BioWorld International Correspondent

DUBLIN, Ireland - Eirx Therapeutics plc is looking to raise £1 million in an initial public offering on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange.

The fund raising, which is due to be completed on Jan. 12, is taking the form of a private placement of shares via brokers Hoodless Brennan & Partners plc, of London. Grant Thornton Corporate Finance, also of London, is acting as adviser.

"One of the main reasons for doing a flotation like this is to raise our public profile," Ian Hayes, CEO of Cork, Ireland-based Eirx, told BioWorld International. The company, which was established in 1997, previously raised about €5 million from Irish and UK investors, including Enterprise Ireland, 3i plc, Billam plc and its subsidiary, World Life Sciences plc.

The additional cash, Hayes said, would enable the company to perform validation work on its collection of 200 apoptosis-related genes that have potential in cancer and autoimmune disease. According to a London Stock Exchange filing, the company already has out-licensed 12 potential targets.

The company's scientific founder, Tom Cotter, professor of biochemistry at University College Cork, is an authority on apoptosis, aberrations of which can result in an array of pathological conditions. Eirx has been focused on identifying genes that encode proteins involved in the early stages of the process. At present, its business model is based on licensing out those genes as potential drug targets.

"We're not a technology company," Hayes said. "We're very much a biology-based company. We're a platform company in the sense that the biology we've employed has yielded a large number of potential therapeutic targets."

It has disclosed one collaborator so far, London-based SR Pharma plc, on whose behalf it is screening a series of inositol phosphoglycan compounds for potential anticancer activity under a research agreement unveiled last month. The company also provides research services in the area of apoptosis and aims to break even in 2004.

"We're very much driven by revenues throughout the business model and [by] near-term profitability," Hayes said.

Eirx is a subsidiary of Eirx Pharma plc, which also owns two UK firms, CuDos Ltd. and Physiomics plc. The structure was established in 2002 by the companies' largest shareholder, London-based Billam plc, in order to facilitate a three-way merger.

"It was never fully consolidated," Hayes said. The three companies continue to operate independently, and the current financing is earmarked solely for Eirx.