1996 A Successful Year For Alizyme

UK company Alizyme has said that 1996 was a successful year, withprogress being made on all fronts. The firm raised L5 million ($8.1 million) through is flotation on the Alternative Investment Market in the UK. Cash at year-end was L5.1 million. The group loss for the year was slightly over L1 million, with a basic loss per share of 2 pence. The operating loss was L1.2 million.

During the year, Alizyme implemented four programs with differing approaches to the treatment of obesity and related disorders which include diabetes. Its collaboration with Oxford Molecular to design and synthesize novel drugs which inhibit lipase reached the second stage of synthesizing, assessing and refining candidate compounds. Programs on natural compounds for the inhibition of digestive enzymes for fat and starch were initiated at the Institute of Food Research and at the Rowett Research Institute, and compounds with antiobesity effects discovered at the University of Strathclyde are being further investigated in order to select candidates for development and clinical trials.

In addition, the company said that it has secured an option on patents of the British Technology Group for delivering drugs directly to the colon. R&D costs for the year were L788,060. See also page 28 for management changes.