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To: Tom Hua who wrote (10217)	6/24/2001 7:28:46 PM
From: RockyBalboa	Respond to of 19633

Machrochem gets competition, lol! biz.yahoo.com Sunday June 24, 7:00 pm Eastern Time British impotence cream firm Futura eyes IPO LONDON, June 25 (Reuters) - Futura Medical Plc, a young British firm developing a cream for erectile dysfunction, said on Monday it was raising three million pounds ($4.2 million) in a private placing ahead of a planned flotation later this year. Chief Executive James Barder said the placing would value the group at around 24 million pounds and he hoped to raise a further six million pounds by listing on London's junior Alternative Investment Market in the fourth quarter. Futura believes its prescription cream can help men who have to take nitrates for angina and therefore cannot use Pfizer Inc's (NYSE:PFE - news) Viagra pill or other phosphodiesterase enzyme inhibitors. The product, codenamed MED2001, uses the active ingredient glyceryl trinitrate which dilates penile blood vessels and thereby increases the rigidity of a naturally occurring erection. MED2001 is in intermediate Phase II clinical trials and could be filed for approval by the end of 2002, allowing first sales in Britain and the rest of Europe in 2003. Worldwide sales of erectile dysfunction products totalled $1.5 billion in 2000, some 90 percent of which was accounted for by Viagra. Fortuna's cream, however, will be targeting only a fraction of this market -- specifically the 5-10 percent of suffers who are nitrate drug users and are tolerant to nitrate side effects, which can include headache and nausea. It also faces competition from two U.S.-based companies developing alternative hormone-based creams which, unlike MED2001, can be used without a condom. MED2001 requires condom use to prevent the active ingredient being transferred to the partner. Fortuna, which was established in 1997, will use funds from the placing for day-to-day running of company, financing clinical trials and repaying some debt. The Surrey-based group already has a joint venture agreement with U.S. condom maker Carter-Wallace Inc (NYSE:CAR - news) in Mexico and central America and is negotiating with pharmaceutical companies about rights to the cream in other territories.