By Randall Osborne

West Coast Editor

Telik Inc. raised $26 million through its follow-on public offering of 4 million shares at $6.50 per share, under the $37.3 million estimated net proceeds, but plenty to boost its work with TLK286 and TLK199, as well as its class of orally active insulin receptor activators.

¿We can proceed as planned, with the same priorities, with these funds,¿ said Michael Wick, president and CEO of South San Francisco-based Telik, adding that he was bound by regulatory quiet-period rules from saying much more.

Telik registered for the offering in August. TLK286, the company¿s first compound to enter human trials, is a cancer drug that activates against tumors when it meets a glutathione S-transferase enzyme, GST P1-1, elevated in ovarian cancer, non-small-cell lung cancer, colorectal cancer and melanoma. The company has Phase II trials ongoing in the first three of those indications. (See BioWorld Today, Aug. 21, 2001.)

TLK199, a small molecule, acts on signaling pathways related to white blood cells, and is under development for chemotherapy-induced neutropenia and myelodysplastic syndrome.

In June, Telik offered data regarding TLK19781, one of the insulin receptor activators, which has been shown to lower blood glucose levels in diabetic rats following oral administration and stimulate glucose transport in human muscle cells obtained from insulin-resistant diabetes patients.

The offering includes up to 600,000 shares of common stock as overallotments, and was made by an underwriters¿ group led by Lehman Brothers Inc., of New York, with co-managers Legg Mason Wood Walker Inc., of Baltimore; UBS Warburg LLC, of Stamford, Conn.; Lazard Freres & Co. LLC, of New York; and Needham & Company Inc., of New York.

Based on Telik¿s reported cash position as of June 30, the offering gives the firm $62.2 million in cash, with about 26.9 million shares outstanding. Its stock (NASDAQ:TELK) closed Friday at $6.50, down 54 cents.