As head of research and development at Shire, Wilson Totten, a former country doctor, helped to turn a tiddler into Britain’s third-largest drug company and a member of the FTSE 100.

It appears that he is repeating the trick with ProStrakan, where he is chief executive. As he did with Shire, Dr Totten is repackaging existing drugs into a more patient-friendly form. They include Sancuso, the only patch designed to prevent chemotherapy-induced nausea, and Abstral, an unusually fast-acting painkiller for cancer pain.

Jonathan Kwok, a Numis analyst, began coverage with “buy” advice and a 180p price target. He said: “Key elements of this story have quietly come together over 12 to 18 months, unnoticed by the market. If the market doesn’t take notice, trade buyers will.” ProStrakan gained 1½p to 90½p.

Caledon rose another 4½p to 59p as talk intensified that a bid would be agreed at 80p a share from either a Chinese or an Indian bidder in time for its annual meeting on July 23.

Desire Petroleum rose 7p to 52p amid unconfirmed talk that it was close to finding a drill rig to begin exploration around the Falklands.

Findel rose 6p to 39p as several big blocks of shares were sold, removing a known seller, and sparking suggestions that this would clear the way for a successful rights issue, which must be agreed by the end of the month.

Minerva, the property developer with £600 million debt and no rental income, gained 1¼p to 14p on a report that it had reached an outline deal with its banks to delay repayments due on some of its £600 million debt for two years. The group issued a statement saying that it remained in debt negotiations that began in May.

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