Health Protection Agency Commercially Develops Research Programme to Deliver Public Health Benefit
15 November 2005
The Health Protection Agency has set up a new company, Syntaxin Ltd, to further realise the health benefits and commercial potential of part of its technology programme, it was announced today.
The deal will see the Venture Capital firm Abingworth Management Ltd providing an initial investment of £3 million into the new company, with the Agency transferring intellectual property which covers the use of botulinum neurotoxin components to treat a range of chronic diseases.
Welcoming the new deal, the Agency's Chairman, Sir William Stewart, said: "The Health Protection Agency is committed to working with industry when this provides unique opportunities to provide new public health protection products. We expect Syntaxin Ltd to be the forerunner of many such companies involving the HPA. Included in the rights transferred to Syntaxin Ltd is work aimed at the re-engineering of botulinum toxin into a potent painkiller."
Professor Pat Troop, Chief Executive of the Health Protection Agency, said: "This is an important partnership for the Agency. It means that our cutting edge research will be developed into a product which will ultimately deliver direct health benefits to the public."
Syntaxin will acquire from the Agency the rights to an extensive research programme that has been studying how botulinum toxin works and which parts of the toxin molecule can be changed to develop compounds with potential medicinal benefit. Since many chronic illnesses are caused by cells secreting biochemical compounds, it is anticipated that in blocking them the technology will have broad application in the treatment of several serious diseases.
Included in the rights transferred to Syntaxin Ltd is the re-engineering of the toxin to treat severe pain, a project that the Agency has been developing in conjunction with the US company Allergan Inc for several years. The partnership with Allergan has also been transferred to Syntaxin.
The management team of Syntaxin will see Dr Charles R Penn and Dr Keith Foster transfer from the Agency into the new company as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Scientific Officer respectively. Dr Raj Parekh, a founder and formerly Chief Scientific Officer of Oxford Glycosciences and currently Chairman of Galapagos Genomics has been appointed Chairman of the company.
