A Medical Device Daily

Ekos (Bothell, Washington) reported securing $26 million in Series C financing, enabling the formation of a commercial sales and marketing team to support the company's flagship catheters.

The company is developing ultrasound-assisted, fluid infusion catheters for diagnosis and therapy. Its Lysus peripheral infusion system and micro-infusion catheter are cleared for the delivery of therapeutic agents, including clot-dissolving thrombolytics, into the peripheral vasculature of patients with peripheral arterial occlusions and deep vein thrombosis. The latter product also is cleared for the administration of contrast media into the brain.

The company's new sales and marketing team is headed by two additions to the company: Michael Dellario, vice president of marketing and Jennifer Vaughan, vice president of sales. Dellario most recently spent 13 years with AngioDynamics (Queensbury, New York), where he worked with the company's thrombolytic devices. Vaughan, who has more than 15 years of experience in the medical device industry, comes to Ekos from Guidant (Indianapolis), where she served as the director of sales for cardiac surgery.

The company also reported the appointment of Doug Hansmann as chief operating officer. Hansmann, a co-founder of Ekos, most recently served as general manager and vice president of research for the company.

The investment was led by Ascension Health Ventures, with additional support from new investors Oakwood Medical Investors and Trellis Health Ventures, as well as previous investors CID Equity Capital, EGS Private Healthcare Investors, MedVenture Associates, Mitsui & Co. Venture Partners, Morgan Stanley Venture Partners and NGN Capital.

Salick Cardiovascular Centers (Beverley Hills, California) reported receiving an equity financing commitment of $75 million from Warburg Pincus.

Salick said it would provide diagnostic and treatment services for cardiovascular disease, principally in outpatient facilities.

Salick Cardiovascular Centers was founded by Bernard Salick, MD. The company said it is in discussions with cardiovascular groups and academic medical centers to develop and operate facilities in major metropolitan areas.

In other financing news:

• NuGEN Technologies (San Carlos, California), a company that develops RNA amplification and labeling systems, reported securing $7.75 million in financing.

The company said it would use the funds to accelerate its technology development and expand global distribution for its amplification and detection systems for gene expression research.

The round was led by Alloy Ventures. Existing investors Sutter Hill Ventures, Radius Ventures and The Band of Angels also participated in the financing.

In other financing activity:

• GE Healthcare Financial Services (Chicago) reported that it has arranged a $161 million senior secured credit facility for Primedex Health Systems (Los Angeles) and its primary subsidiary, Radnet Management , a provider of outpatient diagnostic imaging services in California. The $161 million facility consists of a $15 million, five-year revolving credit facility; an $86 million, five-year term loan B; and a $60 million, six-year second lien term loan.

Primedex said it would use the proceeds for refinancing a portion of existing debt, to provide liquidity for working capital and other general corporate needs.

“The facility provided by GE is a transforming financial transaction for our company,“ said Mark Stolper, Primedex CFO.

Primedex, through Radnet Management and affiliated entity Beverly Radiology Medical Group , is a provider of diagnostic imaging services in California through a network of 57 fixed-site centers. The company operates 34 multi-modality facilities and 23 single-modality facilities in 11 regions in California.

GE Capital Markets is sole lead arranger and sole bookrunner on the deal, while GE Healthcare Financial Services is the administrative agent.

GE Healthcare Financial Services is a provider of capital, financial solutions, and related services for the global health- care market, with more than $13 billion of capital committed to the healthcare industry.

• BioForce Nanosciences (Ames, Iowa) reported closing a $6 million private placement of restricted common shares at $1.50 a share.

BioForce's core technology is the NanoArrayer System, a tabletop device with the ability to print and pattern thousands of molecular domains on a chip in an extremely miniaturized format. The company also is commercializing the ViriChip System, used for detection and identification of multiple viruses and other pathogens simultaneously on a single chip.

Dr. Eric Henderson, BioForce founder and CEO, said, “With this financing, and the recent addition of key senior management, BioForce is well positioned to take full advantage of the commercial opportunities that our NanoArrayer System provides.“