A Medical Device Daily Staff Report

Oculus Innovative Sciences (Petaluma, California) said it plans to launch its initial public offering next week, and said it will use the proceeds to beef up its sales force and fund clinical research.

The maker of wound infection prevention products will offer about 3.1 million shares at $12 to $14 each. The company expects to net about $34 million and use about $12.6 million to expand its direct sales force in Europe and the U.S.

About $13 million will go toward funding clinical trials and research, while $4 million will pay off a loan and the rest will go for general corporate purposes.

Oculus works with a platform technology, Microcyn, a “super-oxidized” water-based solution designed to eliminate a range of pathogens attempting to infect patients with open wounds. Besides use in wound care, the solution also has potential applications in hard surface disinfectants and respiratory, dermatology, mold and atmospheric remediations.

After the offering, Oculus estimates it will have a market cap of about $170 million. The company was founded in 1999 and employs about 80 people. Chairman, president/CEO Hojabr Alimi, president/CEO and chairman, owns 34% of the company.

Roth Capital is acting as lead manager, with Maxim Group and Brookstreet Securities as co-managers.

Third Wave Technologies (Madison, Wisconsin) reported signing an agreement for the private placement of convertible senior subordinated zero-coupon notes with an institutional investor. The notes were sold at an original issue discount and will provide Third Wave with gross proceeds of about $14.9 million.

The notes carry a yield to maturity of 6.0% and will come due in December 2011. They are convertible into about 2.48 million shares of Third Wave common stock at an initial conversion price of $6 a share, a premium of roughly 20% from the stock’s recent trading price.

The company said it intends to use the proceeds of the financing for general corporate purposes.

Third Wave develops molecular diagnostic reagents for a variety of DNA and RNA analysis applications It offers in vitro diagnostic kits, and analyte specific, general purpose, and research use only reagents for nucleic acid analysis.

In other financing news:

• Aldagen (Durham, North Carolina) reported that it has received $17.3 million in debt and equity financing.

The Series C equity financing was co-led by Harbert Venture Partners, and Intersouth Partners. Also participating in the round were existing investors Aurora Funds, Trelys Funds., Tall Oaks Capital, Village Ventures and the Piedmont Angel Network. The $3 million in debt financing was secured with Square 1 Bank.

The company said it will use the funds to advance its pipeline of clinical studies in regenerative medicine.

Aldagen is a clinical-stage regenerative medicine company developing products to treat vascular and degenerative diseases. The company’s products are designed to identify and isolate adult stem and progenitor cells which can be administered to regenerate or repair tissue.

“Success in venture lending is highly dependent on developing client relationships with emerging leaders in large market spaces,” said Richard Casey, founder and CEO of Square 1 Bank. “Aldagen fits our criteria to a tee. The company is backed by a syndicate of top-tier venture capital firms, directed by a seasoned executive management team, and is successfully executing on its strategy to rapidly develop therapeutic applications in the regenerative medicine market.”

• Immunicon (Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania) reported that its senior VP and CFO, James Murphy, has adopted a trading plan to purchase a defined number of Immunicon common shares over time as part of his long-term investment strategy. Murphy’s plan covers the purchase of up to 10,000 shares.

Immunicon has developed platform technologies to identify, count and characterize a small number of rare cells in blood, such as circulating tumor cells and circulating endothelial cells that are important in many diseases and biological processes. It says that its products and underlying technology platforms have applications in cancer research and may have applications in other fields of medicine, such as cardiovascular and infectious diseases.

• PSS World Medical (Jacksonville, Florida) reported that its board has authorized purchase of up to 5% of its total outstanding common shares or approximately 3.4 million common shares, in the open market, privately negotiated transactions, and other transactions.

As of Sept. 29 the company had about 67.7 million total issued and outstanding common shares.

PSS is a marketer and distributor of medical products to physicians and elder care providers through two business units.