Ischemic stroke is the target of a new partnership between Oxygen Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:OXBT) and Aurum Biosciences that aims to develop a diagnostic and a treatment for the condition.
The agreement will pair the companies’ respective technologies: Aurum’s magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology has the potential to map salvageable tissue in the brain after a stroke and Oxygen’s technology is being studied as a way to enhance oxygen delivery to the brain. The agreement expands a research pact reached last summer when the companies decided to work together on preclinical stroke research.
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The American Stroke Association estimates that 795,000 Americans each year suffer a new or recurrent stroke, killing more than 137,000 people. In the United Kingdom, an estimated 150,000 people have a stroke annually, killing roughly 53,000 each year. In an ischemic stroke, a clot blocks a vessel to the brain and deprives it of oxygen. Stroke treatments aim to salvage as much of the surrounding, salvageable brain tissue as possible.
Under the new partnership agreement, Oxygen Biotherapeutics will provide its experimental treatment Oxycyte, an emulsion that enhances oxygen delivery, for the preclinical studies under way and the expected clinical trials to follow. Oxygen Biotherapeutics has studied Oxycyte as a treatment for traumatic brain injury, work that is in phase 2 clinical trials. Aurum will study whether Oxycyte administered while the patient is receiving oxygen therapy optimizes MRI scans. Aurum’s Glasgow Oxygen Level-Dependent, or GOLD, MRI technology produces images based on the magnetic properties of oxygen. The companies are testing to see whether administering Oxycyte prior to the MRI scan can result in faster, more highly detailed brain maps, which will help doctors make treatment decisions.
Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. But the companies said that the project has secured $380,000 in funding in Scotland. Depending on the outcome of the studies, the companies say the collaboration could lead to a commercial agreement that combines Oxygen and Aurum’s respective technologies.
