AIM listing
Neuropharm Group plc raised £20 million in a listing on London’s Alternative Investment Market, enabling it to develop the renowned anti-depression drug Prozac as a treatment for autism and advance the development of three other products for treating central nervous system disorders in children.
The company, based in Leatherhead in the UK, placed 15.75 million shares at £1.27p per share, giving a market capitalisation of £40 million.
Neuropharm has US orphan drug designation for Prozac, or fluoxetine, in treating autism, and is currently reformulating the drug as an orally dissolving tablet to make it more suitable for use in this indication.
The company acquired the rights from Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, which obtained the orphan designation and has taken the compound through to the end of phase III trials.
The programme is based on data in the public domain showing that levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin are 200 times less than normal in the brains of autism sufferers. The research has been consolidated by Mount Sinai, and the trials were financed by the FDA’s Orphan Drug office.
Neuropharm says it now has sufficient funds to complete development of fluoxetine and launch the product in the US by the end of 2009.
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