A Medical Device Daily

Wellpartner (Portland, Oregon), a provider of home delivery pharmacy solutions, reported completing a $14 million private equity financing. The round was led by Scorpion Capital Partners and included participation from other institutional investors and the company's original group of investors.

“We have demonstrated that Wellpartner has a set of solutions that the market is seeking,“ said W. Michael Wright, CEO. “This significant investment from a blue chip team of investors will allow us to accelerate the rate and execution of our business strategy.“

Wellpartner serves a variety of health plans, pharmacy benefit managers, governmental entities and employer groups by providing home delivery pharmacy fulfillment.

The company said it would use the proceeds from this investment to accelerate its national business strategy. In 2005, Wellpartner said it plans to deploy “new pharmacy solutions that will require an increase in its pharmacy fulfillment capacity.“ With the expansion of its fulfillment capacity, the company will be launching new systems to support pharmacy delivery, particularly in the Medicaid market, it said.

Wellpartner recently strengthened its role as a home delivery pharmacy solution provider for the Medicaid market with the introduction of its 340B Access Solutions for safety-net clinics and hospitals. This solution enables these organizations to gain access to lower-cost Public Health Service pricing for pharmaceuticals to save an average of 50% on the cost of medications.

Launched in February 2001, Wellpartner combines technology and automation to deliver personalized pharmacy plans, operating an automated, high-volume pharmacy facility in Portland.

Biopure (Cambridge, Massachusetts) reported the closing of a previously announced financing that raised $11.3 million, for net proceeds of $10.4 million (Medical Device Daily, Jan. 6, 2005).

Biopure sold 22.2 million shares of its common stock at 51 cents a share to institutional and individual investors. C.E. Unterberg, Towbin was the agent for the offering.

Biopure manufactures intravenously administered pharmaceuticals, called oxygen therapeutics, that deliver oxygen to the body's tissues. The company is developing Hemopure [hemoglobin glutamer — 250 (bovine)], or HBOC-201, for a potential indication in cardiovascular ischemia and, in collaboration with the U.S. Naval Medical Research Center, for an out-of-hospital trauma indication.

The product is approved in South Africa for treating surgery patients who are acutely anemic and for eliminating, delaying or reducing allogeneic red blood cell transfusions in such patients.