Gamma Medica-Ideas closes $24 million financing to support digital technologies

Sep 23 2009

Gamma Medica-Ideas, Inc. ("GMI"), a leading developer of digital molecular imaging systems, announced today that it had closed a $24 million financing, the company's first institutional round, in order to support continued growth of the company's proprietary digital SPECT, PET and CT technologies in current and new markets. The financing was comprised of $14 million in equity capital, $5 million in mezzanine debt, and a $5 million revolving line of credit. Psilos Group, a leading healthcare venture capital firm, led the equity round. Capital Resource Partners, a leading provider of hybrid growth financing solutions, participated alongside Psilos in the equity round and provided mezzanine debt. The technology lending group at Bridge Bank (NASDAQ: BBNK) rounded out the financing with a revolving line of credit.

GMI has historically served the pre-clinical imaging market, where the need for increased productivity is driving demand for medical research and drug discovery applications. Today, GMI's groundbreaking, fully digital small animal imaging products are distributed exclusively by GE Healthcare globally and in Japan by SII NanoTechnology, a Seiko company. With this financing, GMI will leverage its digital imaging technology platform into clinical imaging markets where it believes their systems can lead to improved diagnosis at a lower cost when compared to other modalities. GMI's initial product, LumaGEM, is focused on significantly improving the diagnosis of cancers in women with dense breast tissue. An estimated 30% of women have dense breasts, where mammography and other screening techniques are either insufficient or very expensive. GMI will sell its products directly in the clinical imaging market.

"We are ready today to demonstrate the strength of the technology platform with our product that we expect will have a huge impact in improving breast cancer diagnosis. We are now aggressively marketing our FDA cleared LumaGEM product for molecular breast imaging," said Dr. Bradley E Patt, Ph.D., GMI's co-founder, President and Chief Executive Officer, adding "The knowledge and expertise that Psilos and CRP bring to the company in healthcare, medical instrumentation and women's health will add tremendous value as we penetrate the clinical market."

"LumaGEM has the ability to diagnose breast cancers with accuracy rivaling that of MRI but at one-third the cost," said David Eichler, Managing Member of Psilos Group. "This is exactly the type of opportunity that Psilos believes is best positioned for success in the new healthcare economy, where it is essential to find ways of delivering improved quality of patient care at a lower cost to the healthcare system. GMI is a great fit with our investment strategy and has a proven track record of success and growth. We are delighted to become a part of the GMI team."

Nick Scola, Partner with Capital Resource Partners, added, "We believe in GMI's technology and its potential for improved detection of breast cancer, as well as in other clinical markets. GMI is a pioneer in multi-modality digital molecular imaging equipment, and we believe that this technology can dramatically improve patient outcomes."

ECA Securities, LLC, the broker-dealer subsidiary of Europlay Capital Advisors, LLC acted as financial advisor to the Company, and The DiBari Group acted as placement agent for the senior and mezzanine debt.