A Medical Device Daily

Micrus Endovascular (Sunnyvale, California) and Biotronik (Bulach, Switzerland) reported signing an exclusive agreement for the joint development and worldwide distribution of neurovascular devices to include such products as stents, catheters and balloon technologies. Micrus will be the exclusive worldwide distributor for neurovascular products developed based on the agreement.

Micrus will pay an up-front licensing fee, the amount not disclosed, and make milestone payments to Biotronik upon regulatory approvals to market products jointly developed from the agreement. Micrus will fund ongoing project development, make payments based on the achievement of certain milestones and pay royalties on products sold based on this agreement.

“We are exceptionally pleased to work with [Biotronik's] team to develop and introduce novel neurointerventional products to the market,“ said John Kilcoyne, Micrus president and CEO. “We envision our collaborative arrangement will allow for the effective development of multiple neurovascular stents and stent delivery systems for the treatment of hemorrhagic and ischemic stroke.“

Biotronik's technologies include stainless steel and cobalt chromium balloon expandable stent systems as well as self-expanding stents and absorbable metal stent technology.

Micrus makes implantable and disposable devices used by interventional neuroradiologists and neurosurgeons primarily to treat cerebral aneurysms responsible for hemorrhagic stroke.

EraGen Biosciences (Madison, Wisconsin), a biotech company focused on automating molecular diagnostics, reported completion of $12 million in Series A financing, bringing the total capital raised to date to about $21 million.

The round was led by First Analysis Corp. and Prolog Ventures. New investors also include Stonehenge Capital and a syndicate of Midwest investors. The existing investor, Novartis Venture Fund, also participated.

Dr. Tracy Marshbanks, vice president, First Analysis, and Greg Johnson, managing director, Prolog Ventures, have joined EraGen's board of directors.

In other financing news:

• CoolSystems (Berkeley, California), manufacturer of Game Ready and Game Ready Equine, reported closing new funding, bringing the total raised by the company in 2005 to $8.6 million.

Funding was provided by MedVenture Associates as a co-leader along with current investors the Roda Group and the Maxwell Trust.

Tom Oliver, CEO of CoolSystems, said the funding will be used to add staff and for “expanding our post operative business — with the goal of allowing more and more people to have access to Game Ready following orthopedic surgery.“ He added: “We've basically doubled our distribution base in the past couple years and currently supply more than 1,000 physical therapy clinics with Game Ready systems.“

Within the last year, CoolSystems launched two additions to its line-up of Game Ready cold therapy and intermittent compression products — the Hip/Groin Wrap and a Dual Connector Hose attachment.

• Nanotechology developer Lumera (Bothell, Washington) reported entering into an agreement with Harvard Medical School (HMS; Boston) and the Harvard Institute of Proteomics to develop a next-generation silicon chip substrate that combines Lumera's NanoCapture technology with HMS's nucleic acid programmable protein arrays (NAPPA) methodology. HMS and Lumera said they will share rights to jointly developed intellectual property, but financial terms were not disclosed.

The 10,000-spot, high-density protein arrays developed will be designed to increase the speed of drug discovery and life science research.

“The 10,000-spot biochip is a very important step towards our ultimate goal of producing a whole proteome biochip,“ said Joshua LaBaer, director of the Harvard Institute of Proteomics. “As we increase spot density, we are able to gather more data about proteins from a single experiment.“

Using current methods and materials, array densities of up to about 800 spots are possible, but Lumera says proprietary Lumera arrays will enable researchers to analyze high-throughput expression of well over 10,000 discrete proteins, in biologically-active arrays built from available cDNA libraries. The new biochip is predicted to increase the number of features on the array without sacrificing the amount of protein produced per feature.

NAPPA starts with a printed cDNA array and generates a self-assembled protein array using a combination of chemistries and biological methods. A cell-free expression mix produces proteins from the printed genes. The resulting expression product is immobilized on a surface capture system providing for easily definable, protein arrays made directly from cDNA libraries, and printed with commonly available equipment and methods.

In other financing news:

• Biophan Technologies (Rochester, New York) said it has amended an agreement with financing partner SBI Brightline XI for the sale of up to 10 million shares of its stock, to be sold in tranches of 1 million shares each at a price of $3 a share, assuming the full $30 million shares were utilized. The amendment clarifies Biophan's right to determine the dates of sale of share traunches to SBI, and it requires SBI to purchase up to 10 million shares of Biophan common stock on the dates Biophan elects, for $30 million.

Biophan develops technologies designed to make biomedical devices safe and image compatible with the magnetic resonance imaging environment.

• Medtronic (Minneapolis) reported that it has extended its pending exchange offer relating to an aggregate of up to $1 billion of outstanding 4.375% senior notes, due 2010, and 4.750% senior notes due 2015. The expiration date for the exchange offer has been extended from midnight, EST, Jan. 6, to midnight, EST, Jan. 23, unless further extended.

As of 5 p.m., EST, Jan. 5, Medtronic reported about $750,697,000 in aggregate principal amount of the old notes, or 75.1% of all outstanding old notes, had been tendered. Medtronic is offering to exchange $2,000 principal amount and integral amounts of $1,000 of its newly issued 4.375% senior notes, Series B, due 2010, and 4.750% senior notes, Series B, due 2015, for each $2,000 principal amount and integral amounts of $1,000 of its respective outstanding old notes.