HeartWare raises $55 million in wake of failed Thoratec merger: Ventricular-assist device maker HeartWare raises $55 million in a private placement of 2.5 million common stock shares at $22 each, announced Aug. 10. The funds will help sustain development efforts for the firm's HeartWare Ventricular Assist System with HVAD pump in the wake of Thoratec's failed bid to acquire the company for $282 million. Thoratec pulled out of the deal July 31 after the Federal Trade Commission raised antitrust concerns (1"The Gray Sheet" Aug. 3, 2009). Headquartered in Sydney, Australia, and Framingham, Mass., HeartWare will use the proceeds from the private placement "for the furtherance of its clinical and commercial roll-out of the HeartWare HVAD and its pipeline of future pumps," the company says in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The system received CE mark approval in Europe for bridge-to-transplant therapy in January; a 150-patient U.S. trial is ongoing for the same indication (2"The Gray Sheet" Feb. 16, 2009)
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Medtronic beat first-quarter revenue and EPS estimates, raised guidance, and added two board members and special committees as Elliott takes a stake.
Entrepreneurialism is in the blood of Israel’s medtech innovators, but in a changing medtech world, the local ecosystem must address funding gaps and manufacturing and infrastructure needs. So says Ruti Alon, experienced Israeli medtech leader, investor and co-chair of the Biomed Israel conference.
A Japanese study of Watchman LAA closure devices found that leaks of any size after implantation raise the risk of stroke. The study comes shortly after the US FDA issued an early alert for the Watchman access systems.
