Associate

Pain Therapeutics Inc. priced its public offering of about 7.7 million shares at $6.50 per share, raising gross proceeds of $49.7 million.

The company filed for the offering in August. Its stock (NASDAQ:PTIE) fell 44 cents Monday to close $6.25. (See BioWorld Today, Aug. 25, 2003.)

South San Francisco-based Pain Therapeutics said it plans to use the funds for general corporate purposes, including research and development projects, the development or acquisition of new products or technologies, general working capital and operating expenses. The company had expected to price the offering last week, but Hurricane Isabel forced the closing of the SEC and therefore postponed the pricing. The company expects the offering to close Thursday.

Pain Therapeutics' lead product is Oxytrex, which entered in June Phase III trials in chronic severe low-back pain. The company expects enrollment to take a year. Its product for irritable bowel syndrome, PTI-901, is expected to enter Phase III work in the fourth quarter.

At the end of the second quarter, Pain Therapeutics had $42.5 million in cash and cash equivalents. It posted a net loss of $4.3 million over that period and used 27.3 million shares outstanding to calculate its basic and diluted loss-per-share figures.

Citigroup Global Markets Inc., of New York, is sole book-runner on the offering and is joint lead manager, along with CIBC World Markets Corp., of New York. Leerink Swann & Co., of Boston, and ThinkEquity Partners LLC, of New York, are acting as co-managers.

Biomira Stock, Warrant Sale Expected To Raise $16.3M

Edmonton, Alberta-based Biomira Inc. said it arranged to sell 9 million shares and about 2.1 million warrants for about US$16.3 million, giving it the funds needed to push its lead products.

The shares are priced at $1.81, a 7.6 percent premium to the company's average closing price of $1.68 on Nasdaq for the five trading days leading up to and including Sept. 18. Purchasers of common stock will receive 0.23 percent of one warrant for each share bought. Warrant holders will be entitled to buy one share of common stock at $2.30. The warrants will expire Sept. 18, 2005, and there is a no-exercise period for six months.

Biomira's stock (NASDAQ:BIOM) fell 34 cents Monday, or 14.5 percent, to close at $2. Rodman & Renshaw Inc., of New York, is acting as placement agent, and the financing is expected to close "at the earliest opportunity," the company said.

In June, the company reported that its lead product, Theratope vaccine, did not meet two primary endpoints in a Phase III metastatic breast cancer trial, although the company did see favorable trends in the data. A Phase II study in metastatic breast cancer continues, and the company expects to complete enrollment in 2004's first half. The vaccine, also being studied in colorectal cancer, is partnered with Merck KGaA, of Darmstadt, Germany. (See BioWorld Today, June 18, 2003.)

The company also is developing BLP25 Liposomal vaccine in non-small-cell lung cancer and prostate cancer.

For the three months ended June 30, Biomira posted a net loss of C$5.5 million, or C9 cents per share. The company had C$30.5 million in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments at the end of the second quarter. It reported 56.9 million shares outstanding on a weighted average for the quarter.

Point Therapeutics Receives Agreements For $11.2M

Point Therapeutics Inc. has agreements to privately place units consisting of 5.6 million shares of stock and five-year warrants to buy another 2.8 million shares, which would raise $11.2 million.

The per-unit purchase price represents a 12.5 percent discount to the average closing price of Boston-based Point's stock for the five trading days prior to Sept. 10. The warrants will be exercisable at $2.66 per share.

Point's stock (OTC BB:POTP) fell 21 cents Monday to close at $3.69.

New investor ProQuest Investments, of Princeton, N.J., will be included in the placement, as well as certain existing and new investors, Point said. The company is planning to use the funds for general corporate purposes and for clinical trials of PT-100, its lead product, which is being developed in a Phase I/II trial in combination with Rituxan (Genentech Inc.) in non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia. It also is developing PT-100 in hematopoietic disorders caused by chemotherapy treatments.

As of June 30, the company had about $7.8 million in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities. It posted a net loss from operations of about $1.7 million for the second quarter. Its basic and diluted weighted average shares outstanding for the quarter were about 9.3 million.

Neose Enters Agreements For $23M Funding

Neose Technologies Inc. said it has subscription agreements to sell shares in a registered direct offering at $9 apiece, which would raise about $23 million in aggregate proceeds. JP Morgan Securities Inc., of New York, is acting as placement agent. The financing is expected to close Thursday.

The company's stock (NASDAQ:NTEC) fell 15 cents Monday to close at $10.10.

Horsham, Pa.-based Neose, which raised $17 million in February, had $42 million in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities as of June 30. It lost $9.2 million in the second quarter and reported weighted average shares outstanding of 17.2 million.

Neose focuses on improving therapeutics through its GlycoAdvance, GlycoPEGylation and GlycoConjugation technologies. It develops protein therapeutics that are designed to be improved versions of currently marketed drugs. The company said it would use the funds to strengthen its financial position as it pursues its own product development program.

Last month, Neose signed an agreement with Sandoz, a unit of Novartis AG, of Basel, Switzerland, in which Neose will use its technologies with a therapeutic recombinant protein supplied by Sandoz. If the companies elect to move ahead, they would share worldwide rights.