George Soros' Quantum Fund has purchased an 18 percentequity stake in Cortex Pharmaceuticals Inc.

The purchase was revealed last week when Soros filed a 13Dstatement with the Securities and Exchange Commission,required when an investor takes more than a 5 percent stakein a company.

Billionaire Soros was one of eight institutional investors whobought shares of Cortex common stock (NASDAQ:CORX) in aprivate placement. Soros purchased 5.5 million of the 13.75million shares offered at $1 per share. Cortex of Irvine, Calif.,announced the completion of the placement last week.

Cortex's stock was up 13 cents a share on Friday to close at$2.50.

Alan Steigrod, president and chief executive officer of Cortex,said the $13.75 million raised in the offering will go towardgetting the company's lead products into clinical trials. Headded that Cortex will expand its staff from 20 to more than 35over the next 12 months.

The company is developing an ampakine compound formanagement of mild dementias in the elderly (see BioWorld,Nov. 4).

Soros' Quantum Fund also has an investment in InControl Inc., abiomedical device company in Redmond, Wash.

-- Brenda Sandburg News Editor

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