PA Consulting, the management consultancy, is to spin off a biotechnology company that is believed to hold the record for the fastest development of a device to deliver drugs. The company, to be called Meridica, will receive funding of £10m in cash and intellectual property from PA, enough for two years.
During this time, it will be fully owned by PA, with outside investors expected to take a stake in 2004 and a flotation or trade sale pencilled in for 2005.
Meridica has developed an asthma inhaler called Xcelovent, which is due to start clinical trials in August.
Ian Smith, Meridica's president, said the group spent just 15 months to take Xcelovent from concept to product.
The average development time for drug delivery devices is between five and seven years, he said.
Meridica's most advanced product is a device to dispense drugs in powder form, which is used in the manufacture of most medicines. The system is to be sold to drug manufacturers in the next few weeks. The company, which was founded inside PA two years ago, will be located in the consultancy's technology centre in Melbourn, Cambridgeshire. It plans to treble its staff to 30 by the end of the year.
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