Biosepra Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Sepracor Inc., announcedTuesday that it has filed with the Securities and ExchangeCommission for an initial public offering of 3 million shares ofcommon stock priced at $6.50 to $8.50 per share.

If the offering is completed, it will bring the new company grossproceeds of $19.5 million to $25.5 million. The offering will bemanaged by D. Blech and Co., which has been offered the option topurchase up to an additional 450,000 shares of stock to cover anyoverallotments.

Biosepra was spun off from Sepracor of Marlborough, Mass., lastmonth as part of the parent company's plan to separate its variousdevelopmental technologies into individual specialized companies(see BioWorld, Jan. 10). In addition to forming Biosepra, Sepracor alsoformed HemaSure Inc., a company that makes blood-related productsbased on Sepracor's viral inactivation and separation technologies.All three companies are currently located at the same corporateheadquarters.

Biosepra has essentially taken over the bioprocessing activitiespreviously conducted by Sepracor S.A., a French subsidiary ofSepracor, Biosepra's president and chief executive officer, WilliamRich, told BioWorld. Sepracor S.A. was originally a spinoff of Rhone-Poulenc Rorer called IBF before being acquired by Sepracor in 1991.

Biosepra develops, manufactures and sells chromatographic mediaand process development systems for use by pharmaceuticalcompanies in the purification and production of biopharmaceuticals.The company currently markets the HyperD line of chromatographymedia products (developed by Sepracor subsequent to its acquisitionof IBF), which the company said can significantly increase theproductivity of many purification applications. Later this yearBiosepra plans to introduce the ProSys Workstation, a computer-controlled rational process design tool.

In acquiring Sepracor S.A.'s bioprocessing business (effective Jan. 1),Biosepra also gained all outstanding shares of the subsidiary.Biosepra's cash requirements will be met by Sepracor until thecompletion of the offering, Rich noted.

-- Karl A. Thiel Associate Editor

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