IV Firm Turns to Public Stock Offer for Shot in the Arm
I-Flow Corp., a start-up company seeking to make its mark in the highly competitive intravenous home health-care industry, is planning to raise up to $2.6 million in an initial public stock offering.
The company, incorporated in 1985, has developed what it calls a “multi-drug infusion” system, worn on the side of a patient, that can intravenously administer up to four different solutions on separate timing schedules.
For the record:
12:00 a.m. Feb. 14, 1990 For the Record
Los Angeles Times Wednesday February 14, 1990 Orange County Edition Business Part D Page 2 Column 3 Financial Desk 2 inches; 41 words Type of Material: Correction
I-Flow Corp.--A Feb. 7 story incorrectly stated the terms of an initial public offering by I-Flow Corp., an Irvine-based firm developing intravenous therapy equipment. The offering was for 433,334 units. Each unit sold for $6 and consisted of three shares of common stock and one warrant.
In its prospectus, the company said the device will prove useful in the home administration of chemotherapy, high-volume antibiotics or nutritional support to patients suffering from diseases, including cancer and AIDS.
The prospectus, dated Feb. 1, acknowledges that the company’s first public offering of 433,334 shares of common stock for $6 a share “represents a speculative investment and involves a high degree of risk” associated with any business that to date has been engaged mostly in research and development.
The company said it has incurred operating losses totaling about $3.2 million and has earned no revenues from the product sales. It hopes to generate its first sales revenue this year.
Money raised by the offering is intended to be used to finance sales and marketing, further product development and expand inventory.
On the bright side, the company said it believes that the current trend in the insurance industry has been to encourage home-administered therapies because they are significantly less expensive than similar therapies in a hospital.
It said it believes that its lightweight, miniature, battery-powered infusion equipment and carrying cases have advantages over the old-fashioned IV pole with multiple pumping devices and bags of solutions that may require a patient to be tethered to an electrical outlet for extended periods of time. I-Flow’s equipment currently is in pre-production testing.
I-Flow said that it has applied for its stock to be sold on over-the-counter national market. The stock sale is being underwritten by M.H. Meyerson & Co. Inc. of Jersey City, N.J.
