Bridge Medical Completes $33 Million Financing Round.

SOLANA BEACH, Calif.--(BW HealthWire)--May 19, 1999--

Bridge Medical Inc. Wednesday announced that it has completed a $33 million round of financing, providing the company with the working capital needed to establish its products in the marketplace and continue product development.

Participants in this round included General Motors Investment Management Co.; Halpern Denny and Co., a Boston-based venture-capital firm; and several of the company's prior venture investors -- NEA, Coral Ventures, Sierra Ventures and Nassau Capital. In this round of financing, Bridge was represented by Dain Rauscher Inc.

"We are very pleased to have concluded this financing despite the difficult investment environment for medical-device companies," said John B. Grotting, Bridge's president and chief executive officer.

"This is a very exciting time for Bridge. Last August, we received FDA approval for the Bridge Sentry(TM) device, the cornerstone of the Bridge Medication Management System(TM). We have successfully installed the first Bridge system at a hospital site -- moving from the laboratory to the real world.

"We are very grateful for the continued support of our early investors and delighted to have leading firms like GM and Halpern Denny involved in the growth of our company."

Bridge Medical, with headquarters in Solana Beach, was founded in 1996 to help hospitals address the problem of medication errors, which are responsible for more than 140,000 deaths annually and add billions to the nation's health-care bill.

Additional information about the problem of medication errors can be found at the company's educational Web site, mederrors.com. For more information about Bridge's products, services and history, access bridgemedical.com.