Oxford BioMedica PLC (LON:OXB) shares jumped in early morning trading Wednesday after it entered into an exclusive worldwide license agreement for its OXB-102 treatment for Parkinson’s Disease.
The FTSE SmallCap gene and cell therapy group said that under the agreement with US pharma company Axovant Sciences Ltd (NYSE:AXON) it would receive a US$30mln upfront payment including US$5mln as pre-payment for manufacturing activities related to OXB-102, now renamed AXO-Lenti-PD.
READ: Oxford BioMedica’s shares shares rise after unveiling US$100mln agreement with Bioverativ
The company added that it was also eligible to receive US$55mln upon the achievement of specified development milestones and US$757.5mln upon the achievement of specified regulatory and sales milestones, with 7% to 10% tiered royalties on net sales of AXO-Lenti-PD.
Axovant would fund all clinical development costs and manufacturing process development and scale-up activities for AXO-Lenti-PD, with the agreement also allowing for both parties to put in place a clinical and commercial supply agreement for GMP manufacturing of AXO-Lenti-PD at Oxford BioMedica.
Oxford BioMedica added that Axovant expects to initiate a Phase I/II dose escalation study of AXO-Lenti-PD in patients with advanced Parkinson's disease by the end of 2018.
John Dawson, chief executive of Oxford BioMedica, said: "Axovant's expertise and focus on neurological disorders, which includes Parkinson's disease, makes them an ideal development and commercialisation partner for this programme. Coupled with strong support from parent company Roivant, we believe Axovant is perfectly positioned to bring AXO-Lenti-PD to the market as quickly as possible to treat patients with Parkinson's, a disease which still has a high unmet need."
Oxford BioMedica shares were up 14.7% at 831p.