Subject: Repligen Purchases Rights to Market Potential AIDS Drug
Date: Published: 4/3/87 67 lines
Source:  Wall Street Journal.  Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc. 

   Repligen Purchases
   Rights to Market
   Potential AIDS Drug

   CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Repligen Corp. said it purchased
marketing rights to an experimental vaccine for acquired
immune deficiency syndrome.
   The purchase was made from Centocor Inc. as part of a
broad agreement that will give Centocor a major stake in the
company.
   The agreement provides for increased collaboration between
the biotechnology concerns, which have complementary
specialties.  Repligen is developing products using
gene-splicing techniques; Malvern, Pa.-based Centocor is
developing products using monoclonal antibodies -- 
immune-system components used in diagnostic testing that have
shown promise as anti-cancer drugs.  The companies said they
plan to enable the transfer of research projects between the
concerns that fit their respective strengths.
   Repligen said it will take a $17.3 million charge for its
fourth quarter ended March 31 as a result of its agreement
with Centocor.  Other terms of the pact call for Centocor to
receive 1,225,000, or 17%, of Repligen's common shares, and
for Repligen to receive $2.9 million cash.
   The two companies developed the experimental AIDS vaccine
in an effort with Duke University Medical School and the
National Institutes of Health.  Last month Repligen said it
plans to file an application with the Food and Drug
Administration in midsummer to begin clinical tests on humans
with the drug.  The company has said it hopes to begin the
tests in the fall.  Repligen added that it plans to initiate
discussions with potential marketing partners for the
vaccine.
   Under the agreement Repligen also will receive from
Centocor the rights to an immune-system stimulant with
potential as an anti-cancer drug and to a different
immune-system agent that might boost the effectiveness of
other vaccines.
   Repligen, which went public in May 1986, estimated that it
will report a fiscal fourth-quarter loss of about $18
million, including the $17.3 million charge connected with
the Centocor pact.  In the year-earlier quarter, the company
had a loss of about $813,000.
   Centocor's 17% stake will make it Repligen's largest
holder.  Under the agreement, Centocor also will receive
options to purchase an additional 245,000 shares of Repligen
common over the next five years.  The options can be exercised
at $27 a share for the first three years and $45 a share
after that, Repligen said.
   Separately, Centocor said it will record a one-time,
after-tax, non-extraordinary gain of $7.2 million in the
first quarter as a result of the agreement with Repligen.  In
the 1986 first quarter, Centocor earned $1.6 million, or 18
cents a share, on revenue of $7.3 million.
   In national over-the-counter trading yesterday, Repligen
shares closed at $19.75, up $1.25.  Centocor finished at $44,
up 75 cents.

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