NMT Medical Inc. (NSDQ:NMTI) is looking to raise $30 million through a public stock offering to bring its STARFlex cardiac implant through the regulatory process and into the marketplace.
The Boston-based cardiac implant maker said it needs the money because it’s low on cash reserves and heavily leveraged. NMT only has about $9 million in cash reserves and has amassed more than $50 million in debt, according to a prospectus filed with the federal Securities & Exchange Commission.
Company officials said they believe the influx of new investment, combined with its current cash position, a reduction in expenses and a $4 million revolving credit line from Silicon Valley Bank, will be sufficient to bring the STARFlex through the Food & Drug Administration’s pre-market approval process.
The STARFlex implant received an investigational device exemption in 2003 to study its effectiveness in preventing recurrent stroke due to a paradoxical embolism. In 2007, NMT received the green light to expand that trial into a 900-patient study called CLOSURE 1, aimed at determining whether the device can help prevent stroke or ischemia from patent foramen ovale, a defect in the septum separating the heart’s atrial chambers.
The company estimates that it has spent $27 million conducting the trial and expects to begin analyzing trial data in April, when about 95 percent of patients will be through the two-year follow-up period.
