Continuing to ride high on growing avian flu fears, Novavax Inc. conducted its third public offering in less than five months, raising $38 million for general corporate purposes.

The Malvern, Pa.-based company agreed to sell about 5.2 million shares priced at $7.30 each in a registered direct offering exclusively placed by Rodman & Renshaw LLC, of New York. Proceeds are expected to fund ongoing development of Novavax’s virus-like particles (VLP)-based vaccines against H5N1, H9N2 and other avian flu strains, as well as seasonal flu strains. Money from the financing also could be used in preclinical and clinical testing of other product candidates, and for further investment in the firm’s research and development facilities.

Company executives did not return phone calls.

Shares of Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX) lost 60 cents to close at $7.71 Tuesday, a day after hitting a 52-week high of $8.31.

That’s a far cry from mid-August, when the company was trading at less than $1 per share, before promising preclinical data with its VLP technology against a strain of bird flu began nudging the stock upward.

Shares continued rising steadily among growing concerns of a pandemic, which have been heightened by recent reports of outbreaks of avian flu across Africa, Asia and Europe.

A report Monday by researchers with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta identified two separate strains of the H5N1 virus - one that infected people in Vietnam and Thailand in 2003 and 2004, and a separate, but related strain that affected people in Indonesia in 2004.

While there have been no reported cases of avian flu in the U.S., the Bush administration has predicted the first one will come this year.

The government announced a plan to screen between 75,000 and 100,000 wild birds in 2006, and has committed $3.3 billion for U.S. pandemic flu activities. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, more than half of that - about $1.8 billion - has been earmarked specifically for vaccine development and production.

Novavax’s VLP vaccine technology is designed to use recombinant DNA to identify components of the flu virus in 3-dimensional structures that are optimized to elicit an immune response without the addition of chemical adjuvants. If successfully developed, those vaccines could be produced inexpensively and efficiently.

In addition to the flu, the VLP platform also was used to develop the HER ORF2 hepatitis E vaccine, now in Phase III trials. That product is partnered with London-based GlaxoSmithKline plc.

Earlier this month, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, Md., allocated $1 million to Novavax for a four-and-a-half-year program to develop an HIV/AIDS vaccine.

For the fourth quarter, the company posted a net profit of $6.2 million, or 13 cents per share. Full-year figures showed a $11.2 million net loss, or 26 cents per share.

As of Dec. 31, Novavax had cash and cash equivalents totaling $31.9 million. That figure included the $18 million raised in November through a public offering of 4.2 million shares at $4.30 per share, but did not include last month’s offering of 4.6 million shares priced at $4.35 each, which pulled in an additional $20 million. (See BioWorld Today, Nov. 3, 2005, and Feb. 28, 2006.)

In other financing news:

• APT Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Tucson, Ariz., closed its $9 million Series A financing co-led by Charter Life Sciences and Research Corp. Technologies, with participation from Vivo Ventures. APT is developing steroid-alternative therapies based on targeted administration of hydroxychloroquine, a disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug, to treat asthma, chronic pulmonary obstructive disease, rhinitis and rhinovirus infection.

• BioForce Nanosciences Holdings Inc., of Ames, Iowa, closed a $6 million private placement of restricted common shares sold at about $1.50 per share to support development of its pipeline and take advantage of commercial opportunities provided by its NanoArrayer System. As the company’s core technology, the NanoArrayer System is a tabletop device able to print and pattern thousands of molecular domains on a chip in miniaturized format. Shares of BioForce (OTC BB:BFNH) closed at $4.40 Tuesday, unchanged.

• Metabolic Pharmaceuticals Ltd., of Melbourne, Australia, completed a private placement of 30.2 million shares at A43 cents per share to raise a total of A$13 million (US$9.3 million). Indus Capital Partners LLC, of New York, led the investment. The issue primarily was placed with international and Australian institutional investors, and managed by Australia-based BBY Ltd. and strategic partner, U.S.-based Jefferies Inc. Funds will be used to advance the company’s pipeline of clinical-stage drugs, including AOD9604, an obesity drug in Phase IIb development, and ACV1 for pain, set to start a Phase IIa study in the third quarter. Terms of the capital raised also included future subscription options that could bring in up to an additional A$4.9 million by fall 2007. Metabolic’s shares (ASX:MBP) closed at 45 cents Tuesday.

• NuGEN Technologies Inc., of San Carlos, Calif., secured $7.75 million in financing in a private round led by Alloy Ventures. Existing investors Sutter Hill Ventures, Radius Ventures and The Band of Angels also participated. Funds will be used to accelerate NuGEN’s technology development and to expand global distribution for its amplification and detection systems for gene expression. NuGEN also appointed Michael Hunkapiller to its board.

• Theratechnologies Inc., of Montreal, completed its recently announced offering of 10.5 million shares priced at $1.95 each to a syndicate of underwriters led by BMO Nesbitt Burns for gross proceeds of $20.5 million. Underwriters also have an option to acquire up to an additional 1.6 million shares to cover overallotments. Proceeds will be used to finance Theratechnologies’ research and development, mainly its two Phase III studies for TH9507 in HIV-associated lipodystrophy, and for additional working capital requirements. The company’s stock (TSE:TH) closed at $1.90 Tuesday.