Minster yields to Proximagen

4th Jan 2010 16:20

Shares in drug development company Minster Pharmaceuticals received a pick-me-up after acquisitive sector peer Proximagen Neuroscience made an agreed bid for the company.Minster shareholders are being offered 6p cash for each Minster share they own, valuing the whole of Minster at £4.3m.The directors of Minster have unanimously recommended acceptance of the offer and have given irrevocable undertakings to accept the terms in respect of their own holdings, which represent around 24.5% of the issued ordinary share capital of Minster.In addition, further irrevocable undertakings to accept the offer have been secured by Proximagen in respect of shares representing some 31.34% of Minster's existing issued share capital, pushing acceptances of the offer well over the 50% level. 'The offer represents a good premium to the share price and the Minster Board is pleased to recommend it to shareholders,' said John Russell, chairman and chief operating officer of Minster. 'We believe the offer provides a more certain investment outcome for shareholders since the prospects for Minster, without the funding it needs to progress its business plan, are extremely uncertain,' Russell added.Proximagen, for its part, is eager to get its hands on Minter's compound, tonabersat, which Dr. Kenneth Murray, chief executive of Proximagen, said 'has potential for the treatment of epilepsy, one of the most common of the serious neurological disorders,'