A Medical Device Daily

Aastrom Biosciences (Ann Arbor, Michigan) reported the execution of agreements to sell about 15.9 million shares of common stock in a placement to institutional investors at $1.60 a share, for gross proceeds of about $25.5 million.

The company said the transaction is expected to be consummated “within the next few days.“ Merriman Curhan Ford & Co. served as sole placement agent; Dawson James Securities served as sub-placement agent.

Aastrom develops products for the repair or regeneration of human tissues, based on its Tissue Repair Cell (TRC) adult stem cell technology. The TRC products contain large numbers of stromal, stem and progenitor cells that are produced from a small amount of bone marrow cells originating from the patient. The AastromReplicell System, an automated cell product manufacturing platform, was developed for the production of standardized, patient-specific TRC products.

• DexCom (San Diego) reported filing a registration statement with the SEC for the proposed public offering of 4.2 million shares of common stock, of which 1.2 million shares will be sold by DexCom, 3 million by selling stockholders.

The offering follows the company's recent success in winning FDA approval for its STS Continuous Glucose Monitoring System, a device that is placed under the skin to give continuous monitoring of glucose levels over a 72-hour period (Medical Device Daily, April 4, 2006).

Piper Jaffray & Co. is the sole book-running manager for the offering. First Albany Capital Inc. is the co-lead manager. Lazard Capital Markets and Montgomery & Co. are co-managers. It is expected that the underwriters will have an option to purchase up to an additional 630,000 shares of common stock from DexCom to cover any over-allotments.

In other financing news:

• Sciona (Boulder, Colorado), a developer of what it terms “personalized genetics,“ reported closing a $6.5 million private round raised from its current venture investors.

The company said the funds will be used to continue development of its nutra-genetics business.

Sciona has developed and is marketing Cellf, a DNA screen for gene variants that, when correlated to an individual's diet, provides specific personalized recommendations for food or nutrient intake. It says this genetic personalization technology “provides individual access to non-medical genetic data in absolute privacy.“

Chris Martin, Sciona founder and chairman, said, “Sciona believes that breakthroughs in the collection and analysis of genetic data will allow us to meet the growing demand of a more health conscious population desiring customized, direct access to personalized health information. The proprietary Cellf kit is the leading product supplying non-medical genetic data directly to consumers.“

The Cellf testing procedure uses cheek-swab technology allowing individuals to collect their own DNA samples. Because it provides its services directly to individuals, Sciona says it is able to assure absolute privacy for the genetic data and its interpretation, giving consumers total control of the decision of with whom to share their data.

Financing participants included DSM Venturing, Prelude Trust, Burrill and Co., BioVentures, BASF Venture Capital, and Semola Limited.

• Allergan (Irvine, California) reported proposed concurrent private placements of $700 million aggregate principal amount of convertible senior notes, due 2026 (or $750 million aggregate principal amount if the initial purchasers exercise their expected over-allotment option in full), and $800 million aggregate principal amount of senior notes, due 2016.

Allergan expects to use the net proceeds from the offerings of the convertible senior notes and the senior notes, along with cash from its balance sheet, to repay the approximately $825 million outstanding under the bridge credit facility it entered into in connection with its acquisition of Inamed (Santa Barbara, Claifornia) on March 23 (MDD, March 24, 2006); to pay transaction expenses from the Inamed acquisition; to redeem its currently outstanding Zero Coupon senior convertible notes, due 2022; and to repurchase about $257 million worth of shares of its common stock (or $306 million if the initial purchasers exercise their over-allotment option in full).

Allergan estimates net proceeds from the offerings to be about $1.48 billion. It said it expects to grant initial purchasers an option to purchase additional notes covering over-allotments.

• Imaging Diagnostic System (IDS; Fort Lauderdale, Florida) issued a statement clarifying statements, attributed to its CEO Tim Hansen, in a press release by Southridge Capital Management

Hansen's comments, it said, may have implied that Southridge provided the company $15 million in financing. In fact, IDS said, the $15 million facility was provided by a fund advised by Southridge, Charlton Avenue. Prior financing referenced was also provided by Charlton and other funds advised by Southridge, according to IDS.