Cel-Sci Corp. Corp. raised $15 million in a private placement of 20 million shares at 75 cents per share, a price near the stock's high over the past month.

The deal also included 10 million warrants exercisable at 75 cents per share, and 10 million warrants exercisable at $2 per share. Further details on the warrants were not disclosed.

"These funds will allow us to move forward as planned to start our Phase III clinical trial in first-line advanced primary head and neck cancer," Geert Kersten, CEO of Vienna, Va.-based Cel-Sci, said in a news release. "This also allows us to negotiate with potential partners from a position of strength."

The FDA in January gave Cel-Sci the OK to move forward on a Phase III trial of MultiKine in first-line treatment of patients with advanced primary head and neck cancer.

MultiKine is a mixture of human cytokines designed to stimulate immune responses. Cel-Sci's stock (AMEX:CVM) gained 6 cents Wednesday to close at 81 cents.

In other financing news:

• Ganymed Pharmaceuticals AG, of Mainz, Germany, closed a €33.7 million (US$45.7) million Series C financing round led by VI Partners, a Swiss-based venture capital firm. Funds will be used to advance the company's lead candidate, GC182, a member of Ganymed's ideal antibody family, through Phase I/IIa testing in gastric cancer. The company also intends to take its GT468 program into Phase I/IIa trials in a cancer indication and to further expand its pipeline of cancer-specific targets and antibodies. The equity financing was underwritten by Future Capital, Ingro Finanz, Landesbank Baden-Wurtembert, MIG, Nextech Venture, ONC Partners, Varuma and a consortium of mainly Swiss private investors. The company also announced it appointed Ugur Sahin chief medical officer.

• BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc., of Novato, Calif., agreed to sell $282.5 million principal amount of 1.875 percent senior subordinated convertible notes due 2017 in an underwritten public offering. The company also has granted the underwriter a 13-day option to purchase up to an additional $42.375 million of notes to cover overallotments. The notes would be convertible by holders into shares of common stock at an initial conversion rate of about $20.36 per share. The deal is expected to close Monday. Merrill Lynch & Co. is acting as sole book-running manager of the offering.

• aTyr Pharma, of San Diego, closed its $10.5 million Series B financing round. The company identifies and develops naturally occurring protein biologics for treating a variety of human diseases. It established operation in San Diego following the round, which was co-led by Alta Partners, of San Francisco, and Polaris Venture Partners, of Boston. Also investing were Imagene, of Seoul, South Korea, and founding institutional investor Cardinal Partners, of Princeton, N.J.

• Oscient Pharmaceuticals Corp., of Waltham, Mass., filed an amendment to registration statements, increasing the aggregate principal amount of its new-money offering of 3.5 percent convertible senior dotes due 2011 from $30 million to $50 million. Piper Jaffray & Co. is serving as the manager for the exchange offers and placement agent for the new-money offering. The exchange offers are scheduled to expire April 25.

• Alexza Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Palo Alto, Calif., plans to publicly offer 6 million shares of common stock from an effective registration statement. A sale of 6 million shares at Tuesday's closing price of $11.50 would bring in gross proceeds of $69 million. Alexza's stock (NASDAQ:ALXA) fell 24 cents Wednesday to close at $11.26. Merrill Lynch & Co. and Morgan Stanley & Co. Inc. are joint book-running managers for the offering. Pacific Growth Equities LLC and RBC Capital Markets are co-managers. They would have an overallotment option on up to 900,000 additional shares.

• Advancis Pharmaceutical Corp., of Germantown, Md., closed its previously announced private placement of stock and warrants, raising $24 million in gross proceeds. The company expects to use those funds to support the regulatory approval process of its Amoxicillin Pulsys product candidate and for working capital and general corporate purposes. (See BioWorld Today, April 11, 2007.)