida) reported yesterday (MDD, Dec. 20, 2006).

As a result of this transaction, the company said it expects an initial economic benefit of up to $2 million on an annual basis, a portion of which will be reinvested into the execution of its recently disclosed strategy.

In the accord, CryoLife agreed to stop accepting donated human orthopedic tissues for processing on Jan. 1 and will work to transition existing arrangements for recovery of human orthopedic tissue to RTI. At the same time, RTI said it will no longer accept donated human cardiovascular tissues for processing and will transition its arrangements for recovery of human cardiovascular tissue to CryoLife.

The companies said that the agreement also includes the transfer of “certain physical assets;” those assets not disclosed.

“This agreement is another step in the implementation of our recently completed strategic review and further strengthens our financial position as we head into 2007,” said Steven Anderson, president/CEO of CryoLife.

CryoLife processes and distributes implantable living human tissues for use in cardiovascular and vascular surgeries throughout the U.S. and Canada.

• Beckman Coulter (Fullerton, California) reported the result of the previously reported tender offer for its outstanding $240 million 7.45% senior notes due 2008, which expired on Dec. 19. A total of $235,101,000 amount of notes was tendered in the offer and accepted for payment by the company in the tender offer

The company said it will pay $1,024.74, plus $21.94 of accrued and unpaid interest per $1,000 principal amount of notes validly tendered in accordance with the offer. It will redeem the remaining $4,899,000 of outstanding notes pursuant to the indenture for the notes.

Beckman Coulter manufactures biomedical testing instrument systems, tests and supplies.