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ZURICH - Australian biotech company Clinuvel Pharmaceuticals is actively looking at listing in Switzerland, provided it is confident there will be enough liquidity in the stock, its chief executive told Reuters.

Clinuvel, which is developing a drug called afamelanotide to treat sun intolerance and a precursor to skin cancer, plans to maintain its existing listing in Australia, Philippe Wolgen said in a telephone interview.

"We are looking at that actively, we are talking to bankers and accountants," Mr Wolgen said.

Swiss group Mondobiotech last month became the first healthcare company to list on the Zurich exchange since Addex in 2007, but did not raise funds with the listing.

Markets for biotech funding have improved, but it will probably be some six months before a window for initial public offerings (IPOs) in the industry opens up in Switzerland, Mr Wolgen said.

Clinuvel believes afamelanotide has the potential to improve the quality of life of millions of people who suffer from light-related skin disorders and damage caused by ultraviolet radiation, and Mr Wolgen said the company had enough cash to bring the drug to market.

The group stresses the treatment - which is injected once every two months and has the effect of darkening the skin - is for medicinal rather than cosmetic purposes, such as fake tanning.

Mr Wolgen said it would aim to raise money with any Swiss listing, but also cautioned the group would play things carefully and did not want to be the first biotech to do an IPO.

The company does not yet have a product on the market and had cash and financial assets of about $38 million as of the end of June.

Clinuvel made a net loss of some $15 million in its 2008-2009 financial year.

"The markets have opened up faster than we all anticipated and that shows that capital markets have a very short memory," he said, adding that the group would also consider acquisitions and drug licensing deals to strengthen its business.

"The investor climate is much more favourable towards companies of our size," Mr Wolgen added.

"We are curious but we don't want to be the first."