Hair cure firm heads for market

A company working on a hair cloning treatment to tackle baldness said today it was looking to raise £15m (22m) through a stock market flotation.

Proceeds from the proposed listing will enable Cambridge-based Intercytex to fund new tests on its ICX-TRC baldness treatment which is about to enter mid-stage clinical trials on patients and could be on the market by 2010.

The planned treatment involves taking cells from the base of healthy hair follicles and then culturing them in a laboratory to produce more cells which are then transplanted back into the scalp.

Intercytex is also working on treatments for wrinkles and leg ulcers.

It said that the issue of new shares and the listing on the Alternative Investment Market would value it at around £60.2m (€88m).