GENE therapy company Oxford BioMedica, which last year axed 13 staff, has seen its financial problems solved with a new £34m deal.

The new collaboration with pharmaceutical giant Sanofi-aventis will give BioMedica enough cash to last until 2012.

Sanofi-aventis will help develop BioMedica’s gene therapy technique, LentiVector, into a possible treatment for age-related macular degeneration, a major cause of blindness affecting an estimated 25 to 30 million people in the Western world.

Dr Stephen Rose, chief research officer of the Foundation Fighting Blindness, which is collaborating with Oxford BioMedica, said: “This new collaboration between Oxford BioMedica and Sanofi-aventis gives even greater hope to patients and their families that novel gene-based therapies may soon be developed to treat their debilitating ocular diseases.”

The current leading treatment, Lucentis, requires repeated injections directly into the eye.

Biomedica’s possible treatment, RetinoStat, could require only one, and could be safer and more efficient.

Dr Marc Cluzel, of Sanofi-aventis, said: “This collaboration is a key step in our strategy to expand our efforts in this field.”

Oxford BioMedica’s chief executive, John Dawson, said: “By strengthening our financial resources, we are well-positioned for further growth and will continue to build the company through in-house and collaborative drug development.”

The new agreement also covers treatments for blindness due to three other ocular diseases.