Bioglan's Sadler returns to market with skin product

Terry Sadler, the chief executive of Bioglan, the healthcare group which collapsed into administration two years ago, is planning an audacious stock market comeback with his latest skincare venture.

Terry Sadler, the chief executive of Bioglan, the healthcare group which collapsed into administration two years ago, is planning an audacious stock market comeback with his latest skincare venture.

York Pharma is raising £1m to fund an application to launch a new women's healthcare cream to treat fungal infections, which could be available on prescription by 2007.

Mr Sadler said he planned to use the AIM-listed shares as currency for acquisitions - and avoid building up the sort of debt mountain that ultimately crippled Bioglan.

"I want to spend the rest of my business career building York," he said. "It is not meant to be a shooting star, but rather something that is built up steadily over a number of years and which retains a substantial value."

Bioglan, which Mr Sadler bought on his credit cards and by remortgaging his house in 1984, was grown into a FTSE 250 star largely through debt-funded acquisitions. However, it began to unravel in 2001 when an over-ambitious acquisition attempt revealed the scale of its liabilities and incautious accounting.

"It is not as though I made a pile of money out of Bioglan," Mr Sadler said. "During my time there I never sold shares in the public markets." His holding in the company, worth £175m at the peak, was wiped out.

Mr Sadler founded York a year ago to acquire the rights to Abasol from the three German scientists who invented it. Large-scale trials of the product had already been conducted by a European biotech giant, and Abasol has been tested on 3,000 people for conditions including vulvovaginitis and fungal infections of the nails. The developers also hope it could prove a treatment for acne.

Mr Sadler said: "There is a $2.2bn market for anti-fungal products, and a $9bn market for dermatology products in total, so there is the opportunity to build a substantial international business."

York is issuing shares at 25p each and warrants to subscribe to further shares at 50p. JM Finn is the company's broker with Daniel Stewart & Co acting as nominated adviser.