| CATEGORY: NEW ISSUES |
Medgenics bags £3.28m ahead of AIM float |
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By Lee Wild
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Thu 29 Nov 2007
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LONDON (SHARECAST) - US protein therapy firm Medgenics has raised £3.28m from a placing with US institutional investors among others ahead of its listing on London’s AIM market next week.
The group, which is developing its ‘Biopump’ protein technology and protein therapy product Epodure, placed the shares at 10p each, valuing the company at £10.4m.
Proceeds will be used to finance a second clinical trial and the Phase I/II proof of concept study of Epodure, its lead sustained-release protein therapy product, in anaemia patients.
The extra cash will also help fund further development and testing of its ‘Biopump’ platform technology and products.
Medgenics refers to ‘Biopump’ as a toothpick-sized protein “factory” derived from patients’ own tissue, allowing them to make therapeutic proteins in their own bodies to treat chronic diseases such as anaemia, hepatitis C and haemophilia.
The process involves taking a sliver of tissue from the lower layer of the patient’s skin, which is then processed to cause the cells to produce the desired therapeutic protein, before being placed back inside the body after about 10 days.
It aims to do away with the current need for frequent and often uncomfortable protein injections, and has already demonstrated proof of principle in a clinical trial using a short-term version of Epodure in anaemia patients.
A long-acting version of Epodure, designed to produce and deliver a therapeutic dose of the protein erythropoietin (EPO) steadily for six months or more, is expected to enter Phase I/II clinical trials in the middle of 2008.
The firm has set its sights on final approval in 2012, possibly sooner, and is open to the possibility of a strategic partner.
Next in line are clinical trials with Infradure, the group’s second product in development, which is designed to produce interferon-alpha on a sustained basis to treat hepatitis C. These are expected to begin in 2009.
The shares are expected to begin trading on the junior market on 4 December.
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