SangStat Medical Corp. said Tuesday that it raised $5.6 million in aprivate placement with three venture capital firms.

Maria Straatmann, the Menlo Park, Calif., company's director ofinvestment relations, would not reveal the venture capital firmsinvolved in the placement. Nor would she say how long the moneywas expected to last SangStat.

The company sold 1.4 million shares at $4 apiece, which was anundisclosed discount to the market price. As a condition of the sale,the new shares won't be registered until Aug. 31, she said.

SangStat's stock (NASDAQ:SANG) was up 13 cents Tuesday,closing at $4.88 per share.

Including the new shares, SangStat has about 8.5 million sharesoutstanding. It reported about $8.3 million in cash on Sept. 30 and aloss for the quarter of $1.2 million. Based on those figures, thecompany now would have about $12.7 million in cash. If the burnrate stays the same, the money would last about 10.5 months.

The money raised in the private placement won't be used for projectsrelated to SangStat's new subsidiary, XenoStat Inc., which wasformed in November to focus on long-term projects inxenotransplantation, Straatmann said.

"We're using this money to move into the commercial phase of thebusiness," she said. That includes funding a Phase III U.S. trial ofThymoglobulin for graft rejection. The company has filed formarketing approval in Canada for that product. Another product,Allotrap, is in Phase II trials in France to promote graft acceptancefollowing transplantation. The company said it has 11 products orproduct candidates. _ Jim Shrine

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