Financings In Brief

Orqis Medical: Lake Forest, Calif.-based firm will use proceeds from a $22.7 mil. Series D financing to finish the firm's pivotal, 200-patient, multi-site MOMENTUM trial evaluating Cancion CRS therapy. Orqis says Cancion is the first therapy for congestive heart failure based on continuous aortic blood flow augmentation to the descending aorta (1"The Gray Sheet" Oct. 11, 2004, p. 26). The firm expects to file a PMA in the second half of 2006 for an acute decompensation heart failure indication. Financing proceeds will also support pre-clinical work for Orqis' Exeleras CRS therapy, designed as a long-term implantable therapeutic recovery solution for patients suffering from chronic heart failure. Human trials are several years away, the firm says. New investors Boston Scientific and Lighthouse Capital Partners participated in the financing; other investors included Domain Associates, Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation and HealthCare Ventures...