News of up to $385M deal with Pfizer for ophthalmology boosts NicOx shares 78%

NicOx, a French nitric oxide-donating technology specialist, has entered into a major new agreement with global drugs giant Pfizer to use the company's technology in an opthalmological product. The news sent NicOx' share price rocketing 78% to 5.98 euros, and was seen as a strong endorsement of the French group's research, particularly as three years ago the UK's AstraZeneca dropped an analgesic the firm had licensed.

Financial terms of the accord

Under the terms of the deal, Pfizer will make a payment of 23.0 million euros ($27.3 million) in the first year of the collaboration, of which 15.0 million euros will be in the form of an equity investment in NicOx. Additionally, the French company may receive total potential milestones in excess of 300.0 million euros in the ophthalmology field and royalties on each resulting marketed product. The new accord was announced along with the release of promising preclinical results from an existing collaboration with Pfizer, which is focused on a single class of compound in glaucoma (see later).