Consort Medical agrees partnership and invests in Precision Ocular

(ShareCast News) - Consort Medical has made a £3.3m equity investment for a 13.7% stake in retinal therapeutics specialist Precision Ocular and agreed a development and manufacturing partnership. London-based Precision Ocular has developed retinal treatments that are designed to access specific small areas of the eye in order to provide unique drug distribution to tissues specifically involved in retinal diseases.Using the expertise and device manufacturing capabilities of Consort's Bespak and Aesica divisions, the collaboration agreement aims to accelerate the development, scale-up and industrialisation of Precision Ocular's products."We believe Precision Ocular's proprietary drug products and drug delivery system has the potential to be a platform technology with broad applicability," Consort said. The drug delivery system is engineered to more effectively delivery drugs to specific locations in the eye, reducing side-effects and minimising the frequency of treatment for certain groups of patient.The Precision team is developing treatments for prevalent retinal diseases, including age-related macular degeneration (AMD), diabetic macular edema (DME), retinal vein occlusion (RVO), uveitis and cystoid macular edema (CME).Consort's investment is alongside Imperial Innovations, Hovione and NeoMed in what was a £13.5m funding round. The fully-listed company will make an initial £2m investment for a 12.2% shareholding that will be increased in later second tranche.As it will draw on the skills and expertise of both subsidiaries, Consort chief executive Jon Glenn said the partnership was "an important demonstration of the value of our recently announced single solution for device and drug combinations"."Further it extends our competencies into the ocular therapeutic area in line with our stated strategy."Analysts at broker N+1Singer said it looked an interesting deal, "but won't move the dial in the short term - commercial revenues are still at least 3-5 years away".