Monday, December 15, 2008

TransMedics pulls the plug on IPO plans

By Marc Songini

Bad market conditions have forced Andover-based medical device startup TransMedics Inc. to pull its registration for an initial public offering (IPO), according to a company filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

This brings a long saga to a close. The company had initially filed for an IPO on Sept. 14, 2007.  At the time,the company said it wanted to raise $86.3 million to fund the development and marketing of its Organ Care System, or OCS, which was designed to keep harvested organs fresh before the transplant operation.

However, the company never made it out of the IPO pipeline. At last, on Dec. 12, 2008, the company filed a request for withdrawal of its registration with the SEC.

According to the filing, the initial registration statement was being pulled “due to market conditions unfavorable for the registrant to conduct its initial public offering and the registrant’s determination that registration of the registrant’s securities is not in the best interests of the registrant at this time.”

The form had a ray of hope in it, however: TransMedics requested the SEC apply all the registration fees already paid toward any future registration request. Moreover, the company told the SEC it may “undertake a subsequent private offering” instead. 

TransMedics was launched in 1998 to provide more effective organ transplant support technologies. Its OCS was designed to maintain organs outside of a human body as they were being moved from the donor to recipient. According to its website, TransMedics has raised more than $90 million in venture capital from 10 different firms.