A recently amended regulatory filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission shows that Cardiovascular Systems (NASDAQ:CSII) has raised $7.5 million in debt, a portion of which has been converted to stock.
The filing has its roots in a 2010 debt agreement with Partners for Growth III through which the Minnesota company raised a total of $9 million, including $1.5 million mentioned in a separate filing, explained Larry Betterley, the company’s CFO, in an e-mail.
Of the $9 million raised, a total of $5 million has been converted to the company’s common stock, including the a recent conversion of $3.5 million.
Cardiovascular Systems, which makes products to treat peripheral arterial disease, has used the money to fund new product development, clinical trials and for general corporate purposes, Betterley said.
In March, the company announced that it has received regulatory clearance to market the newest product in the company’s line of catheter-based systems that remove plaque in clogged arteries in the pelvis or leg – Stealth 360 Orbital PAD System.
Cardiovascular Systems is also conducting clinical trials – Orbit II – to evaluate the safety and efficacy of orbital systems in removing plaque from coronary arteries. In May it received an FDA approval complete enrollment of 429 patients for that study.
Almost three years ago in November 2008, after failing to go public through an initial public offering (IPO), Cardiovascular Systems merged with Replidyne Inc., a publicly traded shell company with $40 million in cash reserves.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
In the three months ended March 31 of this year, the company had revenue of $20.1 million, up from $16.5 million in the same quarter of 2010. Losses narrowed to $2.4 million or 15 cents per diluted share, down from $6.5 million or 44 cents per diluted share, in the same period a year ago.
