By Lisa Seachrist

Washington Editor

Angiotech Pharmaceuticals Inc. raised $93.6 million in a public offering aimed at netting the company enough cash to continue the clinical development of its paclitaxel products.

The Vancouver, British Columbia-based company sold 1.75 million shares of common stock at $53.50 (C$78.77) for gross proceeds of $93.63 million (C$137.8 million). Should the underwriters choose to exercise their option to buy 262,500 shares to cover overallotments, the gross proceeds will jump to $107.7 million.

If the underwriters exercise their full option, the company will have approximately 15.4 million shares outstanding. Because the underwriters have yet to exercise their overallotment option, the company is in an SEC-imposed quiet period and declined to comment.

The offering was jointly led by Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown and Merrill Lynch & Co., both of New York. U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray, of Minneapolis, served as co-manager. In addition Loewen, Ondaatje, McCutcheon Ltd. and Yorkton Securities Inc. acted as members of the underwriting syndicate in Canada.

With the proceeds of the offering before the underwriters' option, Angiotech will have roughly $114.7 million in cash.

Angiotech sought the cash to advance its clinical programs and develop stronger negotiating positions when seeking development and marketing partners. It has two drugs in clinical development for three indications based on its reformulation of the cancer drug paclitaxel.

Its most advanced drug is a systemic formulation of paclitaxel as a treatment for progressive multiple sclerosis. The nine-month clinical trial started in November and will enroll 189 patients at seven centers in Canada. The primary endpoint is new brain lesion activity compared to the control group during the treatment phase as demonstrated by magnetic resonance imaging.

The company has a topical paclitaxel gel for the treatment of psoriasis in Phase I and Phase I/II trials. A micellar version of paclitaxel is in Phase I development for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.

Angiotech uses paclitaxel - the generic name of Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.'s cancer drug Taxol - for indications other than cancer, such as chronic inflammatory and angiogenesis-dependent diseases. The company said it does not need to compensate Bristol-Myers because the pharmaceutical firm lacks a composition-of-matter patent on Taxol. (See BioWorld Today, June 18, 1999 p. 1.)

The company's stock (NASDAQ:ANPI) closed Friday at $53.625, down $5.875.