Alltracel planning to raise £5m in private share placing

Bio-pharmaceuticals firm Alltracel plans to raise more than £5 million (€6.4 million) in a private placing in the next three weeks which it will use to fund the development of its m-doc "stop bleeding" product.

While the firm has to date signed only one contract to supply the product - to US pharmaceuticals firm Medtronic Xomed - it said it planned to float at least 20 per cent of its stock on the Nasdaq exchange in New York or the Neuer Markt in Germany by the end of the year.

Annual revenues from the Medtronic agreement would be £500,000 once US Federal Drug Authority approval for the product had been secured, the firm's chief executive and founder, Mr Gerard Brandon, claimed.

Mr Brandon said it was in "advanced negotiations" with several other companies to use m-doc as a stand-alone product and in wound dressings and bandage products with several firms, including Ansell in France, Allpharma in Norway and Cederroth in Sweden. "I assume that having got to this stage with a company as large as Medtronic that we will conclude agreements," he said.

The firm anticipates FDA approval for m-doc this year, possibly in the third quarter. EU regulatory approval had already been secured, Mr Brandon said.

Alltracel claims m-doc works by stopping bleeding on skin surface wounds within two minutes. The company said 23 products using the treatment were in the pipeline.

The company, which has yet to make a profit, has monthly expenses of £65,000. Late last year, it secured €1 million (£51,155) in funding from its existing shareholders.

The company has made several board appointments, including ACC Bank's chairman, Mr Padraic O'Connor, who has been appointed chairman. A former senior vice-president of Pfizer Medical in Britain, Mr Peter Lawes, and Mr Irial Finan, joint managing director of Hellenic Bottling Co, and a former international marketing director of Bord Failte, Mr Noel Toolan, have joined the board.