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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: Drug kit company gets ready to float and grow
The Guardian Wednesday 21 Jul 2004 Cozart, which makes kits that test for hard drugs, has raised funds to expand as it looks to market the product to companies which want to check their employees. It already sells its RapiScan test to the police and aims to target other parts of the criminal justice system as well as companies. The test kits are portable and can check for cannabis, speed, cocaine, heroin and ecstasy by using saliva samples. The test uses an antibody labelled with gold which will produce a visible line if it does not bind to the drug. It then shows a digital reading of how much of the drug has been taken. Cozart managing director Dr Christopher Hand said it was more convenient to take saliva samples than blood or urine. Urine tests, for example, require the person being examined to be watched while producing the sample to avoid tampering. Cozart said yesterday that it intends to start trading its shares on the junior Aim exchange on Monday, with the company valued at UKP27m. It has raised UKP5.3m after expenses and directors have sold about UKP500,000 worth of shares. After the flotation, Dr Hand and his brother Philip, the finance director, will each own just over 17% of the business they founded. They are prevented from selling any more shares for 12 months. Cozart, which is based in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, won a contract in December last year to supply its kits to 130 police stations, about 20% of the total in England and Wales. They are used to identify criminals eligible for drug rehabilitation. The Home Office can terminate the contract with 30 days' notice, the company's floatation prospectus reveals. The new contracts boosted Cozart's turnover to UKP4m for the year to the end of May and it made pre-tax profits of UKP45,882. The company will use the money it has raised to expand in Italy, Spain, France and Germany. It will also use a proportion to develop new tests for allergies and cancer, and for marketing its products. Other existing customers include mining and transport companies in Australia, and Cozart hopes to sell to firms in the UK as the testing of employees for drugs increases. "Workplace testing as a whole is developing in the UK and Europe, although it is already big in the US," said Dr Hand. The company was set up in 1993 by the two Hand brothers. It developed medical diagnostic test kits for drugs and its saliva-based test was produced in 1999. The firm holds patents for the system but the scope of the protection is not yet known, the prospec tus says. It also makes kits for laboratories and processes drug samples in-house. The chairman is Sir Brian Richards, previously of Acambis and currently chairman of Alizyme. Cozart employs 58 people in the UK.
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