As its lead drug Evizon continues to make its way through a Phase III study for age-related macular degeneration, Genaera Corp. returned to the money well, this time raising $25 million gross through a direct equity placement.

The Plymouth Meeting, Pa.-based company received commitments from institutional investors, including existing shareholders, to buy about 35.6 million shares of common stock and warrants to buy about 26.7 million shares of common stock at 70.385 cents per unit. The exercise price for the warrants is 61.01 cents, and the shares were offered as part of the company's shelf registration statement.

New York-based Banc of America Securities LLC served as lead placement agent, and Fortis Securities LLC, also of New York, acted as co-placement agent. The company could not be reached for comment on Thursday.

Genaera has three products in clinical trials, including Evizon (squalamine lactate) to treat AMD, which entered the first of two planned Phase III trials in June 2005. Under a special protocol assessment agreed upon with the FDA, the pivotal program is enrolling patients with predominantly classic, minimally classic and occult forms of wet AMD.

Primary endpoints are safety and clinical benefit on visual acuity at one year, while secondary endpoints include changes in visual acuity from baseline at two years and quality of life. (See BioWorld Today, June 28, 2005.)

Evizon is an anti-angiogenic drug designed to block several growth factors, including vascular endothelial growth factor, a popular target against choroidal neovascularization associated with wet AMD. New York-based Eyetech Inc., which has since been acquired by Melville, N.Y.-based OSI Pharmaceuticals Inc., received FDA approval in late 2004 for its VEGF inhibitor Macugen to treat AMD, and approval of South San Francisco-based Genentech Inc.'s drug Lucentis, which targets multiple VEGF pathways, was expected this week.

Macugen and Lucentis are given through intravitreal injections, but Evizon can be given as an injection into a patient's arm - thereby treating both eyes, when necessary, with one shot.

Phase II data of the product has shown that 100 percent of subjects in one trial demonstrated either stable or improved vision after four months, and 17 percent of those who received 20 mg of the drug once weekly for four weeks showed three lines or greater of vision improvement.

Genaera also is testing squalamine as a treatment for solid tumors. Another product in its pipeline is Lomucin, a microregulator to treat the overproduction of mucus associated with chronic respiratory diseases. The company started its pivotal Phase II trial in 200 cystic fibrosis patients last September. It is being supported by $2.35 million in milestone-driven matching funds from Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Therapeutics Inc., the nonprofit drug discovery and development affiliate of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

At an earlier stage of development, Genaera is focused on an interleukin-9 antibody, a potential respiratory treatment based on the discovery of a genetic cause of asthma. It has completed a Phase I trial conducted through a partnership with MedImmune Inc., of Gaithersburg, Md., signed in April 2001.

As of March 31, Genaera had $24.2 million in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments, enough to take it through the first quarter of 2007. It reported a net loss for the first quarter of $7.4 million, and about 68.8 million shares outstanding. Its stock (NASDAQ:GENR) fell 6 cents on Thursday, to close at 55 cents. With a stock price below the $1 minimum price required, Genaera is facing a delisting from Nasdaq and has until Dec. 26 to regain compliance.

In other financings news:

• Biocrates Life Sciences GmbH, of Innsbruck, Austria, closed a €5 million (US$6.3 million) private equity investment from the German MIG funds. The investment strengthens the company's position in the field of high content analysis and discovery of multiparametric biomarkers for pharmaceutical research and development, and clinical diagnostics.

• Cubist Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Lexington, Mass., said it has repaid the outstanding principle and interest on its 5.5 percent convertible subordinated notes due 2008. The $165 million outstanding was redeemed at $1,032.28 per $1,000 in notes. The total payment was about $170.3 million, which includes principal, interest and a prepayment penalty. The repayment was funded by a portion of the proceeds from the company's offering of $350 million in 2.25 percent convertible subordinated notes due 2013, which Cubist completed earlier this month.

• MedImmune Inc., of Gaithersburg, Md., closed its sale to qualified institutional buyers of $575 million in 1.375 percent convertible senior notes due 2011 and $575 million in 1.625 percent convertible senior notes due 2013. The amount reflects the full exercise by the initial purchasers of their overallotment option to buy additional notes.