Inhale Therapeutic Systems said Tuesday that it filed a registrationstatement for the public offering of 2 million newly issued shares ofcommon stock.

Inhale, of Palo Alto, Calif., currently has about 8.65 million sharesoutstanding and a pending collaboration in which Pfizer Inc., whichwill make a $5 million equity investment at a 25 percent premium.The offering, along with the sale of 452,000 shares to Pfizer at about$11.06 apiece, would leave Inhale with about 11.2 million sharesoutstanding.

Also, the offering's co-managers, Lehman Brothers Inc., of NewYork, and Volpe, Welty & Co., of San Francisco, have an option topurchase 300,000 shares to cover overallotments.

Inhale's stock (NASDAQ:INHL) closed at $9.75 per share Tuesday,up 25 cents.

Inhale reported about $14.2 million in cash and equivalents on Dec.31. Ajit Gill, the company's chief financial officer, said the publicoffering combined with Pfizer's equity and up-front investmentswould leave the company with about $40 million, enough to at leasttake the company through the first half of 1997.

The Pfizer deal, announced last month, involves the development ofa pulmonary delivery system for insulin. Inhale is developing asystem to deliver macromolecules currently delivered by injectionfor systemic and lung diseases.

"We needed to raise money this year, and this seemed like a goodtime to do it," Gill told BioWorld, adding that a portion of theproceeds are expected to go toward building a manufacturing facilityfor Inhale's dry-powder system and for general expansion of thebusiness. _ Jim Shrine

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