The second Sepracor Inc. spinoff to go public in the past two weeks hascompleted its initial public offering (IPO). HemaSure Inc. ofMarlborough, Mass., sold about 2.18 million shares at $7 per share,grossing $15.2 million with a net of $13.1 million.The offering leaves the company with 5.18 million shares outstanding,3 million (58 percent) of which are held by Sepracor, whose percentageownership would drop to about 54 percent if underwriter D. Blech &Co. exercises its option to buy 326,250 shares to cover overallotments.HemaSure, in its registration statement, proposed selling 2.3 millionshares at $6.50 to $8.50 per share.BioSepra Inc., another Sepracor spinoff, completed its IPO on March25, selling 3 million shares at $7 per share for a gross of $21 million.All three companies are headquartered in the same Marlboroughlocation.New York-based D. Blech also was the lead underwriter for theBioSepra IPO, and in that role now has completed four public offeringsthis year. Six other biotechnology companies have IPOs pending withD. Blech as lead manager.Sepracor in January announced the restructuring plan in whichBioSepra would take over the bioprocessing activities and HemaSurewould develop blood-related products based on the company's viralinactivation and separation technologies. Sepracor will concentrate onthe development of single-isomer versions of existing drugs and on theproduction of chiral drugs, drug intermediates and bulk genericcompounds.Eugene Zurlo, formerly the executive vice president and chiefoperating officer at the New York Blood Bank, is HemaSure'spresident and chief executive officer.HemaSure was incorporated in December. Sepracor, in exchange forthe 3 million shares of stock, transferred to HemaSure its membranetechnology, and also the plant for producing membranes and medicaldevices.HemaSure expects its initial product, the LeukoNet Filter (designed toremove leukocytes from donated blood), will be submitted to the FDAfor marketing approval early in the fourth quarter.

-- Jim Shrine

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