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Axovant Hopes Gene Silence Is Golden With Benitec Pact

 
• By Kevin Grogan

Just over a month after inking a Parkinson's disease gene therapy pact with the UK's Oxford BioMedica, Axovant has licensed a 'silence-and-replace' technology from Australia's Benitec to tackle a rare but potentially fatal disease, oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy.

Butterfly
Transformative time for Axovant • Source: Shutterstock

Axovant is attempting to reinvent itself as a key player in gene therapy and has signed a second deal in the area in the space of a month, this time with Australian gene-silencing specialist Benitec Biopharma Ltd..

Benitec has licensed the exclusive global rights for BB-301, now named AXO-AAV-OPMD, intended for the treatment of oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy...

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