By Karen Pihl-Carey

ViroPharma Inc. plans to offer $100 million of convertible subordinated notes due 2007 to help pay for the commercialization of pleconaril, its lead product to treat viral meningitis.

"We hope that this will provide us the capital that we need to get us to the potential launch of pleconaril," said Kori Beer, director of corporate communications at ViroPharma, based in Exton, Pa.

While the company expects to launch pleconaril in 2001, it believes proceeds from the private offering will last until mid-2002, Beer said.

The private offering includes an option to issue an additional $20 million of notes. All notes will be convertible into shares of ViroPharma common stock and will be subordinated in right of payment to all senior indebtedness of ViroPharma.

In addition to paying for the commercialization of pleconaril, the proceeds will cover the potential acquisition of marketed products, ongoing clinical trials for hepatitis C and respiratory syncytial virus disease product candidates, ongoing research, further clinical development of pleconaril and for general corporate purposes.

To prepare for the marketing of pleconaril, ViroPharma expects funds will be needed for the manufacturing of initial launch inventory and the building of an infrastructure.

"We'll be hiring a specialty sales force to market pleconaril for the treatment of viral meningitis," Beer told BioWorld Today.

ViroPharma began Phase III trials of pleconaril to treat viral meningitis in July 1998. The company expects to file a new drug application for the product within the next three or four months. If it receives marketing approval, ViroPharma has plans to establish a sales force of 50 to 70 people to market the drug to emergency medicine, infectious disease and pediatric infectious disease specialists.

A Phase III trial of pleconaril in viral respiratory infection, a severe form of the common cold, was initiated in September 1999. In Phase II studies, the drug reduced by 3.5 days the median time to complete symptom elimination.

ViroPharma also has two other product candidates moving into the clinic. It expects to begin clinical trials of VP50406 to treat hepatitis C this quarter, and VP14637 should move into the clinic to treat a disease caused by respiratory syncytial virus in the second half of this year, Beer said.

The company planned to sell 3 million shares of its common stock for $23.44 a share in September to raise about $70 million. A month later it ended up raising $57 million due to a drop in stock price. (See BioWorld Today, Sept. 23, 1999, p. 1.)

The company's stock (NASDAQ:VPHM) closed Wednesday at $76.25, up $4.25.