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Home › Media › Releases 2005 › CapMan to invest EUR 3.2 million in medical technology company Aerocrine

Press release - 23 August 2005

CapMan to invest EUR 3.2 million in medical technology company Aerocrine

Swedestart Life Science KB fund, which is managed by CapMan has agreed to invest in Swedish medical technology company Aerocrine. The company is set to receive a total capital injection of EUR 17 million (SEK 160 million) through a new issue, which will be used to finance the launch of the company’s NIOX MINO exhalation test in Sweden and the rest of Europe.

NIOX MINO, developed in Sweden, is a small and convenient instrument that improves and enhances the efficacy of asthma patient therapy. Patients exhale into the instrument, which measures the concentration of exhaled nitric monoxide (NO). Through a refined therapeutic method, the optimal steroid dose can be determined for each patient individually – something that has not previously been possible. NIOX MINO was selected as a winner in the 2005 Medical Design Excellence Awards in the USA.

Swedestart Life Science fund and Aerocrine’s current owners, along with HealthCap, Investor Investment Novare Ltd, Scandinavian Life Science Venture, H&B Capital, Life Equity Sweden and a number of small owners, will together be investing EUR 17 million in the medical technology company Aerocrine AB.

“NIOX MINO has the potential to revolutionize asthma therapy and dramatically improve the conditions for millions of asthma patients,” notes Johan Bennarsten, Investment Director at CapMan Life Science. “Aerocrine has all the prospects to achieve commercial success. The company has developed a unique test and an excellent product that has recently attracted great interest in the field of medicine.”

According to Thomas Almesjö, President and CEO of Aerocrine: “We are pleased by the continuing support we have received from our current owners for our technology and our potential to grow internationally. We also welcome CapMan as a new investor and appreciate the fact that they have chosen to participate in this new issue. We can now seriously begin penetrating a number of European markets in which we believe NIOX MINO has favorable prospects for success.”

For further information, please contact:
Johan Bennarsten, Investment Director, CapMan Life Science, tel +46 8 545 854 72, mobile +46 70 749 5659
Thomas Almesjö, President and CEO, Aerocrine, tel: +46 8 629 07 82 mobile +46 70 629 07 82

CapMan
CapMan is one of the leading private equity investors in the Nordic countries and specialises in middle market buyouts in various industry sectors, technology investments in the IT and communications sectors and investments in life science companies. In addition, CapMan manages/advises private equity real estate funds. The CapMan team comprises around 95 people in Helsinki, Stockholm, Copenhagen and Oslo. CapMan manages/advises Nordic funds with approx. EUR 1.9 billion in total capital. To date, the funds managed/advised by CapMan have invested in 141 companies in the Nordic countries and exited from 73 companies. The latest investments are made in Norwegian Cardinal Foods AS, Finnish Moventas Oy (formerly Metso Drives Oy), Swedish Inflight Services AB and Danish Anhydro Group. The portfolio of CapMan’s first private equity real estate fund consists of 17 commercial properties in the Helsinki metropolitan area. CapMan Plc is listed on the Main List of the Helsinki Stock Exchange.
www.capman.com

Aerocrine
Aerocrine AB is a Swedish medical technology company that is a world leader in research and development of nitric monoxide (NO) as a marker of inflammation in the human body. Aerocrine develops products for analysis of inflammatory diseases of the respiratory system. The company has eleven patents in the USA. Aerocrine was established in 1997 and has its headquarters in Solna, Sweden, outside Stockholm. In addition to NIOX MINO, Aerocrine markets NIOX ®, a more advanced instrument used primarily in research. Aerocrine currently owns hundreds of patents, and NIOX ®, the company’s original asthma test, has been approved in the USA for two years. It is also being used clinically in Europe and Asia.
www.aerocrine.se

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