Orexo Signs Asset Purchase Agreement With Gesynta Pharma AB for OX-MPI

Orexo AB (publ.) today announced that Orexo has signed an asset purchase agreement with Gesynta Pharma AB – a recently formed research company located in Stockholm, Sweden. Among the founders are highly reputed executives from the biotech industry and experienced researchers at the Karolinska Institute within the field of arachidonic acid pathways and inflammatory diseases. The lead candidate drug in the OX-MPI program, BI1029539, has been identified as a highly selective anti-inflammatory compound targeting microsomal prostaglandin E synthase (mPGES-1).

Under the asset purchase agreement, Gesynta Pharma AB acquires the assets relating to the OX-MPI program and will progress the candidate drug into proof-of-concept clinical trials. Under the terms of the agreement Orexo will receive a tiered double digit share of the future revenues that Gesynta Pharma AB generates from the OX-MPI project.

"With this agreement Orexo now has three projects in development with partners and three internal projects. This broad pipeline is a testimony to the development and innovative skills in the company and represents significant future potential, short term from milestones during development, long term from royalties from launched products and sales in our own commercial organization. The agreement is in line with our strategy of establishing partnerships where we see that skills and technologies can accelerate the development of our pipeline projects. With excellent and very relevant industrial and academic competences, Gesynta Pharma AB has all the prerequisites to realize the full potential of OX-MPI and advance the project into clinical development," says Nikolaj Sørensen, President and CEO of Orexo AB.

"The acquisition of an advanced pre-clinical development asset provides an excellent opportunity to quickly demonstrate clinical proof-of-concept for mPGES-1 modulation in novel indications. The OX-MPI program fits well into our lean strategy to commercialize innovative therapeutics," says Patric Stenberg, CEO of Gesynta Pharma AB.