Pharma Mar S.A. completed a private placement of $8.4 million, most of which came from European institutional investors.

Pharma Mar, a Madrid, Spain company developing oncology and HIV products from non-mammalian marine organisms, said the financing should allow it to take its first products into human testing in the U.S. and Europe over the next six months.

Its two lead compounds are ET 743, for cancer, and Dehyrodidemin B, also for cancer. Both were isolated from marine tunicates, which are non-moving sea organisms.

Pharma Mar, in collaboration with Paris-based Pasteur Institute, also is testing ET 743 for its immunomodulation properties against HIV.

Pharma Mar has about 30 other anti-tumor compounds in preclinical development, a company spokesman said. It has collaborations with the National Cancer Institute and a number of research laboratories and universities.

Pharma Mar has raised $28 million since its founding in 1986. _ Jim Shrine

-- David N. Leff Science Editor

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