The trust, launched in April 2002, was the first one Octopus launched raising £7.6 million. Almost three years later £4.9 million remains as cash, meaning just a third has been invested in eight qualifying investments. The VCT rules state that 70 per cent of the initial proceeds must be invested within three years.

Chairman Paul Nicholson blamed ‘the dearth of institutional investor interest in many unquoted healthcare companies’. He fears that this situation ‘may not change in the near future’. So to meet the rules, some of the money will be put in a non-interest-bearing deposit account.

This may mean the trust fails to meet another VCT rule – that no single investment should account for more than 15 per cent of net assets, currently worth £6.3 million, or 83p a share.