BIOTECH company Oxford GlycoSciences is to float on the London Stock Exchange later this year in one of the biggest fund-raising exercises yet by an Oxford University spin-off company, writes Maggie Hartford.

Many smaller companies choose to float on the Alternative Investment Market, but Oxford GlycoSciences has opted for the main stock exchange.

Finance director Paul Triniman said: "We have big ambitions in terms of the way we want to grow and if we floated on Aim we would soon outgrow it so we are stepping straight into the main arena."

It has two drugs in clinical trials - one to treat the rare but life-threatening illness Gaucher's Disease and another which is a possible treatment for liver cancer.

But its main strength is its 'proteomics' technology which allows researchers to pinpoint specific proteins responsible for disease, to show whether a patient is getting the correct treatment and how it works. Chief executive Michael Kranda said: "This approach of searching for disease-specific proteins directly and linking them with their genes provides OGS and its partners with an important advantage in the race to exploit genomic data for use in the development of new drugs and diagnostics."

US company Incyte Pharmaceuticals recently put £3m into OGS and will share profits from commercialising databases of proteins in humans, animals, plants and microbes. OGS is now seeking more revenue-generating link-ups with drug companies.

Since March it has raised £30m from equity issues. Current shareholders include Warburg Pincus, Biotechnology Investments and the Wellcome Trust.

Since last year staff numbers at the Abingdon Science Park have risen from 56 to nearly 100 and Mr Triniman said more staff would be taken on once more partners were found.

The company was set up in 1988 by Prof Raymond Dwek of Oxford University's glycobiology institute. The university owns a small share in the company and is collaborating with rheumatoid arthritis research.

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