A Medical Device Daily

superDimension (Herzliya, Israel) reported that it has completed a Series B round of financing totaling $27 million, led by OrbiMed Advisors. Additional new investors included CIBC World Markets and the Strategic Investments Group of Pfizer (New York).

superDimension said that most of its existing shareholders also participated in the round, including Oxford Bioscience Partners, Pitango Venture Capital, Medica Venture Partners and Mi3.

The company describes itself as “an emerging leader in the minimally-invasive diagnosis and treatment of lung disease via interactive real-time guidance of endoscopic tools.”

Jonathan Silverstein, general partner at OrbiMed, said, “The superDimension system provides a quantum leap forward in a pulmonologist’s ability to successfully biopsy distal tissue in the lungs. In the future, we believe the Bronchus platform will enable doctors not only to diagnose but treat patients with pulmonary disease. By providing a new ‘railroad’ to distal regions of the lung, superDimension will enable new treatment methodologies that should be more effective and less invasive.”

Silverstein will join the superDimension board of directors.

David Tolkowsky, president and CEO of superDimension, said the funds would be used for “expanding our global presence, as well as for accelerating the development of our second-generation products.”

superDimension said that its superDimensionBronchus system answers a critical unmet clinical need by reaching, in a minimally-invasive manner, lung locations far beyond the endoscope’s own vision, and “applicable to more than four million interventional procedures per year worldwide.”

Its turnkey system consists of capital equipment and disposables, and it combines proprietary core technologies in the areas of electromagnetic localization for medical applications, image processing, image-to-body registration and steerable endoscopic tools.

superDimension has been selling its products in Europe since 2004. It recently gained FDA 510(k) clearance and launched U.S. sales. It reports 25 commercial sites worldwide.

In other financing activity:

• A-Fem Medical (Portland, Oregon) reported completing a $1.18 million private placement with various accredited investors, selling 2,166,479 shares of its common stock for 50 cents a share. The investors also received five-year warrants to purchase another 1,083,240 shares of common stock at 85 cents a share.

The company said that the net proceeds would be used for working capital purposes.

Greenberg Traurig acted as legal advisor to A-Fem in connection with the private placement.

Walter Witoshkin, appointed as the president and CEO of A-Fem in April, was previously a founding principal of Trident Group, an international consultancy focused on healthcare.

A-Fem has developed product platforms in three business lines: the inSync miniform Interlabial Pad (ILP); Rapid.Sense technology; and the PadKit Sample Collection System.

It said it plans to initially market inSync as a hemorrhoid pain and discomfort relief product. A-Fem Medical’s diagnostic products using point-of-care technology have been licensed for OEM businesses. The PadKit, which utilizes an ILP as a non-invasive sample collection method for use in screening for certain cancers and other diseases, has been clinically validated, A-Fem said.

The company puts the market for cancer testing, testing of sexually transmitted disease and testing for other infectious disease in the U.S. alone at $10 billion.

• SeraCare Life Sciences (Oceanside, California) reported closing a public offering of 4,025,000 shares of its common stock at $12.25 a share; 3,477,600 shares were sold by the company and 547,400 shares were sold by certain selling shareholders and include the underwriters’ exercise of over-allotment options.

CIBC World Markets was sole book-running manager in the offering, with Thomas Weisel Partners and William Blair & Co. as co-managers.

SeraCare is a manufacturer of biological materials and services for the manufacture of diagnostic tests, commercial bioproduction of therapeutic drugs and other research applications.

• I-Flow (Lake Forest, California) reported that its board has authorized the extension of the company’s common stock repurchase program until July 27, 2006, unless terminated earlier. Under the program, the company may repurchase up to 1 million shares of its common stock. Between July 27, 2004, the date that the original plan was authorized, and May 26, 2005, no shares of common stock had been repurchased under the program, I-Flow said.

I-Flow is a developer of drug delivery systems.

• WebMD (Elmwood Park, New Jersey) reported completing the optional redemption of its 3-1/4% convertible subordinated notes, due 2007. When the redemption was reported last month, just short of $300 million in aggregate principal amount of the notes were outstanding. In lieu of cash redemption, holders of about $215 million principal amount of the 3-1/4% convertible subordinated notes converted their holdings into around 23.2 million shares of WebMD stock. The remaining approximately $85 million principal amount of the notes were redeemed for 101.300% of their principal amount plus accrued interest, for a total payment of about $86.7 million.

With the conversion and redemption, WebMD no longer has any 3-1/4% convertible subordinated notes outstanding. The company said that as of yesterday it had about 343 million shares of common stock outstanding, including the shares issued upon conversion of the notes.

WebMD products and services are designed to streamline administrative and clinical processes by facilitating information exchange, communication and electronic transactions within healthcare.