(Bloomberg) -- Destiny Pharma Plc, a British biotech company chaired by City veteran Nigel Rudd, has appointed insolvency practitioners after failing to secure a rescue deal.
Destiny Pharma, which earlier this month delisted from the London Stock Exchange’s Alternative Investment Market, had been unable to secure a licensing partner to fund clinical trials for its most hopeful antibiotic product, according to a person familiar with the matter.
It lodged an application to appoint administrators in the High Court, a form of insolvency, on Wednesday.
The company, which was founded in 1997, has now appointed administrators from the insolvency firm Cork Gully LLP, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Destiny, which was floated seven years ago at 157 pence per share, is the latest British biotech company to quit Aim in search of funds from private rather than public investors. C4X Discovery and Redx Pharma both delisted from London’s junior market earlier this year.
Destiny sought shareholder approval to go private after failing to agree a deal with a licensing partner to fund its main asset’s late-stage clinical trials.
Rudd, the industrialist who built Williams Holdings and went on to chair Alliance Boots, first invested in Destiny Pharma 20 years ago.
A company spokesperson declined to comment.
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