A Diagnostics & Imaging Week

Home Diagnostics (Fort Lauderdale, Florida) has filed for an initial public offering seeking to raise about $100 million. It initially has priced the offering of 6.6 million shares at from $14 to $16.

Home Diagnostics makes blood glucose monitoring systems and disposable supplies for diabetics. The company sells its products through retail pharmacies, mass merchandisers, distributors, and mail service providers in Australia, China, the UK and the US. It markets its products through these distribution channels in two ways, under its own brand names – including SideKick, TrueTrack Smart System, TrackEase Smart System and Prestige IQ – and through co-branded partnerships in which the company's customers market its products under their brand names alongside Home Diagnostics' brands.

It banners its SideKick system as the world's smallest blood glucose testing system. SideKick is a vial of 50 test strips with a built-in meter. When the 50 test strips are used, the product is then thrown away. The ease of the system, the company says, encourages more frequent testing.

The company says it also works closely with hospitals and long-term care facilities to help them more affordably monitor and manage their patients with diabetes. Its partnerships include dialysis and respiratory care centers that have a high incidence of diabetes among patients receiving treatment.

The IPO is being managed by J.P. Morgan Securities. Its proposed Nasdaq symbol is HDIX.

In other financing news:

• PolyMedica (Wakefield, Massachusetts) reported that it plans to offer, subject to market and other conditions, $150 million principal amount of convertible subordinated notes, due 2011, in a private offering.

The notes may be convertible into cash up to the principal amount. Any conversion value above the principal amount will be convertible into shares of common stock.

The company also said it expects to grant initial purchasers a 30-day option to buy up to $30 million in additional notes to cover overallotments.

PolyMedica said it expects to use the proceeds to repay about $94 million in outstanding bank debt and to repurchase about $29 million of its common stock in negotiated transactions from purchasers concurrently with the offering. These repurchase amounts represent the roughly 705,000 shares remaining in the company's existing stock repurchase program.

In addition, PolyMedica said it will use a portion of net proceeds to pay the net cost of certain convertible note hedge and warrant transactions consisting of a call in favor of PolyMedica and a warrant issued to the initial purchasers or their affiliates. These transactions are intended to reduce the potential dilution to the companys's common stock upon any conversion of the notes.

PolyMedica is a provider of blood glucose testing supplies and related services to people with diabetes in the U.S., saying that it serves more than 888,000 patients.

• Singulex (Hayward, California) reported raising $10.5 million in Series C and debt financing.

Singulex' existing investors, Fisk Venture and Prolog Ventures, were part of the latest financing round totaling $8 million, led by a new undisclosed investor.

The company also closed a $1 million round from GE Capital and a $1.5 million debt financing from Bridge Bank, bringing the total amount to $10.5 million.

The company is the developer of the Zeptx system, used to enable life science researchers to obtain quantitative information on normal and abnormal protein levels in any type of biological sample."

Singulex' flagship digital single molecule detection system, the Zeptx system, incorporates a variety of well-established detection and immunoassay tagging technologies to create a quantitative system that can measure protein biomarkers in biological samples, including serum or plasma, at concentration levels that have been historically difficult to detect with a high degree of sensitivity, accuracy and precision in under an hour.

Philippe Goix, president/CEO of Singulex, said, "The financial backing from both new and existing investors will enable us to meet our target commercialization launch of the Zeptx system in the first half of 2007."

The company has also opened a 6,000 square foot commercial operation facility in Hayward. R&D efforts will remain at the company's facility at the St. Louis Center for Emerging Technologies.

Singulex said it is conducting several pilot studies with academic and molecular diagnostic partners to validate the Zeptx system, which it projects to be commercially available in the first half of 2007.

• Avitar (Canton, Massachusetts) reported completing the sale of $520,000 of Secured Convertible Notes and 1.5 million seven-year warrant to accredited investors.

It said the proceeds will be used for the marketing and sale of its ORALscreen assay, an oral fluid test for drugs-of-abuse, and for general corporate development.

The notes will mature three years from the date of issuance and bear interest at 8%. They are convertible into shares of Avitar common stock, at the option of the investors, at 65% of the average of the three lowest intra-day trading prices of the common stock, as quoted on the OTC Bulletin Board for the 20 trading days proceeding the date that the investors elect to convert. The company has the right to prepay the notes at premiums ranging from 20%-35%.

Avitar manufactures products in the field of oral fluid diagnostics, the disease and clinical testing market, and customized polyurethane applications used in the wound dressing industry.

• Somanetics (Troy, Michigan) has entered into a contract development and exclusive licensing agreement with NeuroPhysics (Shirley, Massachusetts) to provide Somanetics with feasibility research, contract development and consulting services and certain ownership and licensing rights to intellectual property and technical knowledge associated with several near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) and imaging technologies under development at NeuroPhysics.

Somanetics will pay an initial license fee of $1 million, monthly license fees beginning April 1, 2008, for products continuing under development at NeuroPhysics, and a royalty on any future sales.

Bruce Barrett, Somanetics' president/CEO, termed the collaboration "a significant opportunity for us to pursue an array of new product opportunities. We believe these potential new products hold the promise of increasing the long-term potential of our business."