By Debbie Strickland

Less than a month after registering for a follow-on public offering, CV Therapeutics Inc. beat projections, raising $19 million by issuing 2.3 million shares priced at $8.25 each.

The gross is nearly 20 percent more than the $15.9 million projected in the original registration statement, which called for issuing 1.7 million shares at $9.375 each. (See BioWorld Today, Jan. 8, 1998, p. 1.)

An overallotment option of 275,000 shares could produce an additional $2.3 million.

This fresh shot of cash boosts the Palo Alto, Calif., firm's reserves by about 50 percent, providing sufficient operating funds to last through the third quarter of 1999. As of Sept. 30, 1997, CV Therapeutics had $40 million in cash, following a net loss of $7.8 million in the first nine months of 1997.

CV Therapeutics specializes in small-molecule drugs for cardiovascular diseases. Its lead product, an angina drug called ranolazine, has advanced to Phase III trials.

The bulk of the offering's proceeds — about $12 million — will support research and development, including clinical trials for ranolazine, which entered the first of multiple Phase III studies in October. The one-year, 14-site trial is expected to enroll 108 patients, with a key endpoint of angina-limited exercise duration, as measured on a treadmill.

The company plans this year to launch additional clinical pharmacology, open-label and safety studies of the drug, which lets the heart burn glucose rather than fat for energy, lowering its demand for oxygen without reducing heart rate, blood pressure or pumping ability in stable (chronic) angina.

About 7 million patients in the U.S. suffer from angina. Of those, about 15 percent at some point become unstable and undergo chest pain at irregular intervals.

CV Therapeutics' only other clinical-stage product is CVT-124, an adenosine A(1) receptor antagonist with potential applications in the treatment of edema associated with congestive heart failure and the prevention and treatment of acute renal failure.

The company's centerpiece collaboration is with Biogen Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., which, in March 1997, paid $16 million up front for an exclusive worldwide license to CVT-124 in all indications.

In a Phase II study completed last year in moderately severe CHF patients, CVT-124 was well-tolerated and produced clinically useful and statistically significant increases in urine, sodium and chloride excretion compared to placebo, with clinically minimal increases in potassium excretion. (See BioWorld Today, Oct. 31, 1997, p. 2.)

CV Therapeutics' shares (NASDAQ:CVTX) closed Thursday at $8.375, down $0.125. *