SOUTHAMPTON asthma research company Synairgen has floated with a valuation of £28.2m, comfortably ahead of industry forecasts.

Already a world leader in its field, Synairgen was admitted to London's junior stock exchange, the Alternative Investment Market, yesterday.

Experts had predicted the Southampton University spin out company would be valued at £25m.

However, such was the demand of institutional investors for shares, that the university sold ten per cent of its shareholding in the company for £500,000, leaving it with 16.6 per cent of the shares overall.

"We are pleased to report strong support by investors for our fundraising, which reflects the first-class respiratory research capability of the company and the University of Southampton," said Synairgen's non-executive chairman Simon Shaw.

Investors' excitement is understandable. Offering hope to millions of asthma sufferers, Synairgen specialises in unearthing and licensing treatments for chronic bronchitis and the severest forms of asthma.

Products under development include a means to tackle asthma attacks triggered by colds and a way to help asthmatic lungs repair themselves.

One child in eight in Britain receives treatment for asthma and there are 3.7 million adult sufferers.

The condition is responsible for four deaths a day.

Synairgen's founders, world-renowned expert Professor Stephen Holgate and his colleagues Dr Ratko Djukanovic and Dr Donna Davies, were part of the team that uncovered the 'asthma gene'.

Synairgen is the university's second spin out flotation this year, following that of OHM plc in March, and the 11th overall to emerge from the university's successful Centre for Enterprise and Innovation.