Anergen Inc., formerly Biospan Corp., filed Wednesday for aninitial public offering of 1.75 million shares of stock with aproposed price range of $8 to $9 per share.

If the offering is completed, the Redwood City, Calif., companywill have 5.2 million shares outstanding. H.J. Myers & Co. Inc.of Beverly Hills is the underwriter.

Anergen is developing protein-based products, called AnergiXs,composed of the soluble form of major histocompatibilityclass (MHC) II combined with an epitope of an antigen for theparticular autoimmune disease being targeted, such asmultiple sclerosis, myasthenia gravis or rheumatoid arthritis.An epitope is the portion of an antigen that's presented inconjunction with MHC to the T cell receptor.

"Preclinical data suggests the compounds produce tolerance(anergy) in specific T cells of the immune system related tothe target disease," said John W. Fara, Anergen's president andchief executive officer.

The only other biotechnology-related IPO not yet completed isAgridyne Technologies Inc., formerly Native Plants Inc., of SaltLake City, Agridyne has filed for an offering of 2 millionshares priced between $10.50 and $12.50. If the offering iscompleted, the company will have 6.8 million sharesoutstanding.

Underwriters are Dillon Read & Co. Inc. of New York and PiperJaffray & Hopwood of Minneapolis. -- KB

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