Advanced Tissue Sciences Inc. (ATS) has joined the growing listof biotechnology companies hoping to cash in on the good willthat public investors seem to bear toward biotechnology thesedays.

On Friday, ATS filed a registration statement with theSecurities and Exchange Commission for 2.5 million shares ofcommon stock (NASDAQ:ATIS). At Friday's closing price of $9 ashare (down 13 cents), the La Jolla, Calif., company couldgarner as much as $22.5 million from the offering.

Montgomery Securities, Dillon, Read & Co. Inc. and SmithBarney Shearson Inc. will co-manage the underwriting group.

ATS, which specializes in tissue engineering, intends to use theproceeds from the offering to fund clinical trials and productdevelopment activities for its DermaGraft product family, aswell as to support continuing R&D of other therapeutic productsincorporating human tissues.

ATS is developing DermaGraft, a living human dermal skinreplacement product, for treating a variety of indications,including burns and venous stasis ulcers. In fact, patientenrollment in the Phase III clinical trial on DermaGraft fortreating venous stasis ulcers was just completed in lateNovember.

The last time ATS sought money from public sources was inDecember 1991, with a follow-on offering of 2 million shares ofcommon stock. That offering, which closed in February 1992,grossing $29 million at $14.50 a share, was timed to coincidewith the company's name change. Under its previous name,Marrow-Tech Inc., the company raised $5 million in its June1988 initial public offering.

As of the third quarter, ended Sept. 30, ATS had 27.1 millionshares outstanding. The company reported cash, equivalentsand short-term investments of $27.4 million, and a net loss of$5.1 million for the quarter.

-- Jennifer Van Brunt Senior Editor

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