By Matthew Willett

Nexell Therapeutics Inc. agreed to sell up to $25 million worth of its stock to Acqua Wellington North American Equities Fund Ltd. over the next 22 months.

The Irvine, Calif., company will sell the shelf-registered shares pursuant to its $25 million aggregate price filing of Dec. 7. Shares sold to Acqua Wellington at Nexell's discretion will be priced at a discount to the market price at the time of the sale.

Nexell, which markets ex vivo cell manipulation technologies and focuses on the clinical use of hematopoietic stem cells, said it will use the funding for general corporate purposes.

William Albright, Nexell president and chief operating officer, told BioWorld Today that flexibility in the financing was key to the fund-raising decision.

"We're very pleased to have Acqua work with Nexell. They're experienced and sophisticated in life sciences, and a good long-term partner," Albright said. "This is similar to financings they've done with others, in that we control when we sell shares and we set limits on the financing as we choose."

Nexell reported $19.59 million in cash and cash equivalents as of Sept. 30. It had about 18.18 million shares outstanding.

Albright said the financing would fund operations for some amount of time, but wouldn't say for how long. "It's for an extended time frame. It's over a broad window, consistent with the flexible nature of it," he said.

Nexell, founded in 1999, has formed partnerships with Takara Shuzo Co. Ltd., of Tokyo, and NeoRx Corp., of Seattle.

The multimillion-dollar Takara Shuzo alliance aims to produce and commercialize gene therapies, and, separately, calls for exclusive distribution rights to cell therapy products in four Asian countries. (See BioWorld Today, May 10, 2000.)

Last July, Nexell entered an antibody license agreement with NeoRx granting NeoRx an exclusive worldwide license for ex vivo diagnostics applications of NeoRx's antibody, NRLu-5, a cell surface marker common to breast, lung, prostate and colon cancer.

Nexell's lead product, the Isolex 300I Magnetic Cell Selection System, is the only FDA-approved device commercially available for the selection of hematopoietic stem cells and the removal of tumor cells from autologous peripheral blood as a component of aggressive cancer treatment.

The company also markets the Cytonex ICC staining kit and an extensive line of cell therapy preparation, storage and expansion products including Cryocyte, SteriCell and Lifecell brands.

Total sales for Nexell in the third quarter of 2000 were about $4.5 million, a 101 percent increase over the same period in 1999. For 2000 through the third quarter, Nexell's sales were about $15 million, Albright said, the total for all 1999 sales.

Nexell's stock (NASDAQ:NEXL) rose 15.62 cents Wednesday to close at $3.