LONDON, Sept 19 (Reuters) - British biotechnology company Oxford GlycoSciences (LSE: OGS.L - news) Plc said on Tuesday it was stepping up its industrial scale analysis of proteins and their role in disease via two new deals with U.S. science companies.
OGS will receive early access to PE Biosystems Group's new generation of mass spectrometry machines, known as MALDI TOF/TOF, enabling its researchers to study proteins faster and in more detail. Deliveries will begin in the first half of 2001.
At the same time, the Oxford-based company has signed an agreement with Packard Bioscience Co to develop protein biochips, or microarrays, for protein detection which the firms believe will become crucial tools in molecular medicine.
OGS, one of the hottest prospects in the UK stock market this year, is a world leader in proteomics -- understanding the links between genes, the proteins they produce and disease.
Its shares, floated in 1998, have quadrupled since January on high hopes for its products and on a back of a series of collaborations endorsing its technology.
The company, which was founded by scientists at Oxford University, is still loss-making. In the first half of 2000 the group reported a net loss of 7.0 million pounds from 4.5 million a year earlier as operating costs increased to 13.1 million from 10.3 million, reflecting expansion in core areas.
However, the company had 53.6 million in cash at June 30, after a share placing which netted 32.9 million.
Its flagship drug development product is Vevesca, formerly known as OGT 918, for Gaucher disease, a rare hereditary disease stemming from an enzyme defect.
The only current treatment for the condition is Genzyme's Cerezyme, one of the world's most expensive biotech drugs, costing around $175,000 per patient per year. |
