Oxford BioDynamics has signed the first commercial agreement for its EpiSwitch Orion platform, marking the first time an outside party has paid to use the recently launched 3D genomics tool.
The AIM-listed biotechnology company said the deal forms part of OPTIMISE, a UK government-funded translational research programme into psoriatic arthritis, backed by the Department of Health and Social Care through the National Institute for Health and Care Research.
The deal was well received by the market, and shares were 29% higher at the time of writing.
Under the agreement, Oxford BioDynamics will be paid for two strands of work: wet-lab biomarker discovery, and the processing of patients’ genomic sequence data and generation of insights using EpiSwitch Orion.
The programme aims to improve how biologic therapies are selected for psoriatic arthritis patients, an area of unmet clinical need.
OPTIMISE, short for Optimising Psoriatic Arthritis Therapy with Immunological Methods to Increase Standard Evaluation, brings together the Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences at the University of Oxford, the University of Glasgow, King’s College London and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust.
EpiSwitch Orion is the company’s cloud-based platform that converts standard genome sequencing data, including legacy whole-genome datasets, into what it calls 3D regulatory intelligence.
Richard Compton, Chief Executive Officer of OBD, said: “This agreement represents an important milestone for OBD and for EpiSwitch Orion. Psoriatic arthritis patients currently face a trial-and-error process in finding the most effective biologic therapy, and helping clinicians identify the right treatment for the right patient sooner is exactly the kind of unmet medical need our platform was built to address. It is also significant for us commercially: this is the first time a partner has paid for access to Orion’s capabilities.