CoCensys Inc. said Thursday that it completed a self-managedprivate financing that raised $12.1 million through the sale of 3.7million shares of stock and 1.5 million warrants.

The per-share price, negotiated earlier this year when the company'sstock was lower, was $3.25. CoCensys' stock (NASDAQ:COCN)closed Thursday at $4.63, up 13 cents. With the transaction, thecompany has about 19 million shares outstanding, and would have20.5 million upon exercise of the warrants.

On March 31, CoCensys, of Irvine, Calif., reported cash andequivalents of about $10.2 million. With this financing, and amonthly burn rate of $1.3 million, the company is expected to endthis quarter with about $18.4 million.

More than half of the money in this financing came from existinginvestors, said Daniel Korpolinski, president and CEO of CoCensys.He said the company wanted to give itself two to two-and-one-halfyears of cash in case the financial markets don't improve.

Joseph Fojtasek, CoCensys' chief financial officer, said the financingis one part of the company's three-part strategy to be independent ofthe equity markets. A second part of that strategy was achieved withthe Ciba-Geigy Ltd. collaboration. And a third piece would comefrom the establishment of another corporate partnership.

CoCensys and Ciba, of Basel, Switzerland, began trials earlier thisyear of Acea 1021 for stroke. The FDA clearance for the trialtriggered a $5 million milestone commitment from Ciba for thepurchase of CoCensys stock. Last year the companies entered anagreement in which CoCensys developed a sales force to sell for Cibaproducts. CoCensys expects to realize $19.2 million from thecollaboration this year from the milestone payment, sales efforts anda $7 million line of credit made available by Ciba.

CoCensys has another development program based on Epalons,which are ligands that enhance the activity of gamma-aminobutyricacid, an inhibitory neurotransmitter in the central nervous system.

The company's second product in clinical trials, CCD 1042, asynthetically modified Epalon compound, is in Phase II for epilepsy.n

-- Jim Shrine

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