Oxford BioMedica finds silver lining in Sanofi purge

Sanofi's pruning shears clipped off the once-promising Trovax, a therapeutic cancer vaccine that it had licensed from Oxford BioMedica. Now the UK developer says that Sanofi is handing the vaccine back along with a check for $16.5 million to wrap up the deal. And the French drug company is sending over an additional $26 million to cover the upfront fee on a deal to develop gene-based therapies for ocular diseases.

Oxford BioMedica says that Sanofi has also agreed to commit $24 million to cover research for the new program over three years. And the news helped buoy the company's share price.

Analysts said they were not surprised to hear of Sanofi's decision regarding Trovax. The vaccine failed a late-stage trial last summer, sending Oxford BioMedica's shares into a tailspin. Sanofi had committed up to $753 million in the licensing deal for Trovax.

- read the story from Reuters

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