Vivus Inc. said Thursday it sold 1.67 million shares of common stockat $14.40 per share. The net from the public offering was $22.8million. (For news of the initial announcement of this offering, seeBioWorld Today, March 17, 1995, p. 5.)

Also, a shareholder sold 130,000 shares in the offering. InvemedAssociates Inc., of New York, underwrote the offering, and has anoption to purchase 270,000 shares from certain shareholders to coveroverallotments.

The Menlo Park, Calif., company, which is developing a treatmentfor impotence, now has about 13.4 million shares outstanding. The$14.40 price was a 10 percent discount to the $16 closing price ofVivus (NASDAQ:VVUS) on Wednesday. The company's stockclosed at $14.06 Thursday, down $1.94.

Vivus reported $41 million in cash and equivalents on Dec. 31, witha net loss of $14.9 million in 1994. Barbara Clark, Vivus' manager ofinvestor services, said the company didn't need the money now butdecided on the offering because the interest was there. She said Vivuswill have to go to the market again before it is generating revenuesfrom product sales.

Vivus has completed enrollment in a Phase III U.S. trial of itsproduct called Medicated Urethral System for Erection (MUSE)-alprostadil. The double-blind, placebo-controlled study includesabout 990 men.

The product is a single-use plastic applicator that delivers the genericdrug alprostadil into the urethra. The primary endpoint is the abilityof the patient to have sexual intercourse. Vivus expects to file forapproval in 1996, Clark said.

A similarly designed Phase III trial is ongoing in Europe. Clark saidthe company will be looking for a marketing partner outside the U.S._ Jim Shrine

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