Oxford BioDynamics Signs First Commercial Agreement with a Major Pharmaceutical Company for Use of EpiSwitch® Orion

Oxford BioDynamics Plc, the 3D Genomics Company, announces that it has entered into its first commercial agreement with a major pharmaceutical company for the use of EpiSwitch^® Orion, its cloud-based 3D genomics platform, as part of a biomarker discovery program in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

The agreement is with Johnson & Johnson and follows OBD's first commercial Orion agreement, with the University of Oxford-led OPTIMISE psoriatic arthritis program, announced on 28 July 2026.

Highlights

• Agreement marks the first time a pharma customer has engaged EpiSwitch^® Orion on a commercial basis
• Covers a genotype-based biomarker discovery program to identify baseline biomarkers predictive of patient response to a biologic therapy in IBD
• OBD will process genotype data from a cohort of IBD patients using the EpiSwitch^® Orion pipeline, with the aim of developing a predictive classifier of treatment response

Under the agreement, OBD will apply EpiSwitch^® Orion to genotype data from patients with IBD, supporting Johnson & Johnson’s efforts to identify, ahead of treatment, which patients are more likely to respond to biologic therapy.

EpiSwitch^® Orion is OBD's cloud-based 3D genomics discovery platform, which transforms standard genome sequencing or genotype data, including legacy datasets, into 3D regulatory intelligence. Powered by the world's largest curated 3D genomics knowledgebase, Orion illuminates the 90-95% of disease-associated variants in non-coding regions that traditional sequencing and genome-wide association approaches cannot decipher, helping pharmaceutical and biotech partners move from statistical association to actionable target and biomarker discovery.

This agreement marks an important commercial milestone for EpiSwitch^® Orion - the first time a pharmaceutical company has paid to use the platform. Helping identify likely responders earlier addresses a genuine need in inflammatory bowel disease, and we're pleased to see this growing interest in Orion's commercial use. It reflects the strength of the platform we’ve built and gives us real confidence in Orion’s commercial trajectory. We expect this to be the first of several such agreements, and we'll update shareholders as the program, and wider commercialization of Orion, develops.”

Richard Compton, Chief Executive Officer, Oxford BioDynamics

Project Details

The program aims to identify baseline EpiSwitch^® anchor features, regulatory control points in the 3D genome, that predict response to biologic therapy in patients with Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. Several hundred genotyped patient samples will be processed and analyzed in stages: an initial panel of markers will be identified and refined using a training cohort, before the resulting classifier model is tested against an independent, blinded validation cohort to assess its predictive performance.

OBD's scope of work includes data processing, anchor mapping, statistical analysis, machine learning model development and validation, together with dedicated project management and technical support throughout.

Financial terms of the agreement have not been disclosed. OBD views the agreement as validation of Orion's commercial applicability with a pharmaceutical partner, and the Company will provide further updates on commercial progress in its scheduled financial reporting.