A Medical Device Daily

K2M (Leesburg, Virginia), a developer of spine technologies, reported that it has closed on a $21.5 million investment round led by Ferrer Freeman & Co. and joined by BETA.

K2M said that proceeds from the financing will support sales and marketing efforts, as well as further development of new products which includes a spinal stabilization system, to be unveiled in the third quarter. The funding also will support commercialization of a portfolio of unique spine products, including what it called “a ground-breaking approach to minimally invasive surgery” and a new stabilization technology.

Founded in 2004, K2M reports a portfolio of more than 70 issued and pending patents. The company is headed by Eric Major, president and CEO. Its co-founder, chairman and chief medical officer is John Kostuik, MD, who formerly was chief of spine surgery at Johns Hopkins Medical Center (Baltimore).

Keith Longson, partner of Ferrer Freeman & Co., who will be joining K2M's board, said, “We believe we have invested in a solid growth company which already has a substantial product and patent portfolio, two years of audited financials from an international audit firm, an established bank relationship with Silicon Valley Bank, a fully implemented JD Edwards/Oracle ERP System, and a rapidly expanding customer base.”

AHPC (Glendale Heights, Illinois), a distributor and supplier of disposable gloves and other products to the healthcare, foodservice and industrial markets, reported the close of a $3 million equity financing with M.A.G. Capital and affiliates.

The company issued 30,000 shares of Series B convertible preferred stock at $100 a share, convertible into shares of stock at $1.60 a share. The Series B stock will pay a dividend based on the higher of the prime rate, plus 1%, or 9% per year, with a maximum of 12% per year.

In addition, the company issued warrants to MAG to acquire 1.95 million shares of common stock.

Flagstone Securities (St. Louis) was placement agent.

In April the company received a determination from Nasdaq that its securities were subject to delisting for failure to satisfy the $2.5 million stockholders' equity requirement, and the company has requested a hearing pending the completion of the a plan to regain compliance.

On June 15, the company attended the Nasdaq hearing and presented its compliance plan, based “in significant part,” it said, on the MAG private placement.

With the closing of the placement, the company said it believes it has regained compliance and is now awaiting a decision from Nasdaq.

AHPC's American Health Products (Glendale Heights, Illinois) subsidiary is a supplier of branded and private label disposable gloves.

In other financing activity:

• Lifeblood Medical (Freehold, New Jersey), a cell culture/biotech company, reported that it has raised $1.2 million in a Series B financing with private investors.

In March, the company raised $1 million in Series A financing through a private investor. Now, the company said that the total funding of $2.2 million will allow it to proceed with its plan of hiring and FDA approval of LIFOR, its product used for organ preservation.

Joseph Fischer, president and CEO of Lifeblood Medical, said, “This volume of financing will allow us to move ahead with . . . hiring of key employees and starting our FDA approval process with LIFOR. I am excited that the company can finally move forward with its proprietary products, which will lengthen the preservation of harvested tissues. The ability to have a readily available kidney through an organ bank network that has been properly screened for cross matching and testing of viral and other infections will not only improve the quality of life for mankind by reducing the organ waiting list, but will significantly reduce our nation's healthcare costs.”

Lifeblood Medical distributes serum and reagents, its products including serum (including U.S. and Australia Fetal Bovine Serum), serum enhancers (DMEM and RPMI), antibiotics, specialty media and customized applications.

For the cell and tissue preservation market, it offers LiforCell and LiforLab. For whole organ preservation, transportation and transplantation it is developing LIFOR, currently in clinical trials for the support of heart and kidney harvesting, transport and reimplantation. It said that FDA submission is anticipated “later this year.”