By Randall Osborne

On the heels of a deal with Pfizer Inc. worth up to $50 million, Oxford GlycoSciences plc (OGS) priced its initial public offering (IPO) on the London Stock Exchange to raise another £30.8 million (US$51.26 million).

OGS, of Abingdon, U.K., placed 11 million new ordinary shares at 280 pence per share, which capitalizes the company at about £103 million (US$171.42 million).

The newly issued shares make up about one-third of the enlarged issue share capital of the company, which said it had about £40 million (US$66.57 million) in cash reserves.

In addition to the Pfizer pact, OGS said another deal made earlier this year with Incyte Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Palo Alto, Calif., has led to a two-year proteomics collaboration with diaDexus, the joint diagnostics venture formed last year by Incyte and SmithKline Beecham plc, of London. (See BioWorld Today, Sept. 4, 1997, p. 1, and Jan. 15, 1998, p. 1.)

With New York-based Pfizer, OGS aims to identify disease specific proteins as potential diagnostics, clinical markers and drug targets in Alzheimer's disease.

Under terms of the deal, Pfizer will fund research for two years, and the clinical collaboration will continue for another five years. When the proteomics analysis of its Alzheimer's disease samples is finished, Pfizer has the option to select another disease for research.

Pfizer and OGS jointly will own any intellectual property, with OGS retaining the right to commercialize diagnostic markers.

As the IPO was priced, Pfizer and Incyte also agreed to subscribe to 537,865 shares and 161,359 shares respectively, raising another £2 million (US$3.32 million) for OGS.

With diaDexus, of Santa Clara, Calif., OGS and Incyte will pursue the proteomic analysis of prostate samples to identify novel diagnostic markers for prostate cancer. OGS will generate protein expression profiles of clinical serum samples provided by diaDexus, which will be referenced against Incyte's LifeSeq gene sequence and expression database.

Incyte and OGS jointly will own data and intellectual property created in the partnership, with diaDexus retaining rights in the diagnostics field in exchange for license fees to be shared by Incyte and OGS.

The three companies will share profits from diagnostic products developed by diaDexus, with Incyte and OGS having rights to jointly commercialize data or property in other fields.

The underwriter for OGS' IPO is Dresdner Kleinwort Benson, of New York, which acted as sponsor, with Cazenove & Co., of London, serving as broker. Nuala Moran in London contributed to this report