The world's giant drugs companies turn to it when they need help, and now many investors will get their first sight of a British software business when it makes its debut on the alternative investment market this week (Peter Stiff writes).

Instem Life Science Systems, which counts AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline among its customers, will announce today that it has raised more than £9 million from investors, before its flotation on AIM on Wednesday. 

The Staffordshire-based business sells software that collects and monitors data in drug trials, such as heart rate, then flags up any alarming trends, such as heart rates slowing.  Instem's software also allows users to look at several strands of data in one place and to guard against human error in data entry. 

The company, whose revenues approached £10 million last year, counts seven of the world's top ten pharmaceutical and biotech companies among its customers and makes about 60 per cent of its sales in America, 25 per cent from Europe and about 10 per cent in Britain.  Phil Reason, its chief executive, told The Times yesterday that the company would use the funds, and the cachet of a listing, to pursue acquisition targets on both sides of the Atlantic.

Neil Mitchell of Rickitt Mitchell advised Instem Life Science Services plc on the flotation.