Stock Sale Raises $4 Million for Cortex

Cortex Pharmaceuticals Inc. said it raised about $4 million through an offshore sale of preferred stock to private investors.

The company said the funds will be used to support human tests next year of the experimental drug Ampalex, which Cortex hopes to market someday as a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease. The tests, to be performed in Sweden, are intended to assess the drug’s absorption by the brain, its safety and its effect on Alzheimer’s patients.

In September the company announced that a previous test in Germany indicated that healthy young volunteers who took the drug experienced less memory loss of nonsense syllables they had been asked to memorize than those given a placebo.

The stock issue consists of preferred shares that are convertible into common stock at a price of $2.825 a share, or 85% of the market value of the common stock at conversion, whichever is less.