A Diagnostics & Imaging Week

Solexa (Hayward, California), a developer of genetic analysis systems, said it has entered into an agreement with a group of institutional investors to raise about $65 million from the private sale of common stock and warrants for the purchase of common stock.

This financing will result in net proceeds to Solexa of about $61 million after deduction of offering expenses.

The company will sell 10 million shares of common stock at $6.50 per share and will issue warrants to purchase about 3.5 million shares of common stock at an exercise price of $7.50 per share.

About 3.9 million shares of common stock and roughly 1.3 million warrants will be issued in a closing expected today, and the balance of about 6.1 million shares of common stock and warrants to purchase approximately 2.2 million shares of common stock will be issued on the same terms in a second closing subject to stockholder approval.

Luminous Medical (Carlsbad, California) reported the closing of a $9 million Series A preferred stock financing. The company is commercializing an automated, continuous whole blood glucose monitor for in-hospital use with critically ill patients.

Establishing tight glucose control in these patients, the company said, has been shown to improve outcomes including reductions in complications, length of stay and mortality.

The funds will be used to complete the development of the company’s first product and to expand its capability to create additional value for critically ill patients.

The Luminous Medical product, using technology licensed from InLight Solutions (Albuquerque, New Mexico), will simplify the implementation of tight glucose control by providing frequent glucose measurements automatically.

“Maintaining tight glucose control in critically ill patients is increasingly recognized as an important new requirement,” said Rick Thompson, Luminous Medical CEO. “We expect to be the first to provide a product that automates glucose monitoring to aid caregivers in delivering optimal patient care.”

Luminous is the fourth spin-off from InLight Solutions and is funded by De Novo Ventures and Latterell Venture Partners.

In other financing activity:

• Advanced BioPhotonics (Bohemia, New York) reported entering into an agreement with four accredited and institutional investors for an aggregate of $4 million in gross proceeds to support the company’s commercialization activities for its BioScanIR system, a functional medical imaging modality designed to provide a fast, non-invasive, radiation-free method for detecting diseases that affect blood perfusion.

The financing is being funded via $1 million in gross proceeds immediately available to the company; $1 million in gross proceeds payable upon filing of a registration statement with the SEC; and $2 million in gross proceeds payable at the time the registration statement is declared effective by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

“We believe that this financing gives us the working capital necessary to complete clinical testing at leading medical institutions within North America and Europe in exciting and important applications such as cancer therapy monitoring and reconstructive surgery,” said Denis O’Connor, CEO of Advanced BioPhotonics.

• QuadraSpec (West Lafayette, Indiana), a Purdue Research Park-based protein-diagnostics company, reported closing a $3.9 million Series A round of venture financing enabling it to further develop its BioCD system.

The company said the majority of the funds will be used to build its manufacturing capabilities and to further develop a device that has the ability to perform advanced blood screening for disease detection, among other things. QuadraSpec’s BioCD is scheduled for release prior to July 2006.

The leading investor is Spring Mill Venture Partners, with Village Ventures as a co-investor. With the financing, Ken Green, MD, managing partner of Spring Mill Ventures, has joined QuadraSpec’s board of directors. All other investors in this round are individuals from Indiana.

“QuadraSpec was able to pull together a tremendous amount of funding for an early-stage company, and we were able to do it here in the Midwest,” said QuadraSpec President and CEO Chad Barden, who said he believes that the Indiana financing market continues to improve for life science entrepreneurs. “Seed capital is hard to come by as the venture capital community prefers deals that are at or closer to revenue. However, if you have a quality management team and a truly unique technology, you can and will succeed in getting funding.”

• Clinical Data (Newton, Massachusetts) has entered agreements with institutional and other accredited investors for the placement of 614,629 shares of newly issued common stock, and warrants to purchase 307,315 shares of common stock, for a total purchase price of about $12.025 million.

The company said it will use the gross proceeds from the private placement to pay down outstanding indebtedness and to support the company’s growth plans as it continues to integrate the operations of Genaissance Pharmaceuticals (New Haven, Connecticut) and plan for the acquisition of Icoria (Research Triangle Park, North Carolina), which is expected to close in mid-December.

Clinical Data develops clinical diagnostics and pharmacogenomics to improve patient care. It is utilizing pharmacogenomics to develop molecular diagnostics and therapeutics by finding genetic markers to guide drug development. Its diagnostic and instrumentation business is focused on the physician’s office, hospital and small-to-medium sized laboratory segments.