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Oxford Biomedica expands its ocular programme through collaboration and investment led by the foundation fighting blindness

05 Oct 2006 - 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(TM) 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 ("Ordinary Shares") 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. These new ordinary shares rank pari passu in all respects with the existing issued Ordinary Shares. Application will today be made to the UK Listing Authority and to the London Stock Exchange for these 485,185 new Ordinary Shares to be admitted to the Official List and to trading on the London Stock Exchange's market for listed securities respectively. Admission is expected to become effective and dealings in the new Ordinary Shares are expected to commence on 6 October 2006.
 

 
Commenting on the news, Oxford BioMedica's Chief Executive, Professor Alan Kingsman said: "We have a strong and successful working relationship with FFB and we are delighted that they, together with a consortium of investors, have recognised the broad potential of Oxford BioMedica's LentiVector® gene delivery system for the treatment of a range of eye diseases. FFB support will ensure that our expanded ocular programme will move quickly towards clinical evaluation"