Onzima arouses interest with viagra reformulation investment

Onzima Ventures has snapped up a 49% share in drug reformulations outfit N4 Pharma for £41,000 cash and 24.27m new shares, which will be locked in by N4's management for two years.

Onzima, which changed its name from Ultima Networks after selling off its green energy operations and raising £0.75m in a placing, has agreed to provide a loan facility of £209,000 to N4 Pharma for the development of its business.

Set up by Nigel Theobald, the former chief executive of AIM-listed Oxford Pharmascience, N4 Pharma develops new versions of widely used drugs to make them easier to take or reduce the dose, using their patent-protected technology platforms Cocrys and Nuvac.

N4's first product in development is a 'faster acting' version of sildenafil, better known as Viagra, which reduces the onset of action from one hour to fifteen minutes and improving the performance of the drug in lower acidic conditions.

"The funds will allow us to accelerate the formulation work for our novel sildenafil co-crystals and undertake the initial proof of concept studies for our faster acting positioning," said Theobald.

"The erectile dysfunction market is worth over $4bn. Viagra came off patent in Europe in 2013 and is still the most widely used drug for erectile dysfunction despite it taking an hour before it starts to work. A faster acting version of Viagra will be a key new player in this attractive market."

Theobald said he aimed to expand the product portfolio with a wider range of drugs already off patent or coming off patent soon.

Shares in Onzima were up 57% to 0.862p by 1130 GMT on Tuesday.