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Biotech / Medical : Biotransplant(BTRN) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: scaram(o)uche who wrote (1281)	3/27/2002 4:15:25 AM
From: Icebrg	Respond to of 1475

PPL seeks £20m through spin-out By Patrick Jenkins Published: March 25 2002 09:37 \| Last Updated: March 26 2002 16:11 PPL Therapeutics, the company which cloned Dolly the Sheep and at Christmas unveiled "knock-out" piglets whose organs could be transplanted to humans, is aiming to raise up to £20m ($28m) from the spin-out of the scientific research that has made its name. Announcing losses 19 per cent higher at £14.3m, Geoff Cook, chief executive, said the spin-out of the company's xenotransplantation and stem cell research operations would yield a cash windfall of £10m or more, as well as an equity stake of similar size. The sale, which has been planned since last year, would leave PPL to commercialise the science it has already developed. Embryonic Stem Cell International, the company to which Alan Colman, PPL's former research director, moved earlier this month, was one of the contenders to buy the business, Mr Cook said. The spin-out will give a vital lift to PPL's diminishing £25m cash balance - only enough to run the company for two-and-a-half years. Partnership agreements to out-license Fibrin I, a wound healing treatment, and BSSL, designed to correct pancreatic dysfunction, should generate at least as much again, Mr Cook said. Out-licensing deals could be struck within the next two to three months. Most analysts were downbeat, however, signalling there had been no good news to offset the two-year delay revealed recently in the trials of lead drug AAT, a treatment for emphysema. Pre-tax losses for the year to the end of December had widened from £12m to £14.3m, primarily as a result of higher research and development expenses of £12.2m (£10m). Turnover was £1m (£209,000). Comment PPL is a company in transition - changing from a business that investors like to one that many don't. At 38½p, the shares are bumping along at an all-time low and are barely worth twice the cash reserves. A discounted cash flow projection suggests AAT could have a risk-adjusted value of more than 50p. But with that product delayed and no drugs due to come to market until 2005, the company is running short of fans. If all of Mr Cook's fund-raising plans happen, the shares look likely to bounce back, though whether they will see last year's 138½p again in the near future is another matter. But there is still downside risk if those plans founder. news.ft.com