Medical Device Daily Contributing Writer
and Staff Reports
Imperial College (London) will become the first university in Europe to spin off its technology transfer office through a public flotation. Imperial Innovations Group has raised £25 million ($46.3 million) through a placement, subject to completing an initial public offering (IPO) on the Alternative Investment Market, which will raise another £1.5 million.
The placement consists of 6.8 million shares at £3.65 each, while another 410,958 shares are available in the IPO. This will give Imperial Innovations a market capitalization of £181.3 million on admission to AIM on July 31.
Imperial College will retain a 59.1% stake and is subject to a lock-up for the first year after flotation, and to the condition that it does not reduce its shareholding below 50.1% in the two years following.
The technology transfer company has an agreement with Imperial College, sealed in April 2005, giving it exclusive rights to Imperial's research until 2020. At the end of May there were 90 licensing agreements and 58 spinout companies in Imperial Innovations' portfolio, with an unaudited value of £31.5 million. Around 40% of the value is attributable to holdings in one company, Ceres Power Holdings.
Susan Searle, CEO of Imperial Innovations, said the funds would provide increased ability to maximize the value of the technology it spins out. “We can make larger investments and more investments,” she told Medical Device Daily's sister publication, BioWorld International. “We would like to take a larger share in investment rounds but we are still seeking to co-invest.”
While the UK government is encouraging universities to commercialize publicly-funded research, they do not have the skills or the money to fully exploit their intellectual property. Some have signed exclusive deals with quoted technology management companies such as IP Group and Amphion Innovations, while Sheffield University has gone part-way down the route pioneered by Imperial Innovations, spinning out its life sciences research through BioFusion (Sheffield, UK), an AIM-quoted company design-ed for this purpose.
No such quoted technology commercialization firms exist elsewhere in Europe. Earlier this month, the European Investment Fund announced the formation of a £30 million venture capital fund with IP Group to invest in university spinouts and said it intended to negotiate more funds based on this model.
New lead introduced by Medtronic
Medtronic (Minneapolis) reported the European introduction of the Medtronic Attain StarFix OTW (over-the-wire) lead (Model 4195), which it said is the first cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) left-heart lead to offer customizable fixation technology.
The company said that with the Attain StarFix lead, physicians have a new solution for achieving successful placement and stability of the left-heart lead in heart failure patients receiving an implanted CRT device. It noted that the design of left-heart leads is important, since some patients' vein structures can make it difficult to secure the lead, which delivers electrical pulses from the CRT device to the left ventricle to improve heart failure symptoms and slow the progression of heart failure.
The Attain StarFix's design includes three soft lobes near the lead tip that, when expanded, enable stable placement of the lead tip within a target vein in the left ventricle. As necessary, the lobes can be relaxed to allow for substantial repositioning of the lead.
Medtronic said this exclusive lead technology “is expected to advance the treatment of heart failure by making CRT available to patients whose heart vein sizes, configurations and locations formerly presented difficult challenges in lead placement.”
The company said the Attain StarFix is the industry's first left-heart lead that can be customized to fit a variety of vein sizes, adding that the flexibility in lead placement “may decrease the potential for extracardiac or phrenic nerve stimulation.”
Herbert Naegele, MD, of St. Adolf-Stift Medical Center (Reinbek, Germany), said, “With the Attain StarFix's new lobe technology, physicians now have a lead option that can be safely secured in even the most challenging cardiac veins.” Naegele, who implanted a Medtronic InSync Maximo CRT system in a heart failure patient using the first commercially available Attain StarFix lead, said, “With enhanced lead stability, we can help more heart failure patients achieve the tremendous benefits of CRT.”
The Attain StarFix unipolar lead has a 5 Fr diameter – smaller than the lead in a pencil – and is available in 79 cm, 88 cm and 103 cm lengths. After guidewire or stylet placement and delivery of the lead using a catheter, the lead's lobes can be deployed up to 24 Fr diameter, firmly fixing the electrode in place and reducing the potential for dislodgment during catheter withdrawal.
The Attain StarFix lead, which is not yet available in the U.S., is designed to complement the Attain Model 4193 and Model 4194 over-the-wire leads, along with steerable catheters and guide wires.
Sirona Dental receives investment from Ivoclar
Ivoclar Vivadent (Schaan, Germany) said it has made an unspecified investment in Sirona Dental Systems (formerly Siemens Dental; Bensheim, Germany), a leading maker of high-tech dental equipment.
Sirona's CEREC System is the world's only CAD/CAM system for chairside dentistry, and its inLab technology is a market leader with dental laboratories. Ivoclar Vivadent is a market leader in all-ceramic, metal-free materials for esthetic dentistry and is a material partner for Sirona's CEREC System and inLab Technology.
“This investment represents our commitment to the growth of CAD/CAM systems and our belief that this technology provides benefits to the dental industry, the dental profession and to the patient,” said Robert Ganley, CEO of Ivoclar Vivadent. “Sirona has been a very valuable partner with Ivoclar Vivadent and we look forward to building the growth of CAD/CAM together in the future.”
Jost Fischer, chairman, president and CEO of Sirona, said, “We have had a long-lasting relationship with Ivoclar Vivadent and are very excited about this investment and our mutual success in the future.”
Ivoclar Vivadent offers a full range of products for preventive, restorative and prosthetic dentistry in more than 120 countries.
On June 20, Sirona completed its merger with Schick Technologies, which develops digital radiographic imaging systems and devices for the dental and medical markets.