TranS1 aims to relieve lower-back pain with $80.5M IPO

TranS1, a medical-device maker focused on lower-back pain, filed to raise $80.5 million in an IPO. The company makes and markets two products for minimally invasive lumbar spinal fusion, a technique in which surgeons fix, or fuse, two or more vertebrae together in order to minimize the pain from worn-out spinal discs.

Although the company launched its first products in early 2005, it is still losing money. TranS1 posted a net loss of $9.5 million last year, and in the first quarter it lost $1.7 million, only slightly less than the $1.8 million it lost a year earlier.