A Medical Device Daily

VisiJet (Irvine, California), a developer of technologies for the ophthalmic surgical market, has closed on a financing of $4.9 million.

The company said it plans to use the funds to support marketing and sales of its lead product, the EpiLift system, and to improve its short-term debt structure. The company said the system is a new, safer refractive surgery technique that enables ophthalmologists to perform EpiLASIK surgery with fewer postoperative complications than existing methods.

Six firms participated in the financing, including Renaissance Capital, Corsair Capital, Roaring Fork Capital Management, Alpha Capital AG, Little Gem Life Sciences and Liberty View Capital.

“The financing comes at an opportune time for VisiJet,“ said CEO Randy Bailey. “We received FDA approval for the Epilift system in September 2004, and with this round of financing, the company will have the ability to fund a sales and marketing program to support this unique product. We are determined to build a sales team with the ability and focus to drive the rollout both in the U.S. and internationally.“

VisiJet is focused on the development and marketing of ophthalmic applications. The company recently received FDA approval for its EpiLift system, a next-generation, ophthalmic surgical device designed for separating corneal tissue. The system was designed to improve upon existing technologies with unique separating methods that can eliminate many postoperative problems.

Gebauer Medizintechnik (Neuhausen, Germany) manufactures the EpiLift system.

In addition to the EpiLift system, VisiJet is developing HydroKeratome and Pulsatome, which use the company's waterjet technology. The company said these products may result in faster, safer and more efficacious procedures in two of the largest surgical markets in the world: refractive and cataract surgeries.

HydroKeratome uses the waterjet technology, employing a high-pressure micro beam of water with the diameter of a human hair to cut the corneal flap as required in LASIK surgery.

The Pulsatome cataract emulsifier, currently under development, is a device that uses pulsed waterjet technology to remove cataracts — the most frequently performed surgical procedure in the world.

InSight Health Services (Lake Forest, California) reported that that its offer to exchange up to an aggregate of $25 million principal amount of its 9-7/8% senior subordinated notes due 2011 for a like principal amount of its registered 9-7/8% series senior subordinated notes due 2011 expired on Tuesday.

Concurrently with the expiration of the exchange offer, any outstanding notes that had been validly tendered and not withdrawn were exchanged for a like principal amount of exchange notes.

InSight provides diagnostic imaging and information, treatment and related management services. It serves managed care entities, hospitals and other contractual customers in 36 states.

In other financings activity:

Ariba X-Ray (Orem, Utah), specialists in portable X-ray systems, reported that as of Dec. 1, Campbell Scientific (CSI; Logan, Utah) has made a strategic investment in the year-old startup firm. The amount was not disclosed.

Ariba said the CSI investment will be important in final development and product commercialization of Nomad, a new entry in the dental technology industry. Nomad is the world's first hand-held, battery-powered X-ray system for intra-oral imaging, according to the company.

In a related action, Rob Campbell, president of Juniper Systems, a subsidiary of CSI, has joined the board of directors of Ariba.

“Nomad is well-designed and addresses important issues in office and field-based dental care,“ said Paul Campbell, president and CEO of CSI. “We anticipate that Ariba technology will have a very positive reception, and that the combination of Campbell Scientific portable instruments and Ariba X-ray technology will be mutually beneficial.“

Pending anticipated FDA approval in early 2005, Nomad will be available for sale in the U.S.

CSI has designed and manufactured measurement and control instrumentation for more than 30 years, specializing in sensors and dataloggers.