Italian firm Eurand International SpA filed a registration statement for a proposed initial public offering on Nasdaq of up to about $153 million.

The Milan-based company plans to offer 7 million shares at $17 to $19 per share. Up to 1.05 million additional shares could be purchased to cover overallotments.

Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. and Lehman Brothers Inc. will act as joint book-runners and representatives of the underwriters. Banc of America Securities LLC, Lazard Capital Markets LLC and Thomas Weisel Partners LLC will act as co-managers.

The specialty pharmaceutical company develops products based on its formulation technologies. Two Phase III clinical trials have been completed for its lead product candidate, EUR-1008, for treating exocrine pancreatic insufficiency. If it gains FDA approval, Eurand would plan to launch the product in 2008.

The company was formed in 1999 when affiliates of Warburg Pincus LLC and Eurand CEO Gearóid Faherty acquired the drug delivery business of American Home Products Corp. (now Wyeth).

In 2006, it had about $109 million in revenues, primarily from sales of products developed and manufactured using its formulation technologies that licensees commercialize.

Eurand's licensees market more than 40 different products using Eurand technologies.

In addition to EUR-1008, Eurand also is developing a number of other products both for collaboration partners and for its own portfolio.

The most advanced Eurand product candidate after EUR-1008 is EUR-1025, a once-a-day oral formulation of ondansetron, an antiemetic used to prevent nausea and vomiting in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy and radiotherapy. It has several other co-development and proprietary products in various earlier stages of research and development.

In other financing news:

• Perlegen Sciences Inc., of Mountain View, Calif., withdrew its proposed initial public offering filing. It said its underwriters advised it to make that move pending the outcome of certain genetic studies in connection with an ongoing research initiative. The company also cited questions about a government contract, as well as market conditions, in the withdrawal. Perlegen registered for a $115 million IPO in April 2006. (See BioWorld Today, April 11, 2006.)

• Cell Genesys Inc., of South San Francisco, filed a shelf registration statement covering the sale of up to $150 million of securities. The filing replaces a shelf registration initially filed in December 2002, which was fully used following the completion of a $60 million registered direct offering last month. Cell Genesys is developing biological therapies for patients with cancer. Its clinical-stage product platforms are GVAX cancer immunotherapies and oncolytic virus therapies. (See BioWorld Today, April 12, 2007.)

• CytRx Corp., of Los Angeles, said it contributed $15 million to its majority-owned subsidiary, RXi Pharmaceuticals Corp., of Worcester, Mass., which focuses on RNA interference. The move satisfies RXi's initial funding requirements under its various agreements with the University of Massachusetts Medical School. In exchange for the contribution, CytRx increased its ownership in RXi to nearly 90 percent. CytRx in the near term intends to issue a dividend of a sufficient number of its shares of RXi to CytRx stockholders so that, after the dividend, CytRx no longer owns a majority of RXi. The contribution by CytRx to RXi was made following CytRx's completion of its recent $37 million private placement. (See BioWorld Today, April 19, 2007.)