Benitec licenses technology to French transgenic rat firm

Benitec (ASX:BLT) has granted a worldwide, non-exclusive commercial licence to French company genOway to develop transgenic rodents with Benitec's proprietary DNA-directed RNA-inferference technology (ddRNAi).

Under the agreement, genOway will be free to provide customers with advanced in vivo RNAi technologies to facilitate drug discovery and development, from target validation through to safety studies.

Benitec announced today that GenOway will pay Benitec an up-front licence fee and pay ongoing royalties, but it did not disclose details of the agreement.

GenOway is widely regarded in Europe as a leader in creating advanced mouse and rat models for basic research and drug discovery, Benitec said. The company holds IP rights to multiple knockout and knock-in processes for developing animal models. It also offers a range of solutions for both gene expression and inactivation in rodent modes.