Takes a Saint

Lost in the news that Boston Scientific is continuing to sell off pieces of itself was the creation of a new venture capital fund affiliated with secondary buyer Saints Capital.

Saints raised $165 million for new fund, Saints Everest. It paid $100 million for 54 companies from Boston Scientific's venture portfolio. Its investors include Adams Capital Management and Harbourvest Partners LLC, according to Scott Halsted, the firms' new managing director.

In a separate deal, Boston Scientific agreed to sell another portfolio of venture funds and companies to Paul Capital Partners for roughly $40 million. The proceeds of both rounds would go toward paying down Boston Scientific's debt.

We've reported extensively on Boston Scientific's disassembling of itself by selling off unwanted divisions such as its cardiac and vascular businesses as well as its endovascular business.

Halsted--who left Morgan Stanley Venture Partners last fall as it stopped making new investments in health care companies--will lead the new Saints Everest effort, which will manage former Boston Scientific properties--including companies like Asthmatx Inc. and Broncus Technologies Inc.--and make some new investments as well.

He plans on bringing aboard additional staff to manage current and future investments.

Halsted said closing the fund--as well as his hiring--is contingent upon the closing of the deal for Boston Scientific to sell the 54 companies to Saints Capital. Halsted said other parties were interested in acquiring Boston Scientific's stakes in more than four dozen life sciences start-ups.

The $100 million price tag gives Saints Everest $65 million to invest in follow-on rounds for the BSX portfolio. It's a relatively modest amount, but Halsted said Saints would be able to participate in any attractive follow-on rounds. Halsted suggested some companies in the portfolio--which he couldn't identify per an agreement with Boston Scientific--might not need additional capital.

But he also anticipates making new investments in medical device, health care IT and health care services companies through the new Saints fund. It's unclear whether a second Saints Everest will be raised or if future investments would come from other of the firm's funds.

We'll have more on Saints/BSX in the upcoming START-UP.

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Yesterday's VentureWire Lifescience reported the Fischell family is up to its old tricks again. Colleague Mary Stuart profiled the prolific clan in our April START-UP magazine:

Four members of one family are collectively responsible for filing more than 200 patents in the medical device field, founding more than 14 device companies, including NeuroPace, Neuralieve, Angel Medical, Svelte Medical and GlucoTec, and
inventing the world's most widely-used implantable medical device in the history of the industry, the stent design sold by Johnson & Johnson as the Bx Velocity.

The article also included a short snippet on Svelte Medical Inc., the subject of the VentureWire article which reports Svelte raising a $6 million Series A from a syndicate of interesting investors including "Burpee Materials Technology LLC, a medical device manufacturing company based in Eatontown, N.J.; Via Biomedical Inc., a medical device developer based in Maple Grove, Minn.; SMS Ventures; the Fischell family; and other individual investors."

David Fischell, one of three sons of Robert Fischell, says the round will be used to get into first-in-man trials in the fall. At that time the company will look to raise a larger round. Tim Fischell, another son, gave Mary some interesting details on the company's stent technology including the origins of its technology and its new delivery system. "I think it has the potential to be viewed as the next-generation advance in stent delivery," Tim Fischell is quoted in the START-UP article.

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