With technology that unearths new drugs at a fraction of the usual cost and a host of potential golden eggs in its portfolio, e-Therapeutics hopes to raise up to £5 million in an AIM float.

Spun-out from Newcastle University, e-Therapeutics' initial portfolio reads like a panacea for the world’s ills, containing treatments for asthma, depression, skin cancer, furring of the arteries and hospital superbugs. The company, built with seed capital from hard-nosed hedge fund manager RAB Capital, is on course to come to market in late October in a fundraising that will value it at up to £35 million.

Founder and chief executive Professor Malcolm Young says RAB ‘put their money where my mouth was’ and ‘have been exemplary investors, but they wanted us to get onto a market, which we’re very happy to do.’ He first developed the technology while a Royal Society University research fellow at Oxford in 1991 and, including the move up north in 1994, has enjoyed more than £10 million of external research grants.

The company’s computer-based technology analyses millions of compounds and their impact on hundreds of bacteria, fungi or other malevolent cells in order to locate new drugs. The cost and risk of this process is much less than with historical methods, especially when Prof Young’s team finds new uses for old or failed drugs, as these can go straight into advanced clinical tests.

WH Ireland is acting as nominated adviser and Cornhill as broker.

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e-Therapeutics	AIM	£20.33m	36.50p	0.00p
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