Major Alternative Investment Market (Aim) floats for medical companies have been a rare sight over the past few years as the credit crunch and dearth of private equity deals combined to starve the market of new entrants. That is about to change with the listing of Clinigen, a medical company that sources products for medical trials, in an IPO that could value the company at £170m.
Clinigen was established by serial entrepreneur Andrew Leaver, who is also selling most of his stake, and specialises in delivering secondary drugs to clinical trials and organising the logistics for studies involving thousands of patients across many locations. It also buys up drugs that are too small for big pharma companies to bother with and sells them into new markets, as a recent deal with AstraZeneca for HIV drug Foscavir illustrates. Sales to 30 June were £82.1m, with cash profits of £17.3m. Chief executive Peter George said the IPO would give the company a war chest of £25m for product acquisitions; it has about 27 potential targets.
