Investors were cheered by the promise that BTG will not eat into its £40m central fund to prop up Varisolve.. At least half a dozen UK bidders put in offers for The Daily Telegraph andSunday Telegraph by yesterday’s deadline. The Food & Drug Administration became concerned when pieces of foam entered the bloodstream and cases of deep vein thrombosis were recorded. The US launch date for the product slipped again yesterday, into 2009, but BTG’s finance director, Rusi Kathoke, said new laboratory and human tests would reveal by November whether the trials can proceed.Just over £5m of the rights issue proceeds will fund the extra trials, with £14m going to finish a manufacturing plant in north Wales.

The extra investment would mean BTG will be able to get a better deal with one of the 20 or so pharmaceuticals companies who have indicated an interest in funding or acquiring Varisolve, Mr Kathoke said.Varisolve was developed by Juan Cabrera, a surgeon in southern Spain who has successfully treated thousands of women. BTG has renegotiated its initial contract with Dr Cabrera, reducing the surgeon’s entitlement to royalties. The new regulator will focus on under-funding, fraud and mal-administration.THE MAIN PROPOSALSA pension protection fund to bail out schemes of insolvent companiesA new pensions regulator to monitor schemes more effectivelyImproved standardsfor scheme trusteesForecasts of pension benefits to be provided as part of an annual “pension check-up”A new funding measure based on a pension scheme’s individual assets and liabilitiesProtectionfor pension benefits when switching employerAnnual benefit increases to be capped at 2.5 per cent instead of 5 per cent to protect employersImproving terms for deferring state pension, to encourage people to carry on working. The Government will reward those who wait another five years with a lump sum of up to £30,000 or a £52 a week rise in their pension.As well as the pension protection fund, a new pension regulator will be set up to replace the Occupational Pensions Regulatory Authority.

Some called for more tax incentives to boost levels of pension savings. Terry Faulkner, the chairman of the National Association of Pension Funds, said: “Is there anything in the Bill to simplify our archaic state pension system? Is there anything to encourage firms to offer decent pensions to their employees, or keep existing schemes open? Are there new incentives to encourage people to save? The answer is ‘No’.”The Consumers’ Association called the strategy in the Bill “complex, risky and devoid of real consumer choice”.The Bill also set out plans to entice people to defer drawing their state pension. This will mean that many employees will lose out in the long term.”The Government plans to introduce a risk-based premium that will take account of the likelihood of the company drawing on the fund. At least half the levy would be set according to the risk posed by a scheme, with the rest assessed according to how many members it had and how many of these were retired. It says its attempts to cut red tape on pension schemes will offset much of the cost of the levy.Many employer groups, including the CBI and the Engineering Employers’ Federation, welcome the protection fund, but say the risk-based premium must be introduced as soon as possible. The EEF said employers would have to recover part of the levy from their staff.Jeremy Willmont, a partner at Moore Stephens, said he feared more companies would abandon their schemes because of the added costs. “Employees’ pension benefits that have been accrued to date will be protected by the fund, but this will be scant consolation if they lose a job which provided a salary and much greater pension benefits if they had been allowed to work until retirement,” Mr Willmont said.Pressure was also mounting on the Government to help the recent victims of lost pension promises, such as steelworkers at the defunct engineering companies ASW and UEF.The Government was also criticised for failing to take a radical long-term view on its pension policy.

The Pension Protection Fund is a knee-jerk reaction that will accelerate the demise of final-salary schemes. Employers, burdened by ever-increasing costs, will choose either to close their schemes or reduce the size of their contributions. Workers, as well as those already retired and receiving pensions from the scheme, would have their benefits secured.Employers, though, will have to pay a flat fee for up to two years, meaning well-funded schemes will be charged the same as those in difficulty when the fund starts operating in April 2005.David Frost, the director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, said: “This Bill will not encourage employers to provide pensions. Canary Wharf owns the giant Docklands office development in London.Crucially, the Brascan offer came with the support of 28.9 per cent of the votes eligible to be cast at a shareholder meeting later this month to consider the Morgan Stanley bid.Under the terms of the scheme of arrangement that the US bank has used for its offer, it needs 75 per cent support for the bid to be accepted.