VentureBeat

TODAY’S HEADLINES:

• Arbor Surgical raises $20M for heart devices (release)
• Small Bone Innovations acquires ankle-replacement maker Link America (release)
• Active Implants adds $3M for hip and knee implants (VentureWire)
• Clarian Health Partners launches VC unit with $25M (release)
• Iroko Pharma acquires non-U.S. rights to Merck heart drug (release)
• Remmele Engineering acquires medical-device manufacturer EL-Tronic Precision (release)
• OpGen appoints former Affymetrix exec Noel Doheny as CEO (release)

Arbor Surgical raises $20M for heart devices – Arbor Surgical, an Irvine, Calif., medical-device maker, raised $20 million in a third funding round. Medtronic, the huge medical-device maker led the funding, which was linked to a licensing deal between the two companies. Existing Arbor investors also participated.

Arbor is developing technology for minimally invasive heart-valve replacement. The company began European trials of its device in 2005, and expects to start U.S. tests this year.

Active Implants adds $3M for hip and knee implants – Active Implants, a Memphis, Tenn., medical-device company, added $3 million in convertible notes and warrants in preparation for its first product launch, VentureWire reports. The company declined to identify its investors.

The company just released its first product, a hip-replacement implant, in Europe, and is readying clinical trials for an artificial knee-cartilage replacement. All told, the company raised slightly more than $10 million last year, and says it will be looking for an additional $20 million in a third round later this year.

Clarian Health Partners launches VC unit with $25M – Clarian Health Partners, an Indianapolis hospital chain, launched a venture-capital arm, Clarian Health Ventures, with an initial $25 million investment. The release is here.

Clarian aims to make early-stage investments that will benefit its parent company and to support economic development and innovation in Indiana. The fund expects to make initial investments in the range of $250,000 to $500,000, and as much as $3 million over the life of an investment. Clarian’s first investment was in the cancer-biomarker biotech CS-Keys, which we covered yesterday.

Small Bone Innovations acquires ankle-replacement maker Link America –Small Bone Innovations, a New York maker of orthopedic implants for the hand, elbow, foot and elbow, acquired Link America, a device company focused on ankle replacement. The release is here. The companies didn’t disclose financial terms of the deal.

Salt Lake City-based Amedica filed to raise up to $74.8 million in an IPO, just a week after it raised $13.2 million in a fourth funding round. The maker of ceramic implants for spinal and joint repair said it doesn’t expect its first products to reach the market until next year.

Amedica’s S-1 filing, by the way, is the first I can recall seeing that explicitly lists “healthcare reform” as one of its major risk factors:

We face significant uncertainty in the industry due to government healthcare reform.

Political, economic and regulatory influences are subjecting the healthcare industry to fundamental changes. Reforms under consideration in the United States include mandated basic healthcare benefits, controls on healthcare spending, increases in insurance premiums and increased out-of-pocket requirements for patients, the creation of large group purchasing organizations that aim to reduce the costs of products that their member hospitals consume, and significant modifications to the healthcare delivery system. We anticipate that the U.S. Congress and state legislatures will continue to review and assess alternative healthcare delivery systems and payment methods. Due to uncertainties regarding the ultimate features of reform initiatives and the timing of their enactment and implementation, we cannot predict which, if any, of such reform proposals will be adopted, when they may be adopted or what impact reform initiatives may have on us.

This may be standard boilerplate these days, but like they say on TV, it was new to me.

Check out Amedica’s filing and its press release for more.

Amedica, a Salt Lake City maker of ceramic implants for spines and joints, raised $13.2 million in a fourth round of funding. Creation Capital placed the financing. The company had previously raised more than $30 million.

The company is developing a line of ceramic knee, hip and spinal-disk replacements, along with related ceramic spine implants. Its release is here.