R&D news in brief

Wellcome Trust set to issue bond
Medical research charity, the Wellcome Trust, will become the first charity in the UK to issue a bond this summer.

The bond issuance will allow the trust, which has an endowment of more than ?12.3bn, to raise up to £500m from the capital markets.

ìThis is bringing business expertise into the charitable sector and could encourage other endowments to do the same,î said Hugo Foxwood, analyst at credit ratings agency, Standard & Poor's, which assigned top triple-A status to the Wellcome Trust.

Trial go-ahead for Phosphagenics
Australian biotech firm, Phosphagenics, has received approval for a phase I clinical trial of transdermal insulin delivery product, TPM-02/Insulin.

TPM-02/Insulin is being developed as a novel way of administering insulin to diabetics, and the trial is now set to begin in July.

In the proposed study, 20 healthy male volunteers will be randomly assigned to receive either TPM-02/Insulin or a placebo, applied in a single dose directly to the skin.

Phosphagenics said the primary objective will be to assess the safety and tolerability of the delivery platform. Blood glucose and insulin levels will also be measured.