Exclusive Option Agreement on ORX-301 for treating NPC and FSGS with the potential to reach over US$125 million in payments
Oraxion Therapeutics, Inc., a spin-off from Aten Porus Lifesciences (Bangalore, India), today announced that it entered into an Option Agreement with a US-based Biopharmaceutical company. The agreement provides the Biopharma partner the exclusive option to license its lead asset ORX-301 for the treatment of Niemann-Pick Type C disorder (NPC) and Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis (FSGS). The total aggregate payments under the agreement have the potential to reach upwards of $125 million as well as typical royalties and associated sales milestone payments.
"We are excited to be working with a partner that shares our vision to develop ORX-301 for NPC and FSGS. Our partner has expertise in rare diseases, with deep clinical development, regulatory experience and related capabilities. We look forward to seeing these promising programs yield important drugs that will benefit underserved patients around the globe," said Arun B Papaiah, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Oraxion Therapeutics, Inc. "We would also like to acknowledge the support from the Biotechnology Industry Research Association Council (BIRAC), an initiative of the Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India, for initial grant support for our work," he added.
"We have confirmed the therapeutic efficacy of our lead compound, ORX-301, in the relevant preclinical models of these diseases and now plan to transfer the asset to our partner for clinical development," said Aditya Kulkarni, Ph.D., Founder & Chief Scientific Officer, Oraxion Therapeutics, Inc.
"We're continually looking for opportunities to advance critical therapies to treat underserved disease targets such as NPC and FSGS, through novel technology, like ORX-301," said Tom Johnston, Chief Business Officer, Oraxion Therapeutics, Inc.
"This deal is a validation of our science and our platform and will allow us to expand our pipeline of treatments with the potential to improve other health outcomes in areas of unmet medical need," said Srinivasan Namala, Founder and Director, Oraxion Therapeutics, Inc.
About Niemann-Pick Type C Disorder (NPC)
Niemann-Pick Type C disorder is a rare lysosomal storage disorder characterized by excess accumulation of cholesterol in organs, specifically, the spleen, liver and brain. Patients with the disease suffer from severe neurodegeneration, splenomegaly and hepatomegaly and have an extremely poor prognosis with most succumbing to it before the age of 20. NPC is almost always fatal with currently no clinically approved treatment and it affects 3000 patients worldwide.
About Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis (FSGS)
Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis is a rare disease that attacks the kidney's filtering units (glomeruli) causing serious scarring which leads to permanent kidney damage and even failure. FSGS affects greater than 50,000 patients in the US and 5000 new patients diagnosed every year and is one of the causes of a serious condition known as Nephrotic Syndrome. Each kidney is made up of approximately one million tiny filters called glomeruli that filter the blood, taking out the water-like part which becomes urine and leaving the protein in the blood. When glomeruli become damaged or scarred (sclerosis), proteins begin leaking into the urine (proteinuria). The word "focal" is added because in FSGS, only some of the glomeruli filters become scarred. 'Segmental' means that only some sections of the glomerulus become scarred, just parts of them.
About Oraxion Therapeutics, Inc.,
Oraxion Therapeutics, Inc. is focused on developing novel drugs for the treatment of rare lipid storage disorders. The company's platform is based on a novel polymer prodrug which is designed to capture and eventually clear excess cholesterol and lipids from target organs. The platform may open treatment possibilities for several other lipid storage disorders other than NPC and FSGS. Oraxion is a spin-off from Aten Porus Lifesciences, an early stage drug discovery company based in Bangalore, India. The company is so far funded privately and the early work at Aten Porus Lifesciences was supported by grants from Biotechnology Industry Research Association Council, an initiative by the Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India.
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