Open Orphan (ORPH) Appoints Professor Oxford as Chair of Advisory Board, with initial focus to help guide Open Orphan in the provision of solutions to Coronavirus outbreak

Open Orphan, the rapidly growing specialist CRO pharmaceutical services company which has a focus on orphan drugs and is a world leader in the provision of virology and vaccine challenge study services, and has Europe’s only 24 bedroom quarantine clinic with onsite virology lab in Queen Mary’s Hospital London, is pleased to announce the appointment of Professor John Oxford as Chair of a newly established Advisory Board. The Advisory Board will focus initially on guiding Open Orphan in the provision of solutions to the current Coronavirus outbreak.

The Advisory Board has been established to help the Company support product development for customers developing antivirals, vaccines and respiratory therapeutics, all particularly relevant and topical in the environment of heightened awareness of the Coronavirus in 2020.

Professor John Oxford, a Professor at Queen Mary’s University London and one of the world’s leading experts on global diseases such as influenza, including bird flu, SARS, MERS and Coronavirus, will Chair the Advisory Board alongside Professor Brendan Buckley, a Director of Open Orphan.

For further information please contact

About RNS Reach announcements

This is an RNS Reach announcement. RNS Reach is an investor communication service aimed at assisting listed and unlisted (including AIM quoted) companies to distribute non-regulatory news releases into the public domain. Information required to be notified under the AIM Rules for Companies, Market Abuse Regulation or other regulation would be disseminated as an RNS regulatory announcement and not on RNS Reach.

Notes to Editors:

Open Orphan is a rapidly growing specialist CRO pharmaceutical services company which has a focus on orphan drugs and is a world leader in the provision of virology and vaccine challenge study services and viral laboratory services. It has Europe’s only 24-bedroom quarantine clinic with onsite virology lab in Queen Mary’s Hospital London. hVIVO supports product development for customers developing antivirals, vaccines and respiratory therapeutics, all particularly relevant and topical in the environment of heightened awareness of the Coronavirus in 2020. The company also has a leading portfolio of 8 viral challenge study models which are: 2 FLU, 2 RSV, 1 HRV, 1 Asthma, 1 cough and 1 COPD viral challenge models.  No other company in the world has such a portfolio, with only two competitors globally having 1 challenge study model each. 

Open Orphan comprises of two commercial specialist CRO services businesses (Venn and hVIVO) and is developing an early stage orphan drug genomics data platform business. This platform captures valuable genetic data from patient populations with specific diseases with designated orphan drug status and incorporating AI tools. In June 2019, Open Orphan acquired AIM-listed Venn Life Sciences Holdings plc in a reverse take-over and in January 2020 it completed the merger with hVIVO plc. Venn, as an integrated drug development consultancy, offers CMC (chemistry, manufacturing and controls), preclinical, phase I & II clinical trials design and execution. The merger with hVIVO created a European full pharma services company broadening the Company’s customer base and with complementary specialist CRO services, widened the range of the Company’s service offerings.