Venture Capital News

RoundTable Healthcare Partners Completes Acquisition of Advantis Medical, Inc.

Representatives of RoundTable Healthcare Partners, an operating-oriented private equity firm focused exclusively on the healthcare industry, announced that it has completed the acquisition of Advantis Medical, Inc. ("Advantis"). Advantis is a leading designer and manufacturer of medical case / tray organizing systems for surgical instruments, implants and medical devices. Advantis will be combined with Instrumed International, Inc. ("Instrumed").

RoundTable acquired a majority interest in Instrumed in October 2005. Instrumed specializes in the manufacturing and sourcing of premium quality surgical instruments. The two companies will form a new medical device outsourcing platform operating under the name Avalign Technologies, Inc. ("Avalign"). The financial terms of the transaction and RoundTable's investment were not disclosed.

With the formation of Avalign, RoundTable also announced that Forrest R. Whittaker has joined as Avalign's new Chief Executive Officer. Forrest has over 30 years of healthcare experience, previously serving as the President and Chief Operating Officer of Teleflex Medical and in various senior executive roles at Tyco Healthcare, Baxter Healthcare and American Hospital Supply.

As part of the transaction and to finance further growth opportunities for Avalign, RoundTable facilitated the successful completion of new senior credit facilities and a private placement of subordinated notes. The senior credit facilities were led by LaSalle Bank and GE Healthcare Financial Services also participated in the transaction. Avalign's senior subordinated notes were purchased by RoundTable Capital Partners, RoundTable's $200 million captive subordinated debt fund.

GBP Deal of the Year Winners Emphasize Extent of Life Sciences Activity in Georgia

The Georgia Biomedical Partnership (GBP) announced six winners in four categories for the 2007 Deal of the Year awards. The deals reflect a broad range of activity, from university research to vaccine manufacturing, and demonstrate the diversity of Georgia's life sciences industry.

The Deal of the Year categories are Early Stage Financing; Strategic Transaction (Large Companies); Strategic Transaction (Small Companies); and Public Sector. Winners were selected from 11 finalists.

CardioMEMS and Metastatix won for Early Stage Financing; AtheroGenics and Solvay Pharmaceuticals, for Strategic Transaction (Large Company); GeoVax Labs, for Strategic Transaction (Small Company); and Emory University, Georgia Institute of Technology, and Medical College of Georgia, for the public sector. The winners were honored at the GBP's recent Awards Dinner at the Intercontinental Buckhead Hotel.

Metastatix, recognized for its $3.6 million Series A round, is an emerging cancer drug discovery company in Atlanta. The financing was led by H.I.G. Ventures and included the Aurora Funds, CM Capital Investments, SR One, and Medimmune Ventures. Existing investors, Georgia Venture Partners and Centrosome Ventures, along with the State of Georgia, also participated. Metastatix CEO Dr. Tony Shuker accepted the award.

CardioMEMS, recognized for its $22.6 million Series D round, is an Atlanta medical device company that applies microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology for the diagnosis, treatment and management of serious chronic diseases. Its first product is a wireless, implantable pressure monitor for human use. The financing was led by Arcapita Ventures, and included Boston Millennia Partners, Easton Capital Investment Group, Foundation Medical Partners, Johnson & Johnson Development Corp. and Medtronic. CardioMEMS has raised a total of $54 million since 2001 and employs 110 people. David Stern, Senior Vice President of Research and Development, accepted the award.

AtheroGenics, recognized for a partnership with London-based AstraZeneca that could be worth up to $1 billion, is an Alpharetta pharmaceutical company focused on the treatment of chronic inflammatory diseases. The collaboration with AstraZeneca is for the global development and commercialization of AtheroGenics oral drug for treatment of atherosclerosis. AtheroGenics President and CEO Dr. Russell M. Medford accepted the award.

Solvay Pharmaceuticals was recognized for the $298 million federal grant it received for development of cell-based vaccines. The Brussels-based company, with U.S. headquarters in Marietta, Ga., was awarded a five-year contract from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to develop cell-based influenza vaccines and plan for domestic manufacturing capacity in the U.S. Dr. Stephen Bell, U.S. Project Director for Influenza, accepted the award.

GeoVax Labs was recognized for its $4.5 million reverse merger with Dauphin Technology, enabling GeoVax to become a publicly traded company.

The creative financing technique provided a rapid method of raising capital for development of GeoVax's AIDS vaccine, which is in early clinical trials. Dr. Harriet L. Robinson, chair of GeoVax's Scientific Advisory Board, and Cynthia Tolman, Vice President of Regulatory and Clinical Affairs, accepted the award. Dr. Robinson is Chief of the Division of Microbiology and Immunology at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center and is the Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at Emory University.

Emory University, Georgia Institute of Technology, and Medical College of Georgia (MCG), were recognized for a $10 million National Institutes of Health grant to create a Nanomedicine Development Center. The center will be based in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University, and will be headed by Dr. Gang Bao, Georgia Tech College of Engineering Distinguished Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. Dr. William S. Dynan, associate director of MCG's Institute of Molecular Medicine and Genetics Program and Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Molecular Biology, is the associate director. Dr. Bao and Dr. Michael Gabridge, MCG's associate director of technology transfer and economic development, accepted the award.

New Enterprise Associates Names Richard Whitney Venture Partner

New Enterprise Associates (NEA) has added Richard K. Whitney to its healthcare and life sciences group as a Venture Partner. Mr. Whitney will work from NEA's Menlo Park office.

Whitney is the founder and Managing Member of Whitney Capital LLC, a private equity investment firm focused primarily on healthcare services and products. Previously, he served as Executive Chairman of Specialty Labs where he led the turnaround and successful sale of the company. Earlier, he served as Chief Financial Officer of DaVita, Inc where he was a lead executive in the company's four-year financial and operating turnaround which created over $3 Billion of equity value for investors. Whitney earned a Masters of Business Administration from Harvard Business School and a BS in Business Administration from Pennsylvania State University.

77% of Americans Say U.S. Must Do More to Spur Green Technologies, According to New Poll

Only one in four American voters today believe the nation is doing enough to promote and utilize alternative or "green" technologies to reduce our nation's reliance on foreign energy sources, according to a new poll by Zogby International and TechNet's Green Tech Task Force. TechNet is the leading bipartisan political network of high tech CEOs promotes the growth of the innovation economy.

The Zogby/TechNet nationwide poll of 1,043 Americans found that 77% of U.S. voters believe that the nation must do more to promote green technologies.

The TechNet Green Technology Initiative is led by a select group of TechNet CEOs and senior executives. Its members are: Stuart Aaron, Vice President of Marketing and Product Management, Bloom Energy Corporation; Phil Bernstein, Vice President, Industry Strategy & Relations, Autodesk, Inc.; John Denniston, Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers; Robert Farnsworth, CEO, Sonnet Technologies, Inc.; Paul Lippe, CEO, Qulas; Diarmuid O'Connell, Director of Corporate Marketing, Tesla Motors; Steve Papermaster, Chairman of the Board, Powershift Ventures; David Pearce, President & CEO, Miasole; Dr. Mark Pinto, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Applied Materials, Inc.; Sue Snyder, Executive Legal Counsel and Vice President for International Policy and Relations, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD); Michael Volpi, Senior Vice President, Cisco Systems, Inc.; and Donald M. Whiteside, Vice President, Corporate Technology Group and Director, Technology Policy and Standards, Intel Corporation.

The TechNet Green Tech Task Force is working closely with the Administration and Congress to make energy technology initiatives a high priority and to shape energy technology policies. The Task Force is scheduled to release its final recommendations in March 2007.

Results from the Zogby/TechNet poll:

• 77% of American voters say that the nation is not doing enough to promote and utilize green technologies in order to reduce our reliance on foreign fuel sources, 17% say that the nation is doing enough.
• 75% of the voting population said that their purchasing decisions in the past year have been influenced by a desire to save energy and improve the environment.
• When asked their preferred alternative to oil and coal as energy sources, respondents chose: solar power (28%), biofuels (24%), wind (16%) nuclear energy (14%) and fuel cells (4%). 77% of the voting age population have improved the energy efficiency of their homes.
• 56% have saved energy by purchasing good and services over the Internet, and half (50%) have used telecommuting or email to reduce travel.
• One in eight (12%) has already purchased alternative fuel vehicles.

The nationwide telephone survey of 1,043 likely voters was conducted by Zogby International from January 5-10, 2007. The poll has a margin of error of +/- 3.1 percentage points.