Following its recent disappointment with intepirdine in Alzheimer’s disease, Axovant was keen to rebuild its neuroscience pipeline by focusing on gene therapy and entered into an agreement with Australian biotech, Benitec. The two companies will collaborate on five research programmes for various neurological disorders, in addition to which, Axovant will gain exclusive rights to Benitec’s BB-301, a treatment for oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy (OPMD), and related gene therapy products. This is the second major deal signed by Axovant this year; the first was with Oxford BioMedica to develop a gene therapy for Parkinson’s disease.