OptiBiotix Health signs big new US partnership

(Sharecast News) - Life sciences business OptiBiotix Health has entered into an agreement with an unnamed US company for the use of its cholesterol-reducing 'Lactobacillus plantarum' strain as a pharmaceutical drug product, it announced on Tuesday.The AIM-traded firm said the agreement granted the US company an exclusive license in return for it taking responsibility for all development, pre-clinical and human clinical testing, regulatory filings and approvals, product manufacture, marketing, and product sales in the US therapeutics market.OptiBiotix said it would be responsible for the manufacture of its Lactobacillus plantarum strain to pharmaceutical drug standards.The US company had an option, conditional on certain development milestones and further payments, to obtain a worldwide license excluding India and Pakistan under the same conditions.OptiBiotix would receive a "six figure" payment from the US company at signing, and at two subsequent conditional milestones, amounting to a seven-figure sum.An additional six-figure sum, plus royalties on future product sales, were due on product launch.There was an additional seven-figure payment should the US company decide to exercise its option at any point.The US company required its identity and the terms of the agreement to remain confidential to protect its commercial interests, OptiBiotix explained, with no further details able to be disclosed."We are pleased to announce this agreement which extends the opportunities provided by OptiBiotix's cholesterol reducing Lactobacillus plantarum strain into the high value pharmaceutical drug market," said OptiBiotix chief executive Stephen O'Hara."The agreement allows our US partner to develop our strain as a pharmaceutical drug product in return for upfront, development and product launch milestones payments, plus royalties on future product sales."This is a substantive investment by our US partner which recognises the potential of our strain and the scale of the opportunity in one of the largest and fastest growing markets around the world."