Proteus International Plc, as reported briefly (CI No 2,838), is openly offering itself up for takeover as the computer-aided drug design company needs cash. It says it is urgently pursuing fund- raising opportunities, including the possibility of a merger with a financially stronger industry partner. Nobody was available at the Macclesfield, Cheshire company to explain for what the money was needed or whether a partner would come from the technology or pharmaceutical sectors. The company has said it was stopping research on drugs for animals, as there was no money in that area (CI No 2,686). It has abandoned its work on a diagnosis drug for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, despite the fact that it came through trials successfully. However, negotiations are said to be at an advanced stage with a major animal health company to license the company’s Gonadotrophin Releasing Hormone immunocastration vaccine. Proteus is also talking to a major pharmaceutical company about licencing its Gonadotrophin Releasing Hormone Immunotherapeutic with a view to signing an agreement resulting in one payment followed by royalties on sales. The product has completed pre-clinical toxicology studies. The preliminary results of the next phase of trials on prostate cancer patients is expected before the end of 1996. The idea behind the agreements is that other companies pay Proteus direct research expenses, or for the privilege of entering the deal. Eventually the partner will have something to sell, to which Proteus will retain the intellectual property rights. A licence agreement with SmithKline Beecham Plc was signed to give the drug company rights to Proteus’s NISV adjuvant patents but an agreement involving a DNA binding drug was not completed. The company’s core technlogy is Pro Select, a software package developed using the company’s Prometheus drug design system, which includes computer-aided molecular design capability. Cash outflow on the half was #3.8m, resulting in a cash balance of #2.4m, down from #7.4m last time. The company has been trying to cut its costs, and the average monthly expenditure was down to #408,000 in the most recent quarter, against an average in the last fiscal year of #678,000. But the company is looking pretty sick at the moment, and somebody is going to have to step in very soon to give the patient a much-needed cash injection.
