The examiner appointed to a group of companies within the Antigen Group has asked the High Court to approve a scheme of arrangement aimed at procuring the survival of Antigen, which has a manufacturing plant at Roscrea, Tipperary, employing 310 people.

Unless the plan, with some minor modifications, is approved by the court, the alternative is winding up the company, Mr Justice McCracken was told by Mr Bill Shipsey SC, for the examiner, Mr Jason Sheehy.

The Antigen Group is the sole supplier of a number of products used in critical care situations but it also produces two product antidotes to nerve gas poisoning. The British NHS recently placed a large contingency order for one of these drugs, Mr Sheehy said in an affidavit. If wound up, he said, unsecured creditors could expect to get no more than 50p in the pound at best.

In another affidavit, Antigen chief executive Mr Padraic Marrinan said an offer by Mizza Pharmaceuticals to invest in the Roscrea facility was preferable to that volunteered by a second investment consortium.

The court is being asked by Bank of Ireland and ICC, two creditors of Antigen who between them are owed £8.2 million (€10.4 million), to make a number of modifications to the examiner's proposals so that all creditors would be paid immediately or that shareholders would not be paid until creditors were first looked after.

At a hearing last May, the court was told that as a result of the implementing and validation of new plant and machinery the manufacturing division was unable to function from July 2000 to April 2001. This had caused severe financial problems.

An interim examiner was then appointed to Castleholding Investment Co Limited, the holding company for a number of companies within the Antigen group. The court has heard the group's business began under the name Antigen Limited in 1946. Since 1996, more than £12.7 million has been invested in the Roscrea facility.

Under the proposed scheme of arrangement, none of the unsecured creditors would be paid interest but would get their money back in full over a period of time. Approval of the scheme has been given by the relevant Government minister and the shareholders had also approved, Mr Shipsey said. Implementation of the scheme would ensure the survival of the business as a going concern.

The hearing continues today.