Cambridge Neuroscience Inc. and Icos Corp. are the latestcompanies to complete initial public offerings in a market thathas toughened up considerably since mid-May.

Cambridge (NASDAQ:CNSI) of Cambridge, Mass., raised $24million in a 2 million-share offering priced at $12 per share,well below the proposed $15 to $17 offering price. Seattle-based Icos grossed $36 million, selling 4.5 million shares at$8, the low end of its $8 to $10 range.

"It's no longer a red-hot market," said Lindsay Rosenwald,managing director of corporate finance at D.H. Blair & Co. inNew York. "Nobody's chasing any of these deals."

That situation has forced the companies coming to marketmore recently to cut their prices, Rosenwald said. Three of thefive IPOs completed since mid-May have had to do that,including Cambridge. The other two companies were IsisPharmaceuticals Inc. and ImmuLogic Pharmaceutical Corp. Isisand ImmuLogic also had to reduce the number of sharesoffered.

The other two IPOs were SciGenics Inc. and Icos. Like Icos,SciGenics came out at the low end of its proposed ranges.

Cambridge is developing drugs to treat severe neurological andpsychiatric disorders. The stock closed Thursday at $11.

Icos (NASDAQ:ICOS), which raised a record $33 million in itsfirst round of private financing last summer, is developingdrugs to treat chronic inflammatory diseases. Icos stockclosed unchanged at $8.

-- Karen Bernstein BioWorld Staff

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