Gene and cell therapy group Oxford BioMedica has entered into an exclusive worldwide licensing agreement with Nasdaq-listed Axovant Sciences that will see the pair develop and commercialise OXB-102, a gene therapy for Parkinson's disease developed by the London-listed group.
Oxford BioMedica will receive a $30m upfront payment from the Bermuda-registered clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, including $5m as pre-payment for manufacturing activities related to OXB-102, which has since been renamed, AXO-Lenti-PD.

As part of the deal, the Oxford-based biopharmaceutical company would receive $55m upon the achievement of specified development milestones and a further $757.5m following certain regulatory and sales milestones.

Oxford Biomedica will also receive 7-10% in tiered royalties on net sales of AXO-Lenti-PD.

John Dawson, chief executive of Oxford BioMedica, said, "We are delighted to sign this significant agreement which not only underlines our LentiVector enabled platform and product development strategy but further demonstrates Oxford BioMedica's ability to build multiple partnerships with leaders in their respective therapeutic fields."

"This agreement with Axovant also successfully demonstrates Oxford BioMedica's pre-stated strategy to externalise product development beyond the end of the pre-clinical phase," he added.

As of 0835 BST, Oxford Biomedica shares had shot up 16.23% to 841.51p.

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