Intercytex Facing Serious Financial Difficulties
Skin regeneration specialist Intercytex put itself up for sale following the failure of a Phase III study of its leading project involving Cyzact, a therapy for healing chronic wounds caused by venous leg ulcers. This failure, combined with poor economic results in 2008, leaves the company struggling to secure financing for its existing projects. Net losses for 2008 exceeded ₤10m, sharply eroding the net assets, which now stand at a mere ₤7m. Despite the aforementioned difficulties, Intercytex is said to have made good progress on its four remaining developments, including the hair regeneration project ICX-TRC, but the information released was minimal and uninformative. Already, prior to this financial turmoil, the company had announced that it did not intend to continue financing the clinical and commercial development of ICX-TRC beyond the current Phase II trial phase and would seek to bring in a partner once they had the complete data package from the Phase II trial. Bosley, the largest chain of hair transplant clinics in the US, which already owns an option to negotiate distribution rights for the new product, will be interesting to watch now as to whether they decide to get more financially involved in this project.