A CURE for cat allergy is making investors purr.

Oxford biotech firm Circassia’s Cat-SPIRE treatment takes just four injections, four weeks apart.

The same technology can also tackle hayfever, dust mite and possibly food allergies.

Cat-SPIRE is still going through its final phase of testing but could be on the market by 2017.

Circassia, which launched eight years ago, raised £200m on the London Stock Exchange in July and is now valued at £500m.

Chief executive Steven Harris said: “The alternative is taking antihistamines, which only treat the symptoms.

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“For many, they don’t work, or don’t work particularly well.

“Other options are to give the patient the thing they are allergic to, escalating over many years and they can often get quite unpleasant reactions, such as swelling on the arm and in worst cases, anaphyl-actic reaction.

“We are in a completely different league to anything else out there and our procedure is safe.

“We don’t yet know for sure it can be used for food allergies but there is no reason why it shouldn’t work on that too.”

Cat allergy is thought to affect one in six of the population and symptoms include sneezing, wheezing and a runny nose.

The initial breakthrough that led to Cat-SPIRE was made by two professors at London University.

Mr Harris, who is a bioscience entrepreneur, acquired the technology and went on to raise £300m funding to develop it and pay for clinical testing.

Rather than a traditional needle and syringe, treatment is given via micro-needles, or tiny, hollow silicon crystals.

Circassia, based at Oxford Science Park, has tripled in size and employs 60 staff, compared with 30 a year ago, and plans to take on another 20 people in the next year.

Mr Harris added: “We came across the scientists who had done quite a lot of work understanding allergy.

“I had been in the bio-science industry for quite a while and my last business had just been sold.

“We acquired the business in 2006, put money in ourselves, then raised £105m before going public a couple of months ago.

“We investigated floating the company on the New York stock exchange and met potential investors on both sides of the Atlantic.

“But I thought If we can, why wouldn’t we do it here?

“We’re a British company, it’s based on British technology and I’m proud to be British, so I chose the London Stock Exchange.

“It’s a great moment for us, but it’s also only the beginning. Raising the money is one thing but we are trying to build a good business that stands the test of time.”

 

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