Erection drug firm plans Aim float

MEN with erection problems could get faster results from an inhaled alternative to Viagra, if a drug developer successfully floats next month.

Biotechnology specialist Vectura is planning to list on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) next month in a bid to raise £20m-25m for the development of its new drugs.

These include an inhaled alternative to Viagra. Vectura says inhaling its drug will be more effective than waiting for a pill to be absorbed by the body and to take effect.

Pills, it says, can take up to an hour to achieve the desired effect whereas the inhaled drug can have the same results in just a few minutes.

Besides treatments for erectile dysfunction, Vectura, based in Chippenham, Wilts, is researching treatments for lung disease.

Vectura says its inhaled alternative to Viagra, VR004, is delivered into the bloodstream in around eight minutes – much faster than traditional drugs that are taken orally and can take an hour to act.

The market for erectile dysfunction treatments is huge, estimated at £1.4bn worldwide, and growing.

Vectura is also testing an inhaled drug for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, through a joint venture with another UK biotechnology firm, Arakis.

Vectura, which is 30% owned by venture capital group Merlin, said its flotation on the Alternative Investment Market would help fund these products through to the end of second phase trials. The group then hopes to find licensing partners to develop and market the drugs.

Money raised will also help Vectura develop its pipeline of earlier stage products and move a number into the clinical development stage.

Vectura employs around 80 people at its Wiltshire base and a further 20 at a site in Cambridge, where it makes the inhalers used to administer its drugs.

The shares will be priced at around 70p to 84p. At this level the company could be worth as as much £85m.