Specialist pharmaceutical company Diurnal is looking to raise £11m with a share offer to help launch products and fuel drug development.

Insider Media reports, if the fundraising goes ahead, the proceeds will be used to launch the Cardiff-based company’s first product, Alkindi, into Europe as well as completing its US development. It will also be used to finish European development of Chronocort and the product’s Phase III development, among other objectives. After this, the company does not anticipate the need for further fundraising until after the Phase III Chronocort trial in the third quarter of the year.

Martin Whitaker, chief executive of Diurnal, said “Diurnal has delivered a number of key milestones set out at the time of our initial public offering in December 2015, most importantly the European approval of Alkindi, our first product to receive marketing authorisation. The funds raised will allow us to launch this product and to support the further development of Alkindi and Chronocort in the US and Europe as we begin to realise our vision of becoming a world-leading specialty pharma company in endocrinology. I would like to thank our employees for their passion, knowledge and expertise in creating and developing a unique and highly specialised pipeline of products.”

Peter Allen, non-executive chairman of Diurnal, said “On behalf of the board, I would like to thank both the new shareholders, as well as our existing shareholders, for their support as we continue to seek to develop and commercialise our late-stage pipeline to solve patient needs in adrenal diseases that result from a deficiency of cortisol, typically where there is either no licensed medicine or where we believe that current treatment does not adequately address patients’ needs.”