Bombed-out drug discoverer Sareum Holdings is reviewing its strategic options under the pressure of ‘difficult trading conditions’.

The AIM-quoted minnow, in which financier Leonard Licht and his wife invested £400,000 last year, says the board has appointed nominated adviser Grant Thornton to help consider ‘how best to take the business forward’. Chief executive officer Tim Mitchell says directors will consider several options, which include selling all or part of the business, raising fresh equity, joining partnership arrangements or acquiring a suitable business to give Sareum ‘critical mass’.

The Cambridge-based company, which uses a ‘structure-based approach’ to discover new drugs to treat cancer, says it has already received approaches from parties interested in its in-house cancer drug discovery programmes. But Sareum says research service companies, especially in the USA, are reluctant in today’s financial climate to spend their cash on new projects, while frequent mergers in the pharmaceutical and biotech sectors are delaying decisions on research.

After losing £722,000 on increased turnover of £2.5 million in the year to last June, the company lost another £797,000 on £1.1 million turnover in the six months to December and last month announced a £548,000 funding at a lowly 0.25p a share. Floated at 2p in 2004, the shares reached 2.5p late the following year before turning south.

Now 0.38p, down 0.05p this morning, they value the company at a mere £3.1 million.

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Sareum	AIM	£1.23m	0.15p	0.00p
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