West Coast Editor

AspenBio Pharma Inc.'s $9.3 million warrant conversion gives the firm more than $11 million in cash to push its AppyScore triage test for emergency rooms, and the sister product AppyScreen point-of-care test to find a blood marker for appendicitis.

The Castle Rock, Colo.-based firm said all warrants issued as part of public offerings in 2004 and 2005 have been exercised, and about 7.5 million shares were issued in exchange, bringing outstanding shares to about 27.6 million.

As a result of the latest move and other warrants exercised late last year, nearly all of the firm's dilutive derivatives have been converted, and AspenBio is moving ahead with AppyScore, which has been tested in several ongoing trials involving "a few hundred" patients, the company said.

Strong positive results from preliminary trials were disclosed earlier this year, including three studies conducted during the past 30 months. A 400-patient trial still is under way.

AspenBio's largest-market-potential animal product, the pregnancy drug StayBred for cows, is undergoing FDA review, and the firm expects the agency to start the process soon for BoviPure FSH, another animal reproductive drug.

The company's stock (OTC BB:APNB) closed Tuesday at $4.45, down 10 cents.

In other financing news:

• Acacia Research Corp., of Newport Beach, Calif., obtained commitments to purchase $5 million of its Acacia Research-CombiMatrix common stock and warrants in a registered direct offering. Under the terms of the transaction, Acacia will sell about 6.8 million units for about 73 cents per unit to a group of investors. Participants in this financing included Amit Kumar, president and CEO of Mukilteo, Wash.-based CombiMatrix Corp., Tom Akin and John Abeles, all of whom are directors of CombiMatrix. Each unit will consist of one share of Acacia Research-CombiMatrix common stock and a five-year warrant for the purchase of 1.5 shares of stock at an exercise price of 55 cents per share.

• Immunomedics Inc., of Morris Plains, N.J., completed its registered direct offering of about 4.8 million shares of its common stock to institutional investors at a price of $4.95 per share, for gross proceeds of about $24 million. (See BioWorld Today, May 3, 2007.)

• Helicos Biosciences Corp., of Cambridge, Mass., set terms of its initial public offering, seeking to sell 5.4 million shares at a range between $13 and $15 each. The firm plans to trade on Nasdaq under the symbol "HLCS."

• Pharmacopeia Inc., of Cranbury, N.J., completed a public offering of about 8 million shares at $5 per share, including about 1 million sold pursuant to the full exercise of an overallotment option granted to underwriters, for net proceeds of about $37.1 million.