BOOMING chemical services company Oxford Asymmetry International is planning to quadruple its capacity with a new £12m pilot plant.

The company, based at Milton Park, reported turnover up 35 per cent, operating profits up seven per cent to £3m and pre-tax profits static at £3.7m.

Some 92 per cent of sales were outside the UK with 55 per cent in mainland Europe and 37 per cent in North America.

Chairman Dr Roger Brimblecombe said profits would have been greater if it had not been for £4.2m spending on new labs, which have just been completed. The new plant is expected to open in 2001.

The company's existing plant can make up to 50kg of sophisticated compounds for testing by drug companies. The new plant, which can handle larger quantities, will eventually run 24 hours a day. The company provides chemical services to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and agrochemical industries, allowing its customers to cut the time needed to bring new drugs and agrochemicals to market.

Dr Brimblecombe said: "Through a combination of internal investment and an aggressive programme of external investments our aim is to ensure that OAI has critical mass in terms of both size and its range of capabilities, so that we will be the partner of first choice for pharmaceutical companies in the new industry structure which is evolving."

He added: "We believe we will reap the rewards from the investments in the new laboratories and pilot plant, as well as that in knowledge management, for many years."

Dr Brimblecombe will retire in May, when chief executive Dr Edwin Moses will become executive chairman. Chief operating officer Dr Mario Polywka will be promoted to chief executive.

Two non-executive directors, Michael Redmond and Dr Robert Dow, have been appointed to the board.

Dr Moses said staff numbers would rise from 220 at the end of last year to 250 by the end of the year. More than a third have doctorates and 88 per cent are graduates.

The group has invested £1.1m ProPharma, a spin-out from Strathclyde University, in return for a 58 per cent equity stake in the company and an option to buy the rest.

Some 58 per cent of revenues came from pharmaceutical companies, 29 per cent came from biotechnology companies and the remainder from the agrochemical and fine chemical industries.

The order book stands at just under £16m.

The company has signed a three-year £3.3m deal with DuPont, USA, and has contracts with Monsanto and Searle. Powderject, of Oxford Science Park, has ordered small amounts of a hormone called alprostadil for use in clinical trials of PowderJect's erectile dysfunction treatment.

The company won first prize in the Electronic Document Management section of the national Information Management awards.

Story date: Wednesday 01 March

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