Isis Pharmaceuticals Inc. announced Friday that it hascompleted its recent PIPE (private investment in public entity)financing, raising $20.3 million.

Isis sold slightly more than 3.1 million newly issued shares ofcommon stock (NASDAQ:ISIP) to a group of institutional andprivate investors at $6.50 per share. The company raised $2.5million more in this financing than it had reported on Nov. 24;at that time, Isis had sold about 2.7 million shares at $6.50 ashare, a 5.5 percent discount from the trading price of the stockthe previous day, for a total of $17.7 million.

But "there was additional demand for the stock between thenand the closing of the deal (Dec. 10), so we filled out the offerto the maximum allowable by the SEC (20 percent of existingoutstanding shares)," explained Jacqueline Siegel, vicepresident and chief financial officer of the Carlsbad, Calif.,company. Including the stock issued for this transaction, Isisnow has 18.7 million shares of common stock outstanding.

The S3 registration statement for the offering, which wasarranged by Mehta and Isaly, became effective Dec. 3.

The proceeds of $20.3 million add substantially to Isis' coffers.As of Sept. 30, the company had about $37.8 million in cash,cash equivalents and short-term investments, and reported netlosses of $4.6 million for the quarter.

The stock gained 25 cents a share on Friday to close at $6.63.

GTI'S UNDERWRITERS EXERCISE PORTION OF ALLOTMENTS

By Jennifer Van BruntSenior Editor

Genetic Therapy Inc. announced Friday that the underwritersof its follow-on public stock offering of 2.2 million shares ofcommon stock have exercised a portion of their overallotmentoption in connection with the offering. Certain stockholders sold200,000 shares and the company sold the remainder.

The underwriters, Smith Barney Shearson Inc. andMontgomery Securities, purchased an additional 23,700 shares,far less than the standard 15 percent allowable (in this case,330,000 shares).

Genetic Therapy of Gaithersburg, Md., grossed $35.2 million inthe follow-on offering, it's second in 1993, which closed Nov.18. As of Sept. 30, the gene therapy company had about $43.3million in cash, short-term investments and marketablesecurities. It also reported a net loss of $2.2 million for thethird quarter.

Genetic Therapy's stock (NASDAQ:GTII) lost 13 cents a share onFriday, closing at $16.13.

-- Jennifer Van Brunt Senior Editor

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