ImClone Systems Inc. defied the gravity of the market onTuesday and raised $35 million through an initial publicoffering of 2.5 million shares of stock priced at $14 per share.

The company, which is developing anti-idiotypic antibodies totreat cancers, recombinant hematopoietic growth factors and aninterleukin-1 inhibitor, increased the offering by 500,000shares.

The IPO came on a day when biotech stocks again declined inmorning trading before making a partial recovery.

"The fact that anybody got off a biotech deal today, and thewillingness of investors to pony up $35 million for yet anotheranti-cancer, blood and immune system disorder, andinflammatory disease company, means a silent majority is stillinterested in investing in emerging technology in this area,"said David Stone, an analyst at Cowen & Co. "People weren'tbuying it with the expectation they were going to 'flip' ittoday."

ImClone (NASDAQ:IMCL) closed at $13.50. After the offering,the New York company has 7.6 million shares outstanding.

"The market is a policeman; it makes sure only reasonabledeals are done," said Lindsay Rosenwald, chairman of TheCastle Group. The market for offerings won't fade as it did afterthe October 1987 crash, he said.

Rosenwald and Peter Mixter, managing director of investmentbanking at Shearson Lehman, pointed out that while stockshave fallen, it was widely agreed that the market had becomevery frothy, and many stocks had gotten ahead of themselveson valuations.

"Prices will have to be sensitive to the market," Stone said. But,he added, "we don't have the factors in place that would causedeals to dry up altogether." Low interest rates favor equities,and slow economic growth favors growth stocks over otherstocks, he said.

The completion late Monday of a 3 million-share secondaryoffering by Liposome Technology Inc. and the announcementon Tuesday of a filing for an offering by Curative TechnologiesInc. underscore the continued health of the market for biotechsecurities.

Liposome priced its shares at $9.38, raising $28.1 million. TheMenlo Park, Calif., company is developing liposome and lipid-based products to treat cancer and infectious diseases. Thestock (NASDAQ:LTIZ) closed at $9.38, down 38 cents.

East Setauket, N.Y.-based Curative (NASDAQ:CURE) said it willoffer 1.5 million shares, to be sold by existing stockholders.Curative, which is developing wound-healing therapeuticsusing naturally occurring growth factors, in June raised $24million in an initial public offering of 3.2 million shares pricedat $7.50. Curative has 9.8 million shares outstanding.

Underwriters Vector Securities International Inc. and SmithBarney, Harris Upham & Co. have an option to purchase anadditional 225,000 previously unissued shares to coveroverallotments.

-- Karen Bernstein BioWorld Staff

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