LONDON, June 29 (Reuters) - British biotechnology firm Pharmagene said on Thursday it planned to list on the London Stock Exchange next month in a flotation expected to value it at up to 120 million pounds ($180.4 million).
Industry sources said the offering was likely to raise some 30 million pounds for the drug testing company, which is based in Royston, near Cambridge, and chaired by former Chiroscience chief executive Nowell Stebbing.
Pharmagene was founded in 1996 and specialises in using human tissues in pre-clinical tests. It charges drug makers a fee for the service which can help speed the development process and reduce the risk of drugs failing in the clinic.
Existing clients include SmithKline Beecham (LSE: SB.L - news) , Bayer , Pfizer , Janssen and Merck .
The company also announced it had won four more customers for its Phase ZERO pre-clinical testing services -- Ferring Pharmaceuticals, Sankyo , Cubist Pharmaceuticals and Vernalis .
In addition, Janssen and Oxford Biomedica Plc (LSE: OXB.L - news) have become new customers for the Pharmabase database of human gene expression profiles.
Pharmagene, which is still loss-making, had revenues last year of 1.26 million pounds.
New funds raised from the institutional placing will be used to boost sales and marketing, including the establishment of a U.S. facility.
A company spokeswoman said pre-marketing of the issue had already commenced, generating "positive feedback". Pharmagene argues its genomic-based work makes it a beneficiary of this week's successful completion of a first draft of the human genome.
"A huge amount of new data is being generated from the Human Genome Project and genomics research is challenged to interpet this into useful information. Pharmagene places the human gene sequence data into its functional human context," said Chief Scientific Officer Robert Coleman.
To date, Pharmagene has raised some 15 million pounds from investors including 3i , Alta-Berkeley, Kleinwort Benson, Enterprise Capital, Delta (LSE: DLTA.L - news) Partners and British Linen Equity. |
