Shares in MedPal AI plc (AIM:MPAL) fell 10% to 3.6p on Friday after the digital health and artificial intelligence company raised £5 million through a placing of new shares.
The fall came despite the placing being struck at 3.5 pence, a 40% premium to the 2.5 pence at which the company raised £3 million in April.
The issue price was set at a 12.5% discount to Thursday's closing price of 4p, a structure that typically weighs on a stock in the short term even when it signals longer-term confidence.
The company will use up to £500,000 of the proceeds to acquire Solid State Technologies, a profitable software business that provides electronic medicines administration records, the digital layer used to track drugs given to patients at the point of care.
MedPal said the deal would complete a closed-loop platform for care homes, linking prescribing, dispensing, administration and reconciliation on a single system.
Solid State Technologies generated annualised revenue of around £843,000 and annualised profit of around £307,000 in its latest management accounts to the end of May.
A larger portion, up to £3 million, will fund stock and patient acquisition ahead of the UK launch of the first oral GLP-1 weight-loss pill, oral Wegovy, on 6 July.
GLP-1 drugs mimic a hormone that regulates appetite and blood sugar, and have driven a surge in demand for weight-loss treatment.
MedPal, which runs a weight-loss clinic and holds a supply relationship with the drug's maker Novo Nordisk, wants to secure a large cohort of patients from the outset.
It cited US data showing prescription volumes exceeded three million in the five months after the pill's launch there in January, with more than 80% written for patients new to GLP-1 therapy.
Each active private patient is forecast to generate around £2,400 of recurring revenue a year.
The remaining proceeds will provide working capital to support what the company described as record NHS dispensing volumes through its robotic distribution hub.
MedPal also appointed Erin Fox, previously head of global digital at the duty-free retailer Avolta, as senior director of marketing to lead patient acquisition for the launch.
Chief executive Jason Drummond said the fundraising, struck at a premium to the April placing, was an endorsement of the company's progress and the two opportunities in front of it.
