Anergen Inc. has arranged financing totaling $8.7 million, $7.5 millionof which will come from a series of five private placements and $1.2million from an equipment and facilities financing deal with SiliconValley Bank, the Redwood City, Calif., company announced Monday.The private placement will provide money to Anergen in five $1.5million increments over 12 months. Each closing will use the marketprice of the company's stock (NASDAQ:ANRG) over an undisclosedperiod with no discount to investors. The first closing is expected totake place in June.Investors also will receive warrants to buy additional stock at apremium to the market, which will be exercisable for 30 percent of thenumber of shares originally purchased."In this environment, we were glad to get this done," John Varian,Anergen's chief financial officer, told BioWorld. "I think it's a veryfavorable financing for Anergen."Anergen had about $8.2 million cash and receivables on March 31, andis burning about $7 million per year, Varian said. Prior to thefinancing, Anergen had about 7 million shares outstanding.The money will help fund clinical development of Anergen's products,including AnervaX, a therapeutic vaccine intended for rheumatoidarthritis that is in Phase I trials. The company plans to file aninvestigational new drug application this year for AnergiX for multiplesclerosis. _ Jim Shrine

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