posted
Check out Oxford Biomedica OXBDF.PK 97 cents In Phase III cancer vaccine trials, signed deal with SNY, and has deals with Wyeth, MRK and PFE
Oxford BioMedica clinches $690m licensing deal for cancer vaccine
Thursday, March 29, 2007
By Karen Attwood
Oxford BioMedica has struck a licensing agreement with Sanofi-Aventis for its groundbreaking cancer vaccine in one of the biggest deals seen in British biotechnology.
The French pharmaceutical giant will pay the Oxford-based company up to $690m (£351m) if all development milestones are met for TroVax and there could be additional payments if it wins approval for treating different types of cancer. Analysts believe potential payments could total more than $1bn plus royalties.
Although shares in the company rose to a six-year high in early trading yesterday, over the day they fell 5 per cent, down 2.5p to 49.5p, as investors, who had been piling in in recent months on anticipation of a deal, took profits. Analysts said the long-awaited deal was already fully priced into the stock.
"It is a good deal for the business and for the sector," said Ibraheem Mahmood, an analyst at Investec. "It allows the product to proceed." He added there was now a 50 per cent chance of any given Oxford BioMedica product getting to market.
Sanofi is the world's second-largest oncology company and the leader in Europe.
Dr Jonathan Senior, an analyst at Evolution, said this made it the " ideal partner for TroVax in terms of marketing muscle on a global basis" . In addition, Sanofi had "clearly signalled its openness to new approaches and has been discussing new, more biotech-like ways of treating the disease including vaccines", he added.
TroVax is a therapeutic vaccine designed to be given once a disease has developed rather than to prevent an infection. It uses a pox virus to introduce genes to boost the body's immune system and has the potential to be used in a wide range of tumours, including renal, colorectal, lung, breast and prostrate cancer. It is currently in late stage trials as a treatment for kidney cancer and this is expected to go to market by 2009. Sanofi is to develop the vaccine to treat colorectal cancer but Oxford BioMedica retains the option to develop TroVax for other types of cancer.
Alan Kingsman, the chief executive, said he was pleased to have Sanofi on board "given their broad expertise, experience and resources".
The company will receive an upfront payment of $39m and Mr Kingsman said this would enable it to take other key products further along the path to market. The company has eight core products in the pipeline including a treatment for Parkinson's disease, which is set to move to clinical trials after showing "stunning" pre-clinical results,he said.
IP: Logged |
posted
Oxford BioMedica (LSE: OXB) is a biopharmaceutical company specialising in the development of novel gene-based therapeutics with a focus on the areas of oncology and neurotherapy. The Company was established in 1995 as a spin out from Oxford University, and is listed on the London Stock Exchange.
Oxford BioMedica's products use genes as the mediators of a therapeutic effect and/or immune response. The Company’s gene therapy products deliver therapeutic molecules in vivo whilst its gene-based immunotherapy products deliver genes that recruit the patient’s immune system to mediate a therapeutic effect. The genes are delivered by the Company’s highly engineered viral systems.
Oxford BioMedica has core expertise in gene delivery, as well as in-house clinical, regulatory and manufacturing know-how. In oncology, the pipeline includes TroVax®, a cancer immunotherapy, which was recently licensed to Sanofi-Aventis for global development and commercialisation. TroVax is in Phase III development for renal cancer (see www.trovax.co.uk) and Sanofi-Aventis is implementing a development plan for metastatic colorectal cancer. The recent acquisition of Oxxon Therapeutics adds a Phase II cancer immunotherapy for melanoma, HI-8® MEL, to the Company's pipeline. Other oncology product candidates include a gene therapy, MetXia®, which is in Phase II development for pancreatic cancer, and a preclinical targeted antibody therapy, which is being developed in collaboration with Wyeth. In neurotherapy, the Company's lead product, ProSavin, is expected to enter clinical trials in Parkinso's disease in 2007. The preclinical pipeline includes gene-based products for vision loss, motor neuron disease and nerve repair. The acquisition of Oxxon also provides a platform for the development of therapeutic vaccines for infectious diseases.
The Company is underpinned by over 80 patent families, which represent one of the broadest patent estates in the field. The Company has a staff of approximately 75 split between its main facilities in Oxford and its wholly owned subsidiary, BioMedica Inc, in San Diego, California. In addition to the TroVax collaboration with Sanofi-Aventis and the targeted antibody therapy collaboration with Wyeth, Oxford BioMedica has corporate collaborations with Arius Research, Intervet, MolMed, Sigma-Aldrich, Viragen, Virxsys and Wyeth. In addition, the Company has technology licence agreements with Biogen Idec, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck & Co, Pfizer.
Oxford BioMedica is a member of the BioIndustry Association and the Biotechnology Industry Organization.
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
Printer-friendly view of this topic
