The IPO interest continues.

Not quite two months removed from its last private round of financing, MannKind Corp. filed for an $86.25 million initial public offering. The Valencia, Calif.-based company, which has yet to disclose the number of shares it plans to sell or their price, applied for listing on the Nasdaq exchange under the ticker symbol "MNKD."

About six weeks ago, MannKind received a $50 million cash infusion through its Series C sale of equity. And according to its latest SEC filing, it had about $55.9 million in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities as of Dec. 31. (See BioWorld Today, March 15, 2004.)

Beyond its current capitalization, the company plans to devote any IPO proceeds to the continued development of its lead product, the Technosphere Insulin System, which is in late Phase II trials for diabetes. The system consists of the company's dry-powder Technosphere formulation of insulin and its MedTone inhaler, through which the powder is inhaled into the lung.

MannKind also expects to allocate a portion of the funds toward future commercialization efforts for Technosphere, including the expansion of manufacturing operations, to fund general operations and to expand its other product development programs. In addition to its Technosphere program, the company is developing products for cancer and inflammatory and autoimmune diseases.

It has a collaboration with Novo Nordisk A/S, of Bagsvaerd, Denmark, to develop a pulmonary formulation of an undisclosed therapeutic protein through the use of its Technosphere technology.

MannKind's principal shareholder is Alfred Mann, its chairman and CEO, who controls 65.9 percent of the stock. A former employee and board member, Solomon Steiner, has a 2.7 percent stake.

Incorporated in early 1991 as Pharmaceutical Discovery Corp., the company later that year changed its name to MannKind following a merger of its wholly owned subsidiaries with two other companies, AlleCure Corp. and CTL Immunotherapies. AlleCure was founded by Mann, who also founded MiniMed Inc., a developer of insulin-infusion pumps and related technology. In 2001, MiniMed was acquired by Medtronic Inc., of Minneapolis. At the end of 2002, AlleCure and CTL merged with and into MannKind and ceased to be separate entities.

New York-based UBS Securities LLC is the IPO's sole bookrunner. Piper Jaffray & Co. is a co-lead manager, with co-management from Wachovia Capital Markets, Jefferies & Co. and Harris Nesbitt Gerard, all of New York.