Creative BioMolecules said Wednesday it completed aself-managed public offering in which it grossed $12.75million from the sale of 3 million shares to twoinstitutions.

The Hopkinton, Mass., company sold the stock at adiscount price of $4.25 per share, which was negotiatedlast week by the purchasers _ Amerindo InvestmentAdvisors Inc., of New York, a new investor that bought 2million shares, and an unnamed institution.

Creative BioMolecules' stock (NASDAQ:CBMI) closedWednesday at $5.41, down 47 cents per share.

"We were interested in bringing in major new investorsthat were knowledgeable about the industry, so there wasa reasonable prospect of them being long-term holders,"said Wayne Mayhew, vice president and chief financialofficer of Creative BioMolecules. "We weren't interestedin spending a long time doing this. So when it becameapparent that Amerindo and the other investor would bewilling to take as many as we would sell, there didn'tseem to be a need to talk further."

Creative BioMolecules has two products in the clinic.OP-1, an osteogenic protein being developed by partnerStryker Corp., of Kalamazoo, Mich., is in pivotal studiesfor non-union fractures, or fractures that don't knit backtogether. Creative BioMolecules is running a pilot trial ofa device for regeneration of tooth dentin.

"This [financing] gives us a good window to makeprogress in the various development activities we have,"Mayhew said, "and to do some additional partnering forother things we have in development, which we haven'ttalked a lot about."

Among the candidates in the company's preclinicalpipeline are OP-1 and platelet-derived growth factors forindications such as osteoporosis, periodontal tissue repairand gastrointestinal disorders.

Last year Creative BioMolecules reduced its burn rate bysigning a three-year, $18 million manufacturing contractwith Biogen Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., and cut staffabout 20 percent.

Proceeds from the offering, together with cash reportedon June 30, 1995, and the expected quarterly burn of lessthan $2 million, should leave Creative BioMolecules withabout $22 million to $24 million now. The company hasabout 28.8 million shares outstanding, which takes intoaccount the recent conversion of preferred stock into 5.5million common shares. That stock was sold inconnection with an $11.2 million private placement inDecember 1994. n

-- Jim Shrine

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