Sanofi is handing back rights to two gene therapy programmes it acquired from Oxford Biomedica more than 10 years ago.

In 2009 the French drug giant licensed Oxford Biomedica's SAR422459 for Stargardt disease, a genetic eye disorder that causes progressive degeneration of the macula, and SAR421869 for Usher’s Syndrome type 1b, a recessive genetic disease causing deafness from birth and subsequent progressive vision loss.

However, following completion of a portfolio review, and an earlier announcement that it was seeking partners for these programmes, Sanofi is now gearing up to hand back rights to them to Oxford Biomedica.

“The timing of return of these programmes and operational details are yet to be determined. However, when the rights to the two programmes are returned, the group will undertake its own internal evaluation to determine the potential future for these programmes and decide whether to commit further resources to them,” the UK biotech said in a statement.