Allergy Therapeutics expresses optimism over US prospects for its hay fever vaccine after cutting annual losses 43 per cent to £11.4 million.

Allergy Therapeutics expresses optimism over US prospects for its hay fever vaccine after cutting annual losses 43 per cent to £11.4 million.

A strong euro helped the Worthing-based company increase turnover 22.5 per cent to £398 million in the year to June, with its key Pollinex Quattro hay fever vaccine lifting sales 41 per cent to £18.21 million, an increase which would have been only 21 per cent on a constant currency basis. The US Food and Drugs Administration had put the vaccine on hold because it was uneasy about a chemical agent, MPL, used to enhance its effectiveness, but the FDA has now approved Glaxo SmithKline’s Cervarix cancer treatment, which also uses MPL.

AIM-quoted Allergy, which says it hopes to launch its Pollinex Quattro Grass ‘ultra-short course four-injection’ grass allergy vaccine in Germany in the second half of 2010, raised £22.1 million at 12p in July in a refinancing involving the repayment of £9.4 million to Royal Bank of Scotland and revised loan facility the terms. The Weinstein Chilean pharmaceutical family supported the fundraising and as result now has 40 per cent of Allergy and two representatives the board, including Manuel Llobet, who has replaced Keith Carter as chief executive officer.