| Firm that cloned Dolly the Sheep fails to woo new investors 04/11/2001 Associated Press LONDON – Dolly the Sheep may be safe from foot-and-mouth disease but not, it would seem, from the scourge of plummeting stock markets.
PPL Therapeutics, the British biotechnology firm that created Dolly – the first successful clone of an adult mammal – conceded failure Wednesday in its effort to raise the 45 million pounds ($64 million) it needs to develop new drugs.
PPL withdrew its secondary share offer after failing to persuade enough investors to overcome their fears of fragile stock markets and commit fresh funds to the company.
With many investors preferring to shun stocks and sit on their cash, PPL now must pursue alternative sources of money to develop and produce its emphysema medicine rAAT and two other key drugs, the company said.
"It is clearly very disappointing that, despite positive indications, we have been unable to obtain sufficient support from the equity markets at this time which seems solely due to prevailing market conditions," PPL managing director Ron James said earlier. "This view is typified by the comment made by one institution that 'our hearts are in it but today I'm not sure our check books are."'
PPL, headquartered in Edinburgh, Scotland, shot to fame in 1997 after its scientists, working jointly with counterparts at the Roslin Institute, cloned Dolly as part of their research into ways of making drugs more efficiently. They went on to produce a cloned cow and the world's first cloned pigs.
PPL announced its stock offer last month, at a time when stock markets had already fallen from last year's peak in share values. Turmoil in the markets has worsened since the announcement.
Although the company won pledges of more than 20 million pounds ($29 million), most of it from existing shareholders, that was far short of its minimum target of 40.5 million pounds ($57.9 million) .
PPL has 12 million pounds ($17 million) in cash, enough to last it another year. To generate revenues and profits, it needs to complete development of rAAT together with fibrinogen, a wound sealant, and BSSL, a digestion aid.
PPL has financing in place to pay for a factory for making rAAT but still lacks the money to bring the drug to market.
The company said one of its options is to try to borrow from its partners in drug development, Germany's Bayer and Smith & Nephew of Britain.
Shares in PPL, which issued its first share to the public in 1996, were trading at 111 pence ($1.59) each on the London Stock Exchange, down 2 percent from Tuesday's close.
Since the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in Britain eight weeks ago, PPL has taken the precaution of barring visitors to the barn and paddock where Dolly lives. British farmers and health officials have slaughtered nearly a million livestock in an effort to eradicate the highly contagious disease.
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