The Liposome Co. Inc. filed a registration statement proposing thepublic offering of 3 million shares of common stock.

The Princeton, N.J., company's stock closed at $10.63 per shareWednesday, down 69 cents. At that price the offering would grossabout $31.9 million. Hambrecht & Quist Inc., of San Francisco, andUBS Securities Inc., of New York, will co-manage the offering.

The Liposome Co. has about 24 million shares outstanding andreported about $72.2 million in cash and securities on Dec. 31. Thecompany had a net loss of about $10 million in the quarter that endedDec. 31.

The company said proceeds will be used in the commercialization ofABLC/Abelcet, or amphotericin B lipid complex. The drug recentlywas approved in the U.K. as a first-line treatment of cryptococcalmeningitis and systemic cryptococcosis in patients with AIDS, andfor severe systemic fungal infections in refractory patients.

The company has filed for approval of Abelcet in 18 other countries,and expects to file a new drug application in the U.S. by the end of1995. The Liposome Co. said the proceeds will go towardmanufacturing expansion, marketing, refitting of a manufacturingfacility in Indianapolis, and clinical testing of Abelcet.

Additionally, the company said a portion of the proceeds will gotoward testing of TLC C-53 and other products, research and generalcorporate purposes. The Liposome Co. is planning for a large,controlled study of TLC C-53 for acute respiratory distress syndrome(ARDS). The company in February reported positive results from aPhase II study of TLC C-53 in ARDS, and said it planned to initiate atrial of the drug for sepsis.

Another drug, TLC D-99, a liposomal doxorubicin product, is beingdeveloped in collaboration with New York-based Pfizer Inc., whichacquired worldwide marketing and manufacturing rights in 1990.Pfizer is paying Liposome's share of the development costs.

The companies started Phase III trials of TLC D-99 in metastaticbreast cancer in December. One trial is comparing the product withconventional doxorubicin (a widely used chemotherapeutic agent),and another is comparing a combination of TLC D-99 andcyclophosphamide to that drug and conventional doxorubicin. Theintent is to show the drug has equivalent efficacy and a better safetyprofile to the drugs with which it's being compared. n

-- Jim Shrine

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