North American Vaccine Inc. said Friday it has filed for apublic offering of 2.5 million shares of common stock.

If the offering is completed, North American of Beltsville, Md.,will have 12.1 million shares of stock outstanding. Tucker,Anthony of New York will underwrite the offering.

North American, which specializes in pediatric vaccines, has avaccine for diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus in Phase II/IIIclinical trials and a vaccine for meningitis in preclinicaldevelopment.

Proceeds of the offering will be used to repay debt and capitallease obligations, for research and development, for protectionof patents and general corporate purposes.

North American stock (ASE:NVX) closed at $7.88, down 63cents, on Friday.

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