UPDATE: Hong Kong Drug Maker MiLOC Plans London IPO

24th Jun 2010 10:53

(Adds detail.) By Jason Douglas Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES LONDON (Dow Jones)--Hong Kong-based healthcare company MiLOC Group is planning an initial public offering in London to raise funds to establish a network of traditional Chinese medicine clinics in China, Hong Kong and Macau, MiLOC's chief executive said in an interview Thursday. Michael Ong told Dow Jones Newswires MiLOC is hoping to join London's junior Alternative Investment Market as early as next month and will use the money raised to help fund the purchase of traditional Chinese medicine, or TCM, clinics and hospitals in Asia. MiLOC plans to modernize them by importing Western standards of care in an effort to draw in more customers, Ong said. The TCM industry is fragmented and is ripe for consolidation, he added. Its own clinics would also give MiLOC a ready-made distribution network for the TCMs it is developing, Ong said. The company sells an influenza treatment called Rorrico, which is currently in clinical trials in Macau in an effort to prove it is an effective treatment for H1N1, or swine flu. MiLOC intends to license or acquire other medicines to develop and later sell through its TCM clinics, Ong said. It is interested in products for patients suffering from HIV, tuberculosis and other hard-to-treat diseases, he said. Traditional Chinese medicine is big business in China. A government catalog of essential medicines that must be stocked by hospitals and pharmacies includes many TCMs. It is also gaining popularity in Europe and a longer-term aim of MiLOC is to establish clinics here, said Ong. The company can't yet disclose how much it is seeking to raise in its IPO, Ong said. ZAI Corporate Finance is advising MiLOC. AIM is also home to Hutchison China MediTech Ltd. (HCM.LN), a drug maker and unit of Asian conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. (0013.HK). It too sells TCMs in China and has research deals with Merck KGaA (MRK.XE) and Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) to scour libraries of TCM compounds for possible applications in cancer and beauty products. -By Jason Douglas, Dow Jones Newswires; 44-20-7842-9272; [email protected] (END) Dow Jones Newswires June 24, 2010 05:53 ET (09:53 GMT)