Financings In Brief
This article was originally published in The Gray Sheet
Executive Summary
WorldHeart raises $14 mil., cuts costs: Private placement of common stock valued at $14.1 mil. will help fund operations into the second quarter of 2008, including initiation of U.S. trials of the firm's "fourth generation" Levacor rotary ventricular assist device, WorldHeart says. The study is slated to begin in the "latter part of 2007." In March, the firm commenced a European feasibility trial of the continuous-flow pump, touted by WorldHeart as "the only bearingless, fully magnetically levitated implantable centrifugal rotary pump in trials" (1"The Gray Sheet" March 20, 2006, In Brief). In conjunction with the private placement, announced Nov. 14, the firm unveiled a cost containment plan that will include a 50% workforce reduction totaling 50-55 employees. WorldHeart is experiencing waning demand for its first-generation Novacor pulsatile left ventricular assist system, used as a bridge-to-transplant in heart failure patients. Third quarter corporate sales of $1.4 mil. were down 35% from a year ago. A net loss of $7.6 mil. in Q3 compares to a loss of $28.1 mil. a year ago. The firm had $1.5 mil. in cash on hand as of Sept. 30...
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