Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. got stuck, somewhat, inthe biotechnology industry's financing downturn, but stillcompleted a public offering that grossed more than $24million.

Regeneron, of Tarrytown, N.Y., said Thursday it sold 2.3million shares at $10.50 each, and netted about $22million before overallotments. New York-basedunderwriters Morgan Stanley & Co. Inc. and SmithBarney Inc. have an option to purchase up to 345,000additional shares.

Regeneron initially was seeking to sell 3 million shares atmore than $14 apiece. Its stock closed Thursday at$10.25, down $1.13, in trading of about 2.2 millionshares. The company now has about 21.8 million sharesoutstanding.

"We set out to raise enough cash to carry the companythrough the conclusion of a number of key clinical trials,"said Murray Goldberg, Regeneron's vice president,finance and administration and chief financial officer."We're pleased we achieved that objective even though itwas less than our original target.

"It's clear," Goldberg said, "as the road show progressedthat there was less money available for investment inbiotech than there was this past summer. The sizzle ofsummer is a fond memory, I'm afraid, as many of thecompanies that have done financings in recent weekshave discovered."

The $22 million financing together with the $38 millionin cash Regeneron will be reporting for the end ofSeptember is expected to take the company into 1998,Goldberg said. "That's what we set out to do," he said."In this market we think that's a significantaccomplishment."

Regeneron's lead programs, being developed withThousand Oaks, Calif.-based Amgen Inc., are brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) for amyotrophiclateral sclerosis (ALS) and neurotrophin-3 for peripheralneuropathies.

BDNF is being tested in a pivotal Phase III trial expectedto enroll about 1,050 ALS patients. Goldberg said wellover half of the patients are enrolled with the remainderexpected by the end of the year. Completion of the studyis expected by the end of 1996, he said.

In the same time frame, Regeneron would hope to havecompleted Phase II studies of BDNF and neurotrophin-3,both for peripheral neuropathies associated with diabetesand the use of chemotherapeutic agents.

Earlier this year Regeneron's chairman, P. Roy Vagelos,unveiled three new areas of research that evolved fromcompany researchers' work in neurological disorders.(See BioWorld Today, July 11, 1995, p. 2.)

The areas are a class of cytokine antagonists, focused oninterleukin-6, which is present in high levels in certaintumors. Another area involves a family of ligandsinvolved in angiogenesis. A third area involves theisolation of a muscle-specific growth factor. n

-- Jim Shrine

(c) 1997 American Health Consultants. All rights reserved.