Medicines management software specialist, Ascribe is poised to seek a listing on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) and raise £5.5m to develop the company. Ascribe, which was established in 1989, expects to have a stock market capitalisation of about £20m. Managing director, Stephen Critchlow, a former hospital pharmacist, confirmed to E-Health Insider that the funds raised by the listing will be channelled into the purchase of Protechnic Exeter. He said that Ascribe was focused on medicines management in the acute sector and the acquisition would take the company into the community and GP sector. A major driver for growth in recent years has been the wider realisation that information systems can help to reduce errors in the prescription, dispensing and administration of drugs. The Audit Commission’s landmark report, A Spoonful of Sugar, estimated that these errors resulted in the death of 1200 UK patients a year and made various recommendations on the use of IT in a reformed system of medicines management. Critchlow explained: “There are targets for chief executives of trusts and hospital pharmacies that need to be met before the National Programme [for IT] delivers.” Ascribe is also a catalogue partner for some of the local service providers (LSPs) in the NHS in England. The company’s solutions are used in 120 UK hospitals and also sell in Australia, New Zealand and various south-east Asian countries.
