By Randall Osborne

West Coast Editor

Oxford, England-based Oxford Glycosciences plc (OGS) completed its double-barreled offering, raising the top end of its targeted amount - #150 million (US$216 million).

"About a third of our shareholders have been U.S.-based for quite some time," said Michael Kranda, CEO of the proteomics firm, and completing offers there and in the United Kingdom allows more to join. The price for both offers was set at #12.75 (US$18.36) per share, with 9 million shares issued in the international offer and 2.77 million issued under the open offer.

Excluding expenses and underwriters' commissions, the net proceeds will be about #137.5 million.

"[The two-part offer] is not common, but there are multiple examples," Kranda told BioWorld Today, citing the Celltech Group plc, of Slough, England, and noting that Cambridge Antibody Technology plc, of Melbourn, England, has declared similar plans.

OGS created American Depository Shares for U.S. investors, so that they need not qualify as institutional buyers to take part in the company through UK-based shares.

"For money managers and pension plans, [buying UK shares] is not a problem, but for individuals, it's a little bit different," Kranda said. "This lets them buy an SEC-approved, flexible share."

The money, Kranda said, will be used for beefing up OGS' in-house efforts, so that the company can work more on its own products instead of licensing out. It will also finance the advancement of the company's strongest drug candidate, Vevesca (formerly OGT-918) for Gaucher's disease. The third use will be for proteomics technologies.

"About 60 percent is for pipeline development, and 20 percent for each of the other two," Kranda said.

OGS granted managers an option for up to 1.6 million more shares. Lehman Brothers, of New York, was the lead manager. Serving as co-managers were Credit Suisse First Boston and Cazenove & Co., both also of New York.

Kranda said the current scramble for funding worked to OGS' advantage in completing the dual offer.

"We were able to get a lot of meetings, because a lot of people have been on the road the past few weeks," he said. The company will trade on NASDAQ under the symbol OGSI. Its shares closed on the London exchange Friday at #14.45, up 6.4 percent.