Sigma-Aldrich, a U.S. based Nasdaq-listed life science company, has agreed to license a gene delivery technology from Oxford BioMedica and will pay $5 million for a stake in the spin out from Oxford University.
In addition, the British company said it is seeking partners for a new cancer-therapy candidate.
The Sigma-Aldrich pact appears aimed at helping the U.S. company develop products in the market for RNA interference (RNAi) technology. “Sigma-Aldrich has invested quite heavily in developing RNAi and what we have done here is we put our technology into a company that is best-suited to explore particularly the RNAI space,” said Oxford BioMedica CEO Alan Kingsman in a telephone interview. “I don’t think there is anyone else who have such a capability than Sigma-Aldrich in the RNAi space.”
RNA interference technology is a hot new market sector, aimed at turning off or regulating specific genes. The aim is to treat various human diseases.
The companies didn’t disclose the size of the stake purchased. But based on the current market value of Oxford BioMedica of about £150 million, the transaction would give Sigma-Aldrich a shareholding of less than 2 percent. The transaction is expected to be completed by the end of January 2006.
The equity stake in Oxford BioMedica “clears the way for a collaborative effort that we expect to result in even more innovative tools for the biopharmaceutical industry,” said Shaf Yousaf, president of the Sigma-Aldrich Research Biotechnology business unit, in a statement.
These collaborative efforts include Sigma-Aldrich’s agreement to commercialise Oxford BioMedica’s lentivirus-based gene delivery technology LentiVector for the reagent and research-tool market. Under the agreement, Sigma-Aldrich would be Oxford BioMedica’s exclusive global partner in the development and marketing of research products based on the technology. The U.S. company would also get the exclusive right to sublicense the technology for research purposes and has first rights to negotiate for a license to develop a new range of products based on the technology.
In return Oxford BioMedica will receive an up-front payment, annual minimum payments and royalties on sales. Kingsman declined to disclose the financial terms of the agreement.
LentiVector is a technology that delivers genes to a wide range of cell and tissue types. It has applications both in therapeutic products and as a drug discovery tool for target validation and the creation of targeted disease models.
Separately, Kingsman said Oxford BioMedica is looking for partners for its TroVax vaccine, a cancer immunotherapy product.
“We are always interested in (looking for strategic investors),” said Kingsman. “We talked to people on a regular basis about our various products particularly TroVax, our lead vaccine. And certainly a strategic investment or part of the deal of TroVax is something that we would consider.”
Oxford BioMedica has about 70 staff. It has collaborations with Wyeth, Intervet, Viragen, MolMed and Kiadis, and has licensed technology to companies including Merck & Co, Biogen Idec and Pfizer.
Sigma-Aldrich operates in 35 countries and has over 6,800 employees. Their biochemical and organic chemical products and kits are being used in scientific and genomic research, biotechnology, pharmaceutical development.
Receive our news bulletin each Tuesday & Thursday and news about bridging Europe’s east-west innovation gap twice a month in The Widening. 
