Lipoxen plc (AIM: LPX), a bio-pharmaceutical company specialising in the development of high-value differentiated biologicals, vaccines and siRNA delivery, announces today that it has signed a new technology evaluation agreement (“the Agreement”) with an undisclosed leading global pharmaceutical company (“the Pharma Company”), for the use of Lipoxen’s siRNAblate gene silencing technology platform in combination with the Pharma Company’s target siRNA.
Under the Agreement, the Pharma Company will fund and execute a structured programme to evaluate and analyse the effectiveness of combining the siRNAblate technology with the Pharma Company’s siRNA, with the aim of enhancing efficacy of the siRNA via improved delivery. This programme mirrors evaluation experiments with siRNA that Lipoxen has already successfully conducted and replicated in its own laboratories.
The evaluation programme is expected to be completed by the Pharma Company in Q3 2009. If the evaluation is successful, the Agreement may progress to a full development and licensing agreement.
Commenting on the Agreement, M. Scott Maguire, CEO of Lipoxen, said: “Lipoxen now has collaborations with some of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies across all three of our technology platforms. We are confident that the completion of this evaluation programme by a well known global pharmaceutical company will lead to further work on siRNA delivery, and potentially to a licensing deal.”
