ALLERGY Therapeutics, a group spun out of GlaxoSmithKline, the world’s second biggest pharmaceutical company, is to float in early October with a price tag of £55 million, The Times has learnt.
The biotech company, which develops vaccines against hay fever and other allergies, is to press ahead with a share sale despite a growing reluctance among investors to back fledgeling drugs companies. The group is looking to raise £15 million on the AIM market, which it will use to develop a fast- acting vaccine to cure specific allergies.
Keith Carter, the chief executive, said the size and structure of the flotation was still under debate.
The appetite for initial public offerings (IPOs) by European biotech companies waned this year with disappointing floats for Britain’s Ark Therapeutics, Basilea of Switzerland and Epigenomics of Germany.
Several UK biotechs, including Cyclacel and Microscience, have pulled their IPOs in recent months, sparking speculation that the window for firms to join the stock market has closed.
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Sources close to Allergy Therapeutics conceded that a glut of companies seeking to raise funds meant that it was a “buyers’ market” but added that investors were comforted by news that the company’s backers were apparently reluctant to sell shares in the float. GlaxoSmithKline holds 26 per cent of Allergy Therapeutics, which generated sales of £18 million and operating profits of £2 million last year.