ORPH.L Share News (ORPH)

(Sharecast News) - Specialist pharmaceuticals contract research organisation Open Orphan announced on Tuesday that its subsidiary Venn Life Sciences had been awarded a contract for a study with clinical-stage oncology company Oxford BioTherapeutics.
The AIM-traded firm said the contract was for a phase 1, open-label dose finding study which would assess the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics and preliminary efficacy of 'OBT076', a CD205-directed antibody-drug conjugate, in recurrent and metastatic CD205-positive solid tumours and in women with CD205-positive HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer.

For the study, the Venn team in Paris would provide data management and statistics services.

Open Orphan said Venn's team in Paris was "highly regarded" in the field as a "leading provider" in this area, adding that the study would start immediately.

"We are delighted to be in a position to announce another contract win for the Paris team," said executive chairman Cathal Friel.

"This deal further demonstrates Open Orphan's ability to execute on its significant pipeline of contracts with important pharmaceutical businesses."

Friel described Oxford BioTherapeutics as a clinical stage oncology company with a pipeline of first-in-class therapies, aiming to fulfil "major" unmet patient needs by targeting difficult-to-treat cancers.

"The Venn team are looking forward to assisting with the study and providing the preliminary data required to advance this breast cancer trial."

At 1444 GMT, shares in Open Orphan were down 0.34% at 28.9p.