Investors provided strong support to Somatogen Inc. on Friday,bidding up the stock (NASDAQ:SMTG) to close at $25.75 afterthe company completed its initial public offering at $19 pershare.

The Boulder, Colo.-based developer of human blood substitutessold 2 million shares, raising $38 million. The proposed pricerange for the offering had been $17 to $19 per share.

Somatogen is among a handful of biotech companies completingIPOs since mid-May that hasn't had to lower its expectations.The other companies are SciGenics Inc., Icos Corp. and MedarexInc. Eleven other companies completing IPOs have eitherreduced the number of shares offered and/or lowered the priceof shares.

After the offering, the company will have 7.4 million sharesoutstanding. -- KB

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