Banner money year for medical companies

Medical Alley, which represents Minnesota's medical device, bio-pharma and digital-health companies, said member companies have raised more equity capital during the first nine months of the year than in any previous full year of its 33-year existence.
Kathleen Motzenbecker, a senior vice president of Medical Alley, said those companies have raised $520 million in venture capital, early-stage "seed" funding and post-IPO raises of stock sales to the public than the $454.8 million raised in all of 2015, the previous record year.
The proceeds from the stock sales were shared among digital health ($16.2 million) bio-pharma ($38.2 million) and medical device ($133.6 million) in the record third quarter of this year. It was the best quarter for bio-pharma companies in five years.
Two companies, EnteroMedics and Osprey Medical, raised a total of $50.6 million.
Minnetonka-based Osprey raised $32.5 million in the third quarter to add salespeople and otherwise ramp up efforts to sell medical devices that reduce the amount of chemical agents used during millions of live-motion X-rays to treat vascular problems.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration cleared a new product from Osprey called the DyeTect automated contrast monitoring system, which increased Osprey's potential global market to $1.8 billion, according to a recent presentation from the company.
Medical Alley said in a statement that the increased equity funding "further validates the robust environment that makes Minnesota a hotbed for health technology market success.
"With an average raise of $7 million and a median raise of $1.6 million, the community is growing broadly, not simply depending on a massive round to make headlines."