BioCentury
ARTICLE | Finance

Noble financing effort

February 18, 1997 8:00 AM UTC

James Noble resigned as British Biotech's finance director, declaring that the company is "fully funded through to commercialization." BBIOY raised, by Ebb & Flow's count, about $500 million during Noble's watch, most notably the company's June 1996 rights offering that raised £143.4 million (US$234 million), on top of £47.5 million ($71.2 million) garnered from a warrant exercise in January 1996. Before joining BBIOY in 1990, he was involved with BBIOY's 1989 £22.7 million (about $34 million) fundraising as a member of Kleinwort Benson's corporate finance department. BBIOY raised £40 million (about $60 million) in a 1991 private placement, £30 million (about $47 million) in a 1992 offering that included American Depositary Shares, and £48.3 million (about $72.4 million) in a 1994 rights offering.

SPEAKING OF CASH GENERATORS: With last week's $50 million equity deal with Alza (AZA), Alkermes (ALKS) has completed four public partnerships for its ProLease and Medisorb drug delivery systems (see BioCentury Extra, Feb. 14). The deals already have yielded ALKS $25.4 million, and it stands to receive up to $65 million more from committed development funding and milestones. By comparison, the company procured ProLease in its 1993 acquisition of Enzytech for $20.9 million in ALKS shares, while Medisorb came with Medisorb Technologies International L.P. when ALKS acquired it for $4 million in cash in 1996. ALKS closed the week at $27, up $5.75. . . . AZA's investment, plus the $21.5 million it is putting out to buy a 4.9 percent stake in U.S. Bioscience (UBS)(see BioCentury, Feb. 10), will hardly dent the drug delivery company's cash hoard. It finished 1996 with $999.8 million, up $580.8 million from year-end 1995. AZA ended the week unchanged at $29.875...