Takeover approach for The Medical House

SHARES in needle-free injection specialist The Medical House rose 80% yesterday after the company received a takeover approach.

In a brief Stock Exchange statement the Sheffield-based company said it had “an approach which may or may not lead to an offer for the company” and added that a further announcement would be made in “due course”.

With the shares rising 11.6p to close at 25.9p last night – they opened this morning at 25p – speculation about the likely bidder included major drug groups with which it is working in partnership such as Belgian group UCB Pharma, Merck Serono and Indian company Dr Reddy’s.

Last month German group Merck Serono launched a needle-free injector in partnership with The Medical House, whose chairman is Ian Townsend.

And last year it signed a £5m five-year deal with Dr Reddy’s for its disposable self-injectors.

The firm, which is best known for its disposable autoinjector technology that allows patients to inject themselves, reported a record pre-exceptional operating profit for the year ended December 31 of £768,000 with pre-tax profits for the period £681,000.