Protein Polymer Technologies Inc., which is developing proteinpolymers for use in diverse products from health care toathletic shoes, last week raised $9.4 million in an initial publicoffering of 1.45 million units at $6.50 per unit.

Although the San Diego company raised far less than manybiotech drug company offerings, it doesn't need as much asdrug developers, said spokeswoman Gwen Como.

PPT technology combines the building block design used bypolymer chemists with protein synthesis in E. coli. Unlikenatural proteins, PPT's protein polymers consist almost entirelyof identical short, repetitive blocks of amino acids. Afteridentifying the desired amino acid sequence, PPT createssynthetic genes that instruct E. coli to produce the desiredproteins.

Other companies developing protein polymers include AlliedSignal and Du Pont, said Como.

PPT's first product, ProNectin F, incorporates 13 copies of thecell attachment sequence from human fibronectin, a bloodplasma protein, in a protein polymer matrix. Sales began inMarch 1991 of ProNectin F as a research reagent for use by cellbiologists and cell culture laboratories.

The company is developing other products for the action-wearand athletic shoe markets, for improving the biocompatibilityof medical implants, for specialty fibers, and for use in woundhealing and bone repair.

The units consist of one share of common stock and oneredeemable warrant with an exercise price of $8 per sharethrough Jan. 21, 1997. The company can redeem the warrantsafter Jan. 21, 1993, if the stock (NASDAQ:PPTI) trades at orabove $10 for 20 consecutive trading days. PPT shares closedat $5.25 on Friday.

After the offering, Protein has 4.9 million shares outstanding.Underwriter Reich & Co. Inc. has a 217,500-unit overallotmentoption. -- KB

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