A Medical Device Daily

UltraShape (Tel Aviv, Israel), a company specializing in noninvasive aesthetic medicine, reported the completion of a $15 million round of funding.

The company said it will use the financing to expand commercialization of its Contour I system, a noninvasive medical device designed for body contouring.

Founded in 2000, UltraShape has developed proprietary, noninvasive technology for body contouring using focused ultrasound waves. The company's first product, the Contour I system, was CE-marked in 2005 and is available for patients in Europe, Asia and Africa. Recently, UltraShape launched its operations in the UK, France, Italy and North America.

Brian Chee, general partner from Polaris Venture Partners, will join the company's board of directors. “UltraShape has developed a novel technology and we are excited to help bring it to market,“ said Chee.

Yoram Eshel, co-founder and CEO of UltraShape, said the financing will be used for product portfolio expansion, to “penetrate new markets“ and to “expand the infrastructure in our subsidiaries in the United Kingdom, France, Italy and North America.“

With offices in Waltham and Seattle, Polaris reports more than $3 billion under management.

Amnis (Seattle), a manufacturer of advanced instrumentation for the life science research and diagnostics markets, reported closing a Series C round of financing. Originally targeted at $6 million, the round was “significantly oversubscribed“ and closed with a total of $11.25 million, the company said.

The company said that the proceeds will be used to expand commercial operations and to accelerate product development programs.

Joining the initial participants in the round were CVF, the venture capital arm of the Crown family of Chicago, and MedVenture Associates (Emeryville, California).

Richard Robb from CVF and Annette Campbell-White from MedVenture Associates have joined the Amnis board of directors.

Amnis manufactures instrumentation for high speed imaging of cells in flow. Its flagship product, the ImageStream cell analysis system, generates six high-resolution microscopic images of cells as they flow through the instrument at rates up to 300 cells per second. The system is able to image tens of thousands of cells in minutes without the need to make slides. The IDEAS image analysis package, a part of the ImageStream system, is a tool for processing hundreds of thousands of images at a time. IDEAS enables advanced research applications in hematology, immunology, oncology and the company says it provides a foundation for the company's clinical applications development.

David Basiji, PhD, Amnis' president and CEO, said, “Both CVF and MedVentures are experienced investors who bring extensive operational and clinical expertise to the Amnis business leadership. These strengths will be extremely valuable as we expand our commercial operations, bring second-generation ImageStream technology to market, and develop highly advanced clinical applications in hematology and cancer diagnostics.“

In other financing activity:

• Echo Healthcare Acquisition (Vienna, Virginia) reported consummation of its initial public offering (IPO) of 6.25 million units on March 22, each unit consisting of one share of common stock and one warrant. The units were sold for $8 each, generating proceeds of $50 million.

Morgan Joseph & Co. was the book running manager, Roth Capital Partners was co-lead manager and Legend Merchant Group was co-manager.

Echo Healthcare describes itself as a blank check company recently formed for the purpose of acquiring, through a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition or other similar business combination, one or more domestic or international operating businesses in the healthcare industry.

• Implant Sciences (Wakefield, Massachusetts), a manufacturer of products for national security, medicine and industry, reported that about 1 million warrants, issued in connection with the company's June 1999 IPO, are set to expire on March 31. The company's board said that the expiration of the IPO warrants should enable it “to better execute on certain strategic initiatives to expand its security business.“

Anthony Armini, PhD, CEO of Implant Sciences, said, “Our introduction of the commercially available Quantum Sniffer hand-held explosives detection product has been met with success in the marketplace. We are also executing on recent contracts, amounting to approximately $2.5 million in the aggregate, received from the Navy, for delivery of a backpack explosives detection device, and the TSA, for development of the next-generation passenger portal. The continued advances we have made in our patented vortex technology, which is an integral component of our proprietary Quantum Sniffer technology, has also resulted in our initial development of potential new products for the detection of improvised explosives devices and car bombs.“

Implant Sciences develops portable and bench-top detection devices to identify explosives which are distributed under the Quantum Sniffer brand. It also provides ion implantation and wafer analytical services for the semiconductor industry.