By Karen Pihl-Carey

Aviron received a commitment for up to $48 million in equity financing for the next year from Acqua Wellington Asset Management LLC.

The funds are available over the next 12 months for Aviron, of Mountain View, Calif., to use at its discretion. The company presented news of the financing Thursday at the Chase H&Q Healthcare Conference in San Francisco.

"What Aviron needs to do this year is to prepare itself operationally for a successful submission of a biologics license application [BLA] with the FDA for FluMist," said Fred Kurland, senior vice president and chief financial officer at Aviron. "And the funds from this transaction will be used to support all that has to be done within our operations to accomplish that goal."

Net proceeds also will be used to fund operating costs, capital expenditures and working capital needs, as well as the development of a second-generation FluMist and the research and development of the company's other pipeline products.

"We expect that most, if not all, of these funds would come into Aviron over the course of the year," Kurland told BioWorld Today.

Aviron had cash and cash equivalents of just less than $50 million as of Sept. 30. The company has about 16.5 million outstanding shares.

Kurland said it's too early to tell how many shares are at stake in the financing, or at what price they will be offered. "Each time we take in money, that's the time we sell some shares," he said. "So the price will be determined based on the market at that time." Acqua Wellington will receive a small discount to the market price.

Aviron's shares (NASDAQ:AVIR) closed Thursday at $18.375, down 62.5 cents. At that price, the financing would involve about 2.6 million shares.

FluMist is a nose-spray influenza vaccine. It is designed to stimulate the mucosal immune system, as well as the systemic immune system, resulting in a strong cytotoxic T-cell response.

Aviron expected to file a BLA for FluMist by the end of 1999, but the filing was delayed due to validation testing and potential problems with the contract manufacturer, Medeva Pharma Ltd., of Liverpool, UK. Now the company expects the product will reach the market a year later, in fall 2001, in time for that year's flu season. (See BioWorld Today, Nov. 16, 1999, p. 1.)

The company also made plans in September to offer up to $100 million of securities over a two-year period through a shelf registration to prepare for the marketing of FluMist. (See BioWorld Today, Sept. 17, 1999, p. 1.)

In preclinical and clinical testing, Aviron is developing other products to battle parainfluenza, Epstein-Barr virus and cytomegalovirus, as well as respiratory syncytial virus and herpes simplex virus.