Alpha-Beta Technology Inc. announced Monday that it has fileda registration statement with the Securities and ExchangeCommission (SEC) for a follow-on offering of 1.3 million sharesof its common stock.

Alex. Brown & Sons Inc., Vector Securities International Inc.and Kidder, Peabody & Co. Inc. will manage the underwriting.The underwriters have an option to purchase an additional195,000 shares of common stock (NASDAQ:ABTI) to cover anyoverallotments. Excluding the overallotment, the company willhave 11.5 million shares outstanding.

Alpha-Beta of Worcester, Mass., raised close to $20 million inJuly from a private financing. That type of financing -- bywhich biotechnology companies sold newly issued shares ofcommon stock to private investors at a discount to the publicprice -- proved to be a popular and successful means of raisingcash during the dry summer months.

If Alpha-Beta sells all the shares in the latest follow-onoffering, it could add another $40 million to its coffers. Thecompany went public in October 1992, raising $16 million byselling 2 million shares at $8 each. As of Sept. 30, Alpha-Betahad $27.2 million in cash, cash equivalents and short- andlong-term investments, according to Braden Bohrmann, Alpha-Beta's chief financial officer.

The company has also been burning cash at about $3.1 millionper quarter; it reported a net loss of $9.3 million for the firstnine months of 1993.

Alpha-Beta's lead product, Betafectin, is a carbohydrateimmunotherapeutic for the prevention and treatment ofinfection.

In October at the American College of Surgeons ClinicalCongress in San Francisco, Harvard University thoracic andgastrointestinal surgeon Timothy Babineau reported data froma Phase II clinical trial on Betafectin's ability to prevent andtreat post-operative infections in high-risk individualsfollowing major surgery.

In the 30-patient study, the 17 individuals receiving Betafectinhad significant reductions (about 70 percent) in the number ofinfectious complications, as well as fewer days in intensive careand shorter overall hospital stays. In the second quarter of1992, the company expanded the Phase II trials to includepatients undergoing chest or abdominal surgery.

Alpha-Beta's stock gained 25 cents a share on Monday, closingat $31.

-- Jennifer Van Brunt Senior Editor

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