Synairgen aiming to float

Synairgen, a drug discovery company focused on identifying and out-licensing new pharmaceutical products which address the underlying causes of asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), has said it intends to float on London's Alternative Investment Market (AIM).

The company was founded by Professor Stephen Holgate, Dr Donna Davies and Dr Ratko Djukanovic, a world-renowned respiratory research team from the University of Southampton and spun-out from the University in June 2003, supported by funding from Oxford-based IP2IPO.

Synairgen seeks to commercialise a number of drug discovery opportunities, carefully selected from the wider range of research projects led by the founders in their academic roles and which offer out-licensing opportunities. The group intends to out-license its IP at an early stage (pre-Phase II) rather than committing significant capital resources to late-stage clinical trials.

Since June 2003, Synairgen has made significant progress: two proprietary programmes in the field of asthma have been initiated and it has signed three agreements with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, including Merck Frosst (affiliate of Merck & Co Inc) and Cambridge Antibody Technology. Synairgen is currently discussing further collaboration agreements.

Commenting on Synairgen's flotation plans, Simon Shaw, non-executive chairman, said:

'Despite the success of currently marketed therapies, asthma and COPD are rapidly growing causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide.

'At Synairgen, we have one of the world's leading teams in respiratory disease, led by Professor Stephen Holgate, with a track record of at least 20 years of research and IP development to build on. We are pursuing an AIM flotation in order both to finance the development of our portfolio of collaborative and proprietary programmes, and to create an independent corporate platform from which to exploit it through out-licensing.'