By Debbie Strickland

With its drug pipeline and collaboration file both well stocked, LeukoSite Inc. is seeking to pack its coffers through an initial public offering (IPO) expected to net more than $20 million. That's enough, when combined with other sources of operating capital, to see the Cambridge, Mass., company through early 2000, according to the registration form filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The offering consists of 2.5 million common-stock shares at an assumed price of $9 each, with an underwriters' overallotment option of 375,000 shares. The offering and overallotments would net the company $23.5 million.

LeukoSite has applied for a listing on NASDAQ's National Market under the symbol LKST and will have 8.7 million shares outstanding after the offering.

The underwriters are Hambrecht & Quist LLC and UBS Securities, both of New York.

The capital infusion would boost the company's available cash to approximately $32 million, from $11.5 million as of March 31. LeukoSite reported a net loss of $2.2 million during the quarter.

LeukoSite's science centers on leukocytes' distinctive surface molecules and their roles in disease. The company is developing monoclonal antibodies and small-molecule drugs that selectively deplete leukocytes or block specific leukocyte recruitment pathways controlled by chemokines and their receptors, as well as by integrins and adhesion molecules. Altogether, LeukoSite has three drug candidates and seven small-molecule drug-discovery programs.

The IPO filing comes on the heels of two agreements inked in the last six weeks, one with Genzyme Corp., also of Cambridge, the other with ILEX Oncology Inc., of San Antonio.

Genzyme agreed to provide the company with access to more than 800,000 compounds, with the possibility of a follow-on research collaboration if LeukoSite finds any promising drug leads

The ILEX agreement takes the form of a joint venture to develop a chronic lymphocytic leukemia treatment dubbed LDP-03, a humanized lymphocyte-depleting monoclonal antibody directed against the CD52 surface antigen expressed on lymphocytes but not on hematopoietic stem cells. The drug is heading for late-stage clinical trials in 1998, according to LeukoSite.

The company also is preparing for a clinical trial of LDP-01, a humanized anti-integrin monoclonal antibody that inhibits early leukocyte recruitment and inflammation resulting from reperfusion injury. Two U.K. Phase I/IIa clinical trials are slated to begin by early 1998, one for kidney transplantation and one for thrombotic stroke.

A third drug candidate, LDP-02, is a humanized monoclonal antibody to the a4b7 integrin. The drug is in preclinical development as a treatment for inflammatory bowel disease.

To help fund a small-molecule drug discovery program focusing on chemokine receptors, LeukoSite has partnered with three big pharma companies: Warner-Lambert Co., of Morris Plains, N.J.; Roche Bioscience, of Palo Alto, Calif.; and Kyowa Hakko Kogyo Co. Ltd., of Tokyo. These companies have paid LeukoSite a combined $5.1 out of $21.4 million pledged for research support and license fees. Potential milestone payments total $44.3 million.

Warner-Lambert and Roche have also made equity investments of $9 million and $3 million, respectively. *