Inhaled drugs firm plans flotation

A biotechnology company which is developing an inhaled alternative to Viagra today announced plans to float on the London stock market.

Vectura, is hoping to raise between £20m (€30m) and £25m 9€37.6m) through the placing to give the company a market value of up to £85 million.

The proceeds will be used to help develop Vectura’s range of inhaled drugs, including treatments for erectile dysfunction and lung disease.

Vectura’s inhaled alternative to Viagra, VR004, is delivered into the bloodstream in around eight minutes – faster than traditional pills which can take an hour to act.

The market for erectile dysfunction treatments is estimated at $2.5bn (€2bn) worldwide.

The company is also testing an inhaled drug for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, through a joint venture with UK biotechnology firm Arakis.

Vectura, which is 30% owned by venture capital group Merlin, said its flotation on the Alternative Investment Market would help fund these products through to the end of second phase trials.

The group then hopes to find licensing partners to develop and market the drugs.

Money raised will also help Vectura develop its pipeline of earlier stage products and move a number into the clinical development stage.

Vectura employs around 80 people at its Wiltshire base and a further 20 at a site in Cambridge, where it makes the inhalers used to administer its drugs.

Shares will be priced at around 70p to 84p and the offering is expected to take place in the first half of July.