The Burrill Report

Privately held life sciences companies raised $1.3 billion globally in equity investments during the first six weeks of 2012. The investments were raised in 110 deals with 31.5 percent of the money going to medical device makers. The 28 companies in the sector raised $416 million, an average of $14.9 million per round. They are focused on a range of devices and technologies, from tools to aid surgical procedures to replacements for knees and lungs.

While drug developers accounted for 31.8 percent of the companies receiving capital, they received only $230 million, or 17.4 percent of the total dollars invested. The average deal value for drug developers was only $6.6 million, well below the $12 million average deal value for the life sciences group as a whole.

Companies that provide tools and technology to the industry, including genomics and DNA sequencing services, raised $199 million in 14 deals at an average of $14.2 million per deal. Diagnostics companies raised $141 million in 13 deals, while digital health and health information services firms raised $44 million in eight deals.

Industrial biotech companies developing renewable fuels and chemicals raised $278 million, or 21.1 percent of the total capital invested in private life sciences companies in the first six weeks of the year. Average deal size for the 12 companies in the sector was $23.2 million.
In one of the more interesting financings of the past week, Amplitude Systèmes, a French maker of ultrafast lasers for medical and industrial uses, raised $40 million from a Chinese-French syndicate put together by Cathay Capital Private Equity, that includes CDC Enterprises, Auriga Partners, and Mérieux Développement , the investment arm of Institut Mérieux.

The new capital allows early investors CM-CIC bank and venture group Aquitaine Création Investissement to successfully exit from Amplitude. It will also be used to further develop its ultrafast lasers, especially for healthcare applications.
“Until recently, a limitation was the peak power of ultrafast lasers required to generate protons energetic enough for therapeutic use,” CEO Eric Mottay told Optics.org. The first in vitro tests of the new lasers are scheduled to begin this year, with clinical trials expected to take place within three to five years.

Amplitude is profitable and sells its lasers to the surgical eye care market, as well as to analytical chemistry labs and the pharmaceuticals industry. The company already has a presence in China and will use some of the new funding to continue its international expansion. In a statement announcing the financing, Mottay noted that Amplitude’s presence in China was a key factor in attracting Cathay Capital, the Chinese private equity firm that put the investor syndicate together.



February 10, 2012
http://www.burrillreport.com/article-medical_device_firms_bring_in_the_bucks.html