PPL Therapeutics, the parent company of the lab firm which said fish felt pain company and which once cloned Dolly the Sheep, put itself up for sale today after failing to agree restructuring plans with shareholders.
The group, which has already withdrawn from its cloning activities, said that while most of its major shareholders supported its plans for the future, the overall level of backing was still not enough.
The news came as the Edinburgh-based company published results for the first half of this year which showed pre-tax losses more than doubling to £ 13.5 million.
The group slid further into the red after taking an £ 8.1 million hit from its decision to put its emphysema treatment programme on hold and slashing its workforce from 161 to just 55.
The move followed the sale earlier this year of its US-based regenerative medicine business which undertook research based on stem cells. The company had already closed its Scottish-based stem cell research programme.
The group and its German-based partner Bayer announced in June that they were putting a programme to develop ‘AAT’ – a substance which protects the lungs from tissue damage which causes emphysema – on hold.
Delays in the programme had earlier forced it to pull out of plans to build a new £ 42 million plant in Scotland.
The decision to suspend the AAT programme prompted a painful overhaul but the board had hoped to rebuild the company around its interests in sealants – protein-based substances used to help bind wounds for surgical purposes.
The company put forward a number of strategic options for the future for its major shareholders to consider. As well as the sealants plan, other options included selling the company outright or winding it up.
But although the sealants plan did attract the backing of the majority of its major institutional shareholders, the overall level of support was not enough.
PPL announced today that it was now seeking an ‘orderly sale of the business’ in order to give shareholders the best short-term return on their investments.
Chief executive Geoff Cook and a string of directors are to step down from their posts.
