Ark Therapeutics mulling fundraising options
pharmafile | January 22, 2013 | News story | Manufacturing and Production | Ark Therapeutics
Contract development and manufacturing services company Ark Therapeutics has been forced to abandon proposals to raise money via an equity fund-raising, but says it is exploring other financing options.
The UK-headquartered company – which provides viral development and manufacturing services from a facility in Kuopio, Finland – reiterated its confidence in becoming a profitable enterprise and pointed to tripling of its revenues to around £1.8 million ($2.9m) in 2012.
Ark has taken measures to reduce its cost base over the last year, exiting all early-stage product development activities in order to focus purely on its outsourcing business, and now says it has seven active clients with other contracts in ‘late-stage negotiations’.
The company has had to refocus its business after the European Medicines Agency (EMA) rejected its marketing application for Cerepro – a genetic therapy for brain cancer – saying another clinical trial would be needed to support approval.
Ark now focuses on providing process development and GMP manufacturing for viral products, including the areas of viral mediated gene therapy, oncolytic viral vaccines, live and attenuated viral vaccines, viral vectored vaccines and virus like particles, whilst offering Cerepro and earlier stage programmes as partnering or licensing opportunities.
The company said it had made overtures to existing shareholders about a ‘substantial’ fund-raising but “the level of support obtained to date has been insufficient to justify continuing with the proposal”.
It said however it hopes to update investors on other financing options later after obtaining “expressions of support for the business model from some existing shareholders”.
“The directors remain confident that Ark has the potential to become a profitable, viral focused, contract development and manufacturing organisation”, said Ark in a statement.
Phil Taylor
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