Vaccine firm PowderJect has called off talks with bidders looking to take over the company.

But management are not ruling out further consideration from interested parties offering a higher price.

The firm, based at Oxford Science Park, confirmed last month it had received approaches believed to be from US company Chiron and pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline, which owns 5.4 per cent of Powderject's shares.

However, these have now been ruled out because they did not offer shareholders much of a premium on the Monday share price.

The bids were made after PowderJect's share price plummeted with £90m wiped off the value of the company following the withdrawal of a tuberculosis vaccine because of a potency problem.

But news of the takeover bids pushed the share price back up. Since then the company has been boosted by record financial figures for the six months to September 30 with pre-tax profits soaring £19.3m compared to £4.4m for the same period last year.

Another unexpected bonus came when US rival Wyeth withdrew from the flu vaccine market causing Powderject to increase production.

Powderject spokesman Rob Budge said: "The talks we were having were at an early stage and it is now clear that we are not going to get a bid that would be more than a small premium on Monday's share price. The board has a duty to review any sensible offer but now it is a case of getting on and running the business."