Oxford Biomedica expands its ocular programme through collaboration and investment led by the Foundation Fighting Blindness
Oxford BioMedica and the Foundation Fighting Blindness (FFB) through its translational research arm National Neurovision Research Institute (NNRI) have signed a research and collaboration agreement to develop a portfolio of gene therapy products for the treatment of eye diseases.
This builds on the existing agreement with FFB signed in November 2003 for the pre-clinical development of RetinoStat, Oxford BioMedica's product for the treatment of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and for which Oxford BioMedica expects to file an IND application in 2007.
The first product in the expanded portfolio will be StarGen for the treatment of Stargardt disease, the most common juvenile degenerative retinal disease.
Under the collaboration agreement and a separate share subscription agreement, FFB and a consortium of investors will make an undisclosed upfront payment and will also subscribe for up to $3.9m of Oxford BioMedica ordinary shares of 1penny each to fund the development of StarGen.
The share subscription will be made in stages and priced at a 10% premium to the market price at the time of investment.
In return FFB and the consortium of investors will receive a royalty on sales of StarGen.
Upon signing of the share subscription agreement, the company has allotted and issued 485,185 new ordinary shares at 33.0 pence per share.
"FFB support will ensure that our expanded ocular programme will move quickly towards clinical evaluation".
Gordon Gund, co-founder and chairman of the board for the Foundation Fighting Blindness, added: "We are delighted that this partnership with Oxford BioMedica is accelerating promising treatments for AMD, Stargardt disease, and other retinal degenerative diseases into clinical trials.
"Our collaborations with innovative biopharmaceutical companies such as Oxford BioMedica are greatly enhancing our ability to get preventions, treatments, and cures out to the millions of people who need them."
