04.01.04
U.K. drug development company Phytopharm has raised approximately £6.5 million ($9.7million) through a new share placement in preparation for future supply of its plant-based appetite suppressant to manufacturers of meal replacements.
The extra funds will be used to increase production of the hoodia plant, from which Phytopharm derives a satiety molecule, by 100 times its current capacity. The placement, which was oversubscribed, will also strengthen its balance sheet as it seeks international food manufacturing partners. But Dr Richard Dixey, chief executive of the company, which is currently in discussions with a number of potential partners, said it is not looking to join up with supplement companies as the “potential for abuse is too significant in the current regulatory environment.”
Phytopharm has invested more than $18 million in research on its P57 molecule, since first identifying active fractions of the hoodia plant, an extremely rare cactus native to the Kalahari Desert, in 1997. The following year leading drug company Pfizer signed a worldwide development and marketing license for the plant extract as well as a separate R&D agreement. However Pfizer closed its Natureceuticals unit last year, handing back rights to P57 to Phytopharm. The U.K. firm now wants to license the molecule to manufacturers of meal replacement products.
—Nutraingredients.com, 3/1/04
The extra funds will be used to increase production of the hoodia plant, from which Phytopharm derives a satiety molecule, by 100 times its current capacity. The placement, which was oversubscribed, will also strengthen its balance sheet as it seeks international food manufacturing partners. But Dr Richard Dixey, chief executive of the company, which is currently in discussions with a number of potential partners, said it is not looking to join up with supplement companies as the “potential for abuse is too significant in the current regulatory environment.”
Phytopharm has invested more than $18 million in research on its P57 molecule, since first identifying active fractions of the hoodia plant, an extremely rare cactus native to the Kalahari Desert, in 1997. The following year leading drug company Pfizer signed a worldwide development and marketing license for the plant extract as well as a separate R&D agreement. However Pfizer closed its Natureceuticals unit last year, handing back rights to P57 to Phytopharm. The U.K. firm now wants to license the molecule to manufacturers of meal replacement products.
—Nutraingredients.com, 3/1/04