By Mary Welch
Lynx Therapeutics Inc. registered to sell 1.5 million shares of stock that, based on Wednesday¿s opening price of $46.25, would yield the Hayward, Calif.-based company about $69.4 million.
The company¿s stock took a $21 hit Tuesday, before the filing, when it fell along with many others in the biotech industry. Lynx¿s stock (NASDAQ:LYNX) closed Wednesday at $35.75, down $10.50.
The company, which develops and applies novel technologies for the discovery of gene expression patterns and genomic variations, intend to use the proceeds for its ongoing commercial research and development activities as well as for working capital. The money should allow the company to operate through 2001.
Lynx will grant the underwriters an additional 225,000 shares to cover overallotments. The offering is being made through an underwriting group managed by Chase H&Q, Robertson Stephens, and Punk, Ziegel & Co., all of New York, and Dain Rauscher Wessels, of Minneapolis. After the offering there will be 12.8 million shares outstanding.
The company¿s technologies are based on Megaclone, its proprietary cloning procedure, which transforms a sample containing millions of DNA molecules into one made up of millions of micro-beads. Each micro-bead carries approximately 100,000 copies of one of the DNA molecules in the sample.
Current collaborators and customers include BASF AG, of Ludwigshafen, Germany; DuPont, of Wilmington, Del.; and Aventis Crop Science, of Frankfurt, Germany.
Based on Megaclone, the company has developed an array of applications that have the potential to enhance genomics and genetics research programs, it said.
The three basic applications of Megaclone are Massively Parallel Signature Sequencing (MPSS), Megasort and Megatype. MPSS generates simultaneously sequence information that uniquely identifies a sample¿s DNA molecules without the need for individual conventional sequencing reactions. Megasort enables researchers to focus on potential target genes by permitting, from a single experiment, the direct physical isolation of nearly all the genes differentially expressed between samples.
Megatype should enable a single experiment to yield directly, without individual genotyping, those disease- or trait-associated single nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs, that differentiate large populations of genomes, the company said.
Lynx also intends to develop products internally and then license or sell gene targets, validated gene targets, genetic associations, genomic maps and other products. For example, the company is pursuing projects directed to gene discovery and target validation in immunopathology and, through BASF, central nervous system disorders.
Revenues for 1999 were $12.9 million, with a net loss of $6.7 million. As of Dec. 31, the company had $30.8 million in cash.
Lynx was formed in 1992 as a spin-off of Applied Biosystems Inc., of Foster City, Calif., which was acquired in 1993 by Perkin Elmer Corp., of Norwalk, Conn.