£6.6m fundraising for BioProgress
raise £6.6 million (€9.4m) through a placement of shares in order
to build a new pharmaceutical production plant.
This is the second fundraising for the company this year. In May it raised £5 million - nearly double the anticipated amount - through an Initial Public Offering leading to a listing on the UK's Alternative Investment Market.
The company needs to expand its capacity after signing some significant new deals, most notably one with FMC Biopolymer related to NROBE, a low-cost, cellulose film encapsulation technology that enables tablets to be wrapped in soluble films and modified to meet specific dissolution and stability requirements. They can also be produced in virtually any colour or two-colour combination and pre-printed with brand names.
The agreement is expected to come to fruition before the end of the year. As part of the agreement, BioProgress and FMC have agreed to collaborate on the construction of the facility, which will be based in March, Cambridgeshire.
Once the plant is completed it will be the first facility for manufacturing pharmaceutical-grade films that is not operated by one of the major drug companies. It is due to come online in September 2004.
