Sepracor Inc. officials, who two months ago had about ayear's worth of cash in the bank, were breathing easierWednesday after their public offering of 4 million sharesfilled the company's coffers with $54.6 million.

Sepracor's chief financial officer, David Southwell, said akey element of the successful offering is that theMarlborough, Mass.-based company now has moreflexibility in the development of its products. Sepracormakes single-isomer forms of existing pharmaceuticals,such as albuterol (a bronchodilator) and terfenadinecarboxylate (an antihistamine), to improve them andreduce side effects.

In early June Sepracor registered 3 million shares for itsfollow-on offering. The company's stock(NASDAQ:SEPR) was selling at about $12 and it hadabout 12 months of cash.

When the offering was complete Wednesday, Sepracorsold 4 million shares at $14.50 for gross proceeds of $58million. Smith Barney Inc., of New York, managed thesale while Lehman Brothers Inc., of New York, andVolpe, Welty & Co., of San Francisco acted as co-managers. Sepracor's stock closed Wednesday at $15.50,up 44 cents.

"The offering was very oversubscribed," Southwell said,"primarily because of demand."

Sepracor has not released its second quarter fiscal report,but based on first quarter figures it now has $67 millionin cash. With a burn rate of about $15 million a year, thecompany has enough resources for more than four years.Following the offering it has 22.6 million sharesoutstanding.

Sepracor has two publicly traded subsidiaries, HemaSureInc. and BioSepra Inc. The three companies have acombined $84 million in cash. _ Charles Craig

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