Hemosol Inc. has filed for a "primary" public offering in Canada.

The Etobiocoke, Ontario, company announced that it is in theprocess of filing with the securities regulatory authorities inthe provinces of Canada a preliminary prospectus relating tothe offering of approximately 3 million shares of its commonstock. The public offering is being underwrtitten by GordonCapital Corp., Midland Walwyn Capital Inc. and Wood GundyInc.

"Technically, this is not an IPO," said Alun Davies, Hemasol'spresident and chief executive officer, although it could beconsidered one "for all intents and purposes." Davies said thatHemosol issued 2.13 million special warrants at C$8 (atThursday's exchange rate, US$6.25) in January 1992.

These were converted to common shares "at no extraconsideration" in June 1992. That stock was then sold to a smallnumber of institutional buyers and not traded. Thus, thecurrent offering will represent the first time the company'sshares have been publicly traded.

Hemosol will use the net proceeds from this offering to fundclinical trials, scale up its production facilities to provideenough product to supply both clinicals and early product salesand to fund its operating expenses through early 1996.

Hemosol is developing human blood substitutes derived fromhuman hemoglobin. It ties the hemoglobin to a novel cross-linker and then pasteurizes the product to eliminate viraldisease transmission. The resulting product has the sameoxygen-carrying properties as whole blood and can be usedwith blood typing and cross-matching. The company anticipatesfiling an investigational new drug (IND) application later thisyear on the hemoglobin-based oxygen substitute, Davies toldBioWorld.

Hemosol has developed proprietary hemoglobin purificationtechnology and is the licensee of patent rights to two differingcross-linking technologies. Davies said that there are twogroups of patents, one from the Department of National Defenseand the other from the University of Toronto.

Hemosol currently has approximately 7.8 million shares ofstock outstanding, and $8.5 to $9 million in cash, Davies said.

-- Jennifer Van Brunt Senior Editor

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