Biotech Mogul Mann delays one IPO and gets set for another. (Up Front).

Market conditions have forced biotech mogul Alfred Mann to shelve the initial public offering for MannKind Corp.

Mann had hoped to take his largest privately held company early this year but said he will wait because the firm's technologies are still in the research or clinical trial stages. Instead, he is readying an IPO for another of his privately held companies, Advanced Bionics Corp.

"There is really not much interest in companies that do not have revenues," said Mann. "When the market is receptive to a company like MannKind we will take it public."

Sylmar-based MannKind is made up of three businesses that Mann rolled into one: CTL Immunotherapies Corp., AlleCure Corp. and Pharmaceutical Discovery Corp. A valuation conducted last year placed its worth at $420 million.

Pharmaceutical Discovery Corp., now called MannKind Endocrinology, is developing new ways of delivering drugs and is close to its final phase of clinical trials on an inhaled form of insulin for Type II diabetics. A product is two to three years from market, Mann said.

CTL, which develops cancer vaccines, has started clinical trials for the treatment of melanoma, while AlleCure, which is developing allergy vaccines, has begun trials for a hayfever treatment. They are now part of a division called MannKind Immunology.

Mann said he has invested $200 million of his own money into the company out of a total of $240 million in private capital.

Advanced Bionics, which has facilities in Sylmar and Valencia, is selling a cochlear implant that restores hearing to people with nerve deafness. Conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh, who went deaf two years ago, had the device implanted last year.

A year ago the company was valued at $350 million as part of a private offering that raised $128 million. Mann, who still owns 45 percent of the company, said an IPO is about 12 months away, and would serve to raise additional working capital, as well as provide liquidity to investors who want to cash out.

The move comes despite a Food and Drug Administration investigation into whether the devices make users more susceptible to meningitis. A total of 91 meningitis cases have been reported worldwide, including 56 implanted with the Advanced Bionics device. Two other companies also make the implants. There have been 17 deaths.

Advanced Bionics issued a recall of its implant and has since received FDA approval to sell a safer version of the device. Mann called the problem a "hiccup" for the company and said the risk of contracting meningitis, for which there is an approved vaccine, was very small.