By Randall Osborne

West Coast Editor

Albany Molecular Research Inc. (AMRI) pulled in $126.75 million through the sale of 3 million shares at $42.25 per share, well above its target of $105 million.

As the Albany, N.Y.-based company said last month it intended, another 1.1 million shares were sold by stockholders, in a transaction from which AMRI gets no proceeds. (See BioWorld Today, Sept. 8, 2000, p. 1.)

AMRI has 32.75 million shares outstanding, after the offering, underwritten by a syndicate of underwriters managed by Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown, Chase H&Q, CIBC World Markets, Prudential Vector Healthcare Group (a unit of Prudential Securities) and FAC/Equities. A stockholder has granted the underwriters the right to purchase an additional 615,000 shares of common stock as overallotments.

Focused on small molecules and ¿integrated chemistry research,¿ AMRI said it will use the proceeds for general corporate purposes, as working capital, and to fund potential acquisitions. A year ago, Albany acquired EnzyMed Inc., of Iowa City, Iowa, in a stock swap valued at $20.6 million. (See BioWorld Today, Sept. 10, 1999, p. 1.)

AMRI went public in February 1999, raising $50 million by selling 2.5 million shares at $20 each. Later that year, the company expanded its initial $6 million pact with DuPont Pharmaceuticals Co., of Wilmington, Del., and will get $8 million this year, plus $10 million each year after, on a year-to-year basis. (See BioWorld Today, Nov. 15, 1999, p. 1.)

As of June 30, the company had $12.29 million, according to a prospectus filed in connection with offering, which reported taking in $13.4 million, or about 45 percent of total revenues for the period, from AMRI¿s license of the antihistamine fexofenadine HC1 (known as Allegra in the U.S., and Telfast in the rest of the world) to Aventis Pharma AG, of Frankfurt, Germany. Revenues for last year from the license were $21.4 million, or 49 percent of total revenues for the period.

The company¿s stock (NASDAQ:AMRI) closed Friday at $42.25, unchanged.