Clinical Computing Plc, UK specialist in information systems and services to assist renal dialysis, which does much of its business in the US, is seeking to raise 2.1m British pounds to invest in new products and broader marketing. It is making a placing and open offer of 8.1 million new shares to its holders on the basis of 19 new shares for every 40 held. Of the new shares, 4.6 million are placed firm, and the balance has been placed subject to recall to the extent that shareholders want to subscribe – although anyone that has been aboard ever since the company floated may wonder whether subscribing will simply mean throwing good money after bad, because the flotation price was 124 pence a share, and the shares can be bought in the market for 30 pence. The company wants the cash expand into new clinical and geographical areas. It says that since 1995, it has suffered a decline in the level of sales in the UK, as a result partly of increasing budget constraints in the National Health Service and also a growing use in the health care market of a more formal, lengthier and more costly procurement and order process, but the US is now beginning to fill the gap. The company’s new di-Proton renal dialysis information management system runs under a variety of operating systems (the company started out under VAX/VMS), although the majority of sales are now for Hewlett-Packard Co’s HP-UX and IBM Corp’s AIX Unixes. The system interfaces with a range of dialysis machines, laboratory systems, billing systems and hospital information systems. A new product called Clinical Data Warehouse has been developed in conjunction with one of the group’s major clients; based on Oracle Corp’s database, the product enables dialysis chains to gather and report on data from individual clinics at a regional or national level. The company has also has developed a full organ transplant information product, capable of being used in a variety of clinical disciplines, and has just begun marketing it. And the group is also considering setting up its own data center at its offices in Cincinnati, which would enable customers to share common services in return for a monthly fee. As for new product areas, Clinical believes that a substantial proportion of the functionality of di-Proton could be used in standard products for other clinical disciplines, and it wants to launch such products over the next few years. It has now almost completed an oncology product, US marketing of which is expected to begin early next year. And Clinical says is is at an advanced stage of discussion with a pharmaceutical manufacturer that has recognized the potential application of its computing products to its own activities, and these talks could lead to orders for Clinical Computing’s products in markets outside the US. Geographically, it is seeking to appoint distributors in a number of territories.Even so, the board warns that its strategy will take time to pay off, and that full year results company are once again likely to be disappointing.
