LifeCell Corp. said Thursday that it raised about $5.3 million in aprivate offering of 263,250 units at $20 per unit. The Woodlands,Texas, company netted about $5 million from the offering.

Each unit included one share of Series A convertible preferred stock,convertible into 6.69 shares of common stock at a price of $2.99 pershare, and one warrant to purchase one share of common stock.

The preferred stock is convertible at any time, and automaticallyconverts after Nov. 9, 1997. It bears dividend rates of $1.20, $1.60and $2 per share for each of the first three years, respectively. Thewarrants are exercisable for one share of common stock at $3.26 thefirst year and $3.54 the second year.

LifeCell's stock (NASDAQ:LIFC) closed at $2.88 Thursday, up 13cents per share. The company has about 4.3 million sharesoutstanding; conversion of the preferred stock will result in another1.76 million shares. The company, burning about $350,000 permonth, has the cash to take it into mid-1996, Anthony Brown,LifeCell's vice president and chief financial officer, told BioWorld.

Two significant investors in the offering were Allstate Insurance Co.,which already held 16 percent of LifeCell, and Medtronic Inc. ofMinneapolis, which has an agreement with LifeCell related todevelopment of porcine tissue heart valves.

LifeCell's AlloDerm product, a universal tissue graft, is being usedas a treatment for third-degree burns. The cadaver skin is beingclinically evaluated in chronic skin ulcers, and the company islooking into periodontal indications. _ Jim Shrine

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