Company finds partner for cancer treatment product

TAMPA -- Oragenics Inc. is trading above a dollar for the first time since the end of March after the medical product acceleration company announced an expanded collaboration agreement with Intrexon Corp. to develop and market a new medication geared toward cancer patients.

The agreement is the third between Tampa-based Oragenics and Intrexon, and focuses on a treatment known as AG013 to help battle oral mucositis. The condition, primarily a side effect of cancer therapy affecting nearly 500,000 people a year, results in painful inflammation and ulceration of the membranes lining the oral cavity, throat and esophagus. Current treatments help alleviate the symptoms, but both Oragenics and Intrexon, a Maryland-based biological treatment manufacturer, say none of those treatments address the underlying pathology of the condition.

AG013 is an oral rinsing product that delivers a molecule known as trefoil factor 1, a class of peptides involved in protection of the gastrointestinal tissues against mucus damage.