By Lisa Seachrist

Washington Editor

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. will raise approximately $17 million through the sale of 573,630 shares of common stock to Procter & Gamble Co. at $29.75 per share.

Regeneron's stock (NASDAQ:REGN) closed Thursday at $24.875, up $4.50, or 22 percent.

The sale represents the completion of an equity investment by Procter & Gamble detailed in a 1997 agreement between the two companies that granted Tarrytown, N.Y.-based Regeneron the right to sell $17 million in common stock to Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble. The share price is the same as that in Regeneron's recent public offering, when the company raised $77.35 million. The sale is expected to close in August. (See BioWorld Today, March 31, 2000, p. 1.)

Once finalized, Procter & Gamble will own approximately 5.7 million shares of Regeneron stock, or about 16 percent of the company. Procter & Gamble has warrants to purchase an additional 1.45 million shares of stock. Those warrants expire in two years.

Under the terms of the original deal, valued up to $135 million, Procter & Gamble gained the rights to 50 percent of the profits from Regeneron's unpartnered technologies. Those included angiopoietins, or naturally occurring protein ligands specific to growth of blood vessels; muscle-specific growth factor receptors; and bone-growth antagonists. (See BioWorld Today, May 14, 1997, p. 1.)

Regeneron's most advanced product is Axokine, which has just entered a Phase II dosing study for the treatment of obesity. The drug is a second-generation ciliary neurotrophic factor. The company also is developing brain-derived neurotrophic factor as a treatment for ALS in collaboration with Amgen Inc., of Thousand Oaks, Calif.