Repligen Corp. announced Monday that Swiss pharmaceuticalgiant Sandoz Ltd. has bought out Repligen's interest in theirjoint venture and purchased $4 million of common stock in theCambridge, Mass., biotech company (NASDAQ:RGEN).

This stock purchase -- of 320,000 shares at $12.50 per share --was made by Sandoz's subsidiary, Sandoz Pharma Ltd., inconjunction with the acquisition of the joint venture.

Sandoz's U.S. subsidiary, Sandoz. Corp., bought Repligen's 40percent interest in the Repligen Sandoz Research Corp. (RSRC),which the two companies formed in 1987 as a joint venture inindustrial and agricultural biotech.

It was in that year that Repligen "decided to focus all its effortson human health care," said Ramesh Ratan, the company'ssenior vice president and chief financial officer. These latesttransactions are a "culmination of that strategy," Ratan toldBioWorld, leaving Repligen free to concentrate on developingproducts to treat cancer, AIDS and inflammation.

RSRC has developed several products for the pulp processingand paper industries, including Cartapip, which increases paperstrength and reduces fouling of paper production equipment byreducing the pitch content of wood chips before they areprocessed.

Another product to come out of the joint venture is Cartazyme,a bleaching agent developed as a substitute for chlorine. Thejoint venture has also been developing improvedbioinsecticides for crop protection based on transformedBacillus thuringiensis strains.

All the funding for RSRC has come from Sandoz, explainedRatan. "They've also had the marketing rights to any productsthat come out of the joint venture, while royalties on productsgo to Repligen," Ratan told BioWorld. Repligen will continue toreceive royalties for certain of those products, now under theaegis of newly renamed Sandoz Chemicals Biotech ResearchCorp. of Lexington, Mass.

Repligen's stock closed unchanged at $9.38 a share on Monday.

-- Jennifer Van Brunt Senior Editor

(c) 1997 American Health Consultants. All rights reserved.