MRSA drug pioneer leaps 39pc on its market debut
Stock exchange newcomer Destiny Pharma soared 38.5pc in its first day of trading.
the firm raised £15.3m at a placing price of 157p per share but jumped as high as 227p yesterday afternoon before finishing at 217.5p.
one of the reasons it is so popular is because of its unique approach to treatment.
the company is developing drugs to fight drug-resistant bacteria such as MRSA, which kill an estimated 700,000 people each year. But rather than focus on traditional antibiotics, it produces drugs which have cut the number of hospital-acquired infections by as much as 60pc.
one way it does this is by reducing the number of bugs in people’s noses before an operation.
the firm also has special status which means its drugs can be seen by the regulatory authorities quicker. Destiny is only the second life sciences group to join the London Stock Exchange and is a welcome boost for the British biotech industry, which has struggled to emulate the commercial success of the US.
Shares in Acacia Mining fell after the firm revealed it would wind back its operations in tanzania.
the firm said it had been forced to reduce activity at its Bulyanhulu mine after the tanzanian government’s decision to ban exports of gold and copper knocked production by 35pc, costing it £162m so far this year.
Acacia has been at loggerheads with the government since it imposed an export ban on gold concentrate in March. the disagreement escalated in May when the government claimed the miner’s gold output was 10 times greater than it claimed – a level that Acacia said would make it the ‘third-biggest gold miner in the world’.
tensions heightened again when the tanzanian authorities slapped it with a £147bn bill in July, though Acacia said it had declared all materials produced and paid royalties and taxes in full. Acacia, which is dependent on its three mines in tanzania, had stockpiled gold concentrate hoping for a quick end to the dispute.
But the firm said that despite reducing its operating costs to protect jobs, the Bulyanhulu mine was no longer sustainable.
Investors were put out by the news and shares, which plunged more than 13pc when markets first opened yesterday, finished down 2.4pc, or 4.9p, to 202.2p.
the FTSE 100 finished down 0.36pc, or 27.03 points, to 7411.47, while the FTSE 250 finished down 0.45pc, or 88.27 points, to 19,697.91. Investors in Frontier Developments and Arix Bioscience reacted positively to announcements of new senior hires.
Shares in video game maker Frontier jumped 3.3pc, or 35p, to 1082.5p, when it revealed it had appointed Stewart Stanbury, a former brand and strategy executive at Google, to serve as its director of marketing.
And Arix Bioscience’s Artois Pharma soared 3.2pc, or 6p, to 193.5p, after it poached former AstraZeneca boss Dr Graeme Smith as it chief scientific officer.
Gas firm Sound Energy soared after it revealed it had received a proposal for financing one of its gas pipelines in Morocco.
It said it had received an indicative non-binding proposal from Advisory & Finance Group Investment Bank of around £46m to £77m. It comes after the oil & Gas Investment Fund indicated an interest in funding in July last year. Shares increased 4.5pc, or 2.25p, to 52.25p.