Cantab Pharmaceuticals plc on Thursday announced that itintends to seek a listing for its common shares on the LondonStock Exchange this fall; the company hopes to raise between#15 million and #20 million (U.S. $22.2 million and $29.6million at Thursday's exchange rates) in the offering.

Barclays de Zoete Wedd Ltd. will serve as underwriter. Theshares will not be offered or sold in the U.S. Cantab's AmericanDepositary Shares (CNTBY) trade on NASDAQ, and the stockclosed at $7.25 a share on Thursday, down 25 cents.

Cantab of Cambridge, England, said it will convene a specialshareholdersU meeting on Oct. 4 to seek approval for theproposed offering.

Cantab completed its U.S. IPO in the summer of 1992, grossing$10 million from the sale of 1 million shares. The company alsoraised $5 million in a private placement to institutionalinvestors in July.

So far, British Bio-technology Group plc is the only Britishbiotechnology company listed on the London Stock Exchange.The London exchange planned early this year to relaxguidelines and make it easier for biopharmaceutical companiesto gain access to public funding. Previously, the Londonexchange required any company that wanted to be listed toshow a five-year profit record.

New rules would allow a company that doesn't have anyproduct sales to seek a listing, but the company would have tobe at least 3 years old and have at least two drugs in clinicaltrials. The company must also prove its worth with patentseither granted or in process and collaborative R&D agreementwith "organizations of high standing and repute." And it wouldhave to prove that it has at least two years of operating capitalfollowing the public offering.

Cantab's agreements include pacts with Baxter Helathcare Corp.for an agent to prevent organ rejection; the University ofOxford, which gives the company the option to acquire rights tocertain inventions concerning the therapeutic use of T cellreceptors; and Cancer Research Campaign Technology Ltd. tocollaborate on the development of a novel immunotherapeuticproduct for genital warts.

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