By Nancy Garcia
Associate Editor

PerSeptive Biosystems Inc. has spun off an independent research and developmentcorporation called PerSeptive Technologies Corp. (PTC) in a $10 million private placement.

The independent spinoff will “incubate“ diagnostic and therapeuticapplications, the company said.

PerSeptive Biosystems of Cambridge, Mass., a supplier of chromatography media andequipment, went public last May at $7 a share. The company’s stock (NASDAQ:PBIO)closed at $19 a share on Wednesday, up 50 cents a share.

“Our investors own shares in a company focused principally in purification andanalysis of biomolecules, not clinical diagnostics and drug screening,“ said RobertFein, vice president and chief financial officer of PerSeptive Biosystems. “Creatingan independent corporation through off-balance sheet financing allows us to pursue relatedbusiness development opportunities and also meet our financial goals,“ he said.

Fein said PerSeptive Biosystems expects to be profitable in the second half of 1993.

PerSeptive Biosystems has the option to repurchase all stock of the technologycorporation between 12 and 30 months following the financing at increasing prices. Inexchange for this buyout option, PerSeptive gave investors five-year warrants to purchaseapproximately 401,000 shares of PerSeptive Biosystem’s common stock at an exerciseprice of $20 per share. If PerSeptive does not exercise the option to purchase thespinoff, investors would have the right to exercise additional warrants.

The technology corporation will pursue three clinical diagnostic applications and onedrug screening application. The latter involves applying systematic purificationtechniques to screening drugs based on building blocks of protein or genetic material(peptides and oligonucleotides). “Libraries of millions of these potentialtherapeutics might be tested outside the body for receptor binding,“ Fein said.

One diagnostic approach will attempt to create a quick, inexpensive assay forlow-density lipoprotein cholesterol using perfusion chromatography. Another will try totransfer biotechnical immunoassay methods to a clinical setting, and the third avenue willinvolve expanding on a patented “capillary electrophoresis“ concept that mightallow diagnostic tests to be performed inexpensively with small samples and quantities ofreagents.

“The fundamental strategy of PTC is to incubate certain applications of andanalysis of biomolecules,“ said Noubar Afeyan, president and chief executive officerof PerSeptive Biosystems.

“PTC’s goal is to develop these technologies sufficiently to allow theirultimate commercialization through collaborative arrangements, joint ventures with othercompanies, or through subsequent financing arrangements,“ he said.