Just five months after raising more than $25 million in a public financing, ID Biomedical Corp. entered an agreement in which it would raise another $100 million privately to help accelerate development of its two lead vaccines.

The Vancouver, British Columbia-based company expects the bought-deal financing to close at the end of the month. A syndicate of investment dealers agreed to buy 5.8 million units, each consisting of one common share and one-half of one common share purchase warrant, at $17.37 per unit. Each whole warrant can be used to buy an additional common share at $25 for four years following the offering.

ID Biomedical representatives could not be reached for comment.

Net proceeds would be used for clinical trials and manufacturing of FluINsure and StreptAvax, the company's two vaccines. The funding also would pay for working capital and other corporate purposes, including strategic acquisitions.

ID Biomedical raised $25.5 million in a public offering completed in May. (See BioWorld Today, May 16, 2003.)

The bought-deal financing does not include securities registered last month with the SEC. The company filed a registration statement with the SEC in late September to offer up to 5 million shares in a public offering, but it withdrew that registration statement Thursday saying that "as a result of general market conditions in the biotechnology industry, the financing terms available to the company were unacceptable." The company also said it took steps in Canada to terminate the related registration filed with the British Columbia Securities Commission. The withdrawal was then followed by news of the bought-deal financing.

FluINsure is a nonliving, subunit vaccine consisting of proteosomes formulated with influenza antigen preparations. It is in Phase II trials as a nasal spray, which the company believes would increase compliance from people who shy away from needles. The vaccine is considered well tolerated and is noninfectious, unlike live vaccine approaches. Preliminary data released last month from the most recent clinical study showed reductions in clinical illness across all vaccine regimens tested when compared with placebo.

About 57 million cases of influenza occur each year in North America and Western Europe, leading to 210,000 hospitalizations and 70,000 deaths. Most of the deaths occur in people more than 65 years of age. The infection costs about $1.4 billion in medical costs in the U.S. each year.

StreptAvax is in a Phase I trial funded by the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. The company also is sponsoring its own Phase I/II trial in Halifax, Nova Scotia. StreptAvax is a Group A streptococcus (GAS) vaccine designed to treat infections such as strep throat, impetigo, toxic-shock syndrome and flesh-eating bacteria. GAS infection that leads to rheumatic heart disease is the world's leading cause of heart disease in children. In India, an estimated 6 million school-age children suffer from rheumatic heart disease.

The company estimates that 25 million to 30 million cases of GAS pharyngitis occur each year in North America. Strep throat costs the U.S. health care system about $2 billion annually, the company said. Transmission of GAS infection occurs through aerosol droplets, but also can occur through wounds, small skin breaks, operative procedures and orally.

Gaithersburg, Md.-based MedImmune Inc.'s FluMist, which was approved in June, would be FluINsure's most notable competitor. ID Biomedical is not aware of any GAS infection products in the clinic that would compete with StreptAvax.

A bought-deal financing switches the liability from the company to the underwriters, who will pay a designated price then try to find buyers in the market.

The company did not disclose the underwriters involved in the financing. Its stock (NASDAQ:IDBE) closed Thursday at $16.45, down 92 cents.