ROUNDUP: Drugstore.com Offers Additional Shares
Drugstore.com has filed documents to follow its July initial public offering by selling an additional six million shares. Bellvue, Wash.-based Drugstore.com will sell 4.5 million new shares, while "early investor" Rite Aid Corp. will offer 1.5 million of its 9.33 million Drugstore.com shares. The sale would net Drugstore.com $124.9 million, with Rite Aid gaining about $41.6 million. Drugstore.com went public at $18 a share on July 29 (Wall Street Journal, 2/10).
Medical Auction
Harris Interactive, the producer of the well-known Harris Poll, is teaming up with MediciGroup, which specializes in recruiting and retaining patients for clinical trials. The alliance joins several other Internet companies who are competing to help researchers and pharmaceutical companies find patients to test new treatments. Harris Interactive maintains a database of more than four million people around the United States who participate in the firm's online surveys. More than 400,000 of them have provided personal health information and about 60% of the group have already expressed interest in participating in clinical trials (Winslow/Carrns, Wall Street Journal, 2/10).
Sickbay.com
MillenniumHealth Communications, Inc. (MHC) announced last week that it has formed an alliance with Sickbay.com. MediTrader.com, MHC's health care equipment auction site, now will provide online sales of medical equipment and supplies for Sickbay.com, and MHC's Health24News.com will provide updated health care news for Sickbay.com health care professionals (MHC release, 2/10).