Oxford Pharmascience has entered a new agreement with University College London (UCL) giving it an option over an additional 53 compounds it could commercialize using the university’s Phloral technology.

The new deal allows Oxford Pharma through March to investigate the potential for the 53 compounds with an option to work for another year on those that have the best commercial and clinical potential.

The agreement is an extension of a collaboration between the drug delivery company, which specializes in making drugs easier to take, and UCL, which is aimed at developing reformulations of generic statins atorvastatin and simvastatin to reduce their side effects. In September, Oxford Pharma acquired an exclusive global license for a colonic drug delivery technology for statins from UCL with the aim of developing and commercializing a range of reformulated statins using atorvastatin and simvastatin and launching a range of products under its SafeStat development program.

“There are many other drugs widely used where side effects reduce the tolerance or compliance in patients,” Nigel Theobald, Oxford Pharma’s CEO, said. “This option allows us to explore a range of potential drug candidates [that] fit with this strategy without taking our eyes off the existing programs.”

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