NMT, the Lanarkshire-based developer of safety medical equipment, has raised #10m to help fund commercialisation of a new syringe that automatically retracts to avoid accidental injury to clinicians administering injections.

The company's decision to join the junior Alternative Investment Market by way of an instutional placing has given it a market capitalisation of #19.6m while raising #10m in new money. Dealings in the shares, which were issued at 50p each, are expected to begin on April 17.

Established in August 1994, NMT holds the patent for a syringe with a needle that automatically retracts when the plunger is fully pushed home. Developed by Scots inventor Keith McMahon, who acts as a consultant to NMT, it is designed to avoid the hazard of contracting blood-borne diseases through accidental ''needlestick'' injuries.

Although there are already other retractable needle devices available, they involve several manipulations that require both hands. NMT reckons its automatic device can capture about 2% of the world-wide syringe market, where as many as 15 billion needles are sold every year.

NMT finance director Harry Bocker said there were about one million reported cases of needlestick injury in the US each year, resulting in 300 deaths at a cost of about $3000m to the healthcare system. That country will therefore be one of the main markets NMT targets when it launches its new syringe late next year.

''We're due to launch our first retractable syringe in the latter half of 1998, and our principle markets will be the US and Western Europe,'' Mr Bocker said. ''The next line of products should be out late in the following year, and will include other sizes of syringes, phlebotomy sets and catheters.''

NMT also plans to eventually introduce a safe drug delivery system which does not require the tip of a glass ampoule to be broken. Ampoules are a common way of storing injectable doses, but breaking them is another source of injury to medical staff.

However, the company's immediate concern will be getting its first retractable syringe on the market. To that end, the money raised from flotation will be used to develop an automated machine for the mass production of the devices.

Mr Bocker said the company also needed to finalise its regulatory approvals and confirm its patent rights, although he emphasised NMT was ''confident'' in its position with its product.

Chief executive John Campbell, commercial director Garry McGrotty and four other NMT directors currently hold a collective 25% stake in the business. About 140 other shareholders, primarily private investors, control the rest of the operation, but both groups can expect their holdings to be diluted by about 50% after flotation.

The company's directors have agreed not to sell any shares during the two years following flotation, while former directors of NMT and shareholders controlling 3% or more of the company have agreed not to sell their stakes for at least six months. For the 18 months thereafter, their share sales will be restricted to 40% of any individual holding.

n AN epilepsy drug which can cause side-effects, including a skin reaction similar to third degree burns - and in rare cases may be fatal - presents a greater risk to children than was first thought, doctors were warned yesterday.

The warning was issued by drug giants Glaxo Wellcome, manufacturers of the drug, Lamictal, after new research showed that the risk of side-effects was up to 10 times greater than was realised.

Glaxo Wellcome's share price fell 6p to 1087p after news of the scare hit the City.

Lamictal, an effective drug which is especially useful for patients with hard-to-control seizures, has been taken by an estimated 800,000 patients world-wide since its introduction in 1990.

The drug has recognised side-effects which, in rare cases, can include two extremely serious skin rash reactions. One, Stevens-Johnson syndrome, produces fever and blistering. The other, more serious, condition, called toxic epidermal necrolysis, can produce skin peeling on the same scale as that caused by third degree burns. This side-effect is thought to have led to a handful of deaths world-wide.

The risk of an adult suffering one of these reactions is known to be one-in-1000. But research around the world by Glaxo Wellcome has now shown the danger for children to be much higher - between one-in-300 and one-in-100.