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Afib medical device

Four IPOs Begin Trading in Baidu's Shadow

WASHINGTON -- Although Chinese Web search engine Baidu.com Inc.'s initial

public offering debut Friday overshadowed all other offerings, four other

companies also began trading for the first time.

Shares of Dresser-Rand Group Inc., Advanced Life Sciences Holdings Inc. and

AtriCure Inc. closed higher than their IPO prices, while Hoku Scientific Inc.

fell.

Dresser-Rand, which makes and services equipment for the oil and gas

industries, closed at $22.80, up 8.6 percent from its offer price of $21 a

share. The Olean, N.Y., company, which specializes in compression equipment and

steam turbines, sold 27 million shares at the high end of its expected range

Thursday night.

Dresser-Rand's strong debut was notable because the company's offering was

marked by some of the same attributes that were poorly received by investors

earlier this year: It was owned by a private-equity firm for about a year,

loaded with debt, and none of the proceeds from the offering will flow into the

company's coffers.

In fact, the only benefit Dresser-Rand receives from the offering is that $50

million out of $567 million raised will be used to pay a small portion of debt;

the remainder is being used to award its owner, First Reserve Corp., and some

executives a dividend. New shareholders in the stock won't get any dividends.

AtriCure Inc, a West Chester, Ohio, company that makes medical devices to treat

atrial fibrillation, closed at $14.08, up 17 percent from its offer price. The

company priced 4 million shares at $12 each, at the low end of its expected

range.

Although its device is used at 22 of the 25 highest-volume heart centers in the

United States, AtriCure isn't profitable and its device generates revenue only

from off-label uses because it hasn't yet received Food and Drug Administration

approval for atrial-fibrillation treatment. Once it receives FDA approval for

the treatment _ the company estimates that will come in 2008 and 2009 _ it can

begin marketing the device aggressively.

" This is one where the key is that the surgical skills that are necessary for

the application of AtriCure's system are much lower than the typical surgical

skills required for open-heart surgery, " said Steve Brozak, president and an

analyst at WBB Securities LLC.

" It (atrial fibrillation) is a silent problem, but in the past, there was no

satisfactory treatment. Now all of the sudden you have a vacuum being filled, "

Brozak said.

Advanced Life Sciences, a Woodridge, Ill.-based biopharmaceutical company,

closed at $6 a share, up 20 percent from its offer price. The company sold 6.4

million shares at $5 a share, well below its original expected range of $11 to

$13, and even below a revised range of $8 to $9. Advanced Life Sciences has an

exclusive worldwide license from Abbott Laboratories to develop and

commercialize cethromycin and ABT-210, part of a new class of antibiotics. It

also has a joint venture with Sarawak MediChem Pharmaceuticals to develop

Calanolide A, a potential treatment for HIV.

The company, which has never been profitable, received a so-called

going-concern statement from its auditors, an indication that the company may

not be able to continue its operations due to financial constraints.

Hoku Scientific Inc., a Honolulu maker of fuel-cell membranes, closed at $5.36

a share, down 11 percent from its offer price. The company sold 3.5 million

shares at $6 a share Friday morning, below both its original range of $11 to $13

and a new range of $8 to $9.

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