Oxford Biomedica in marketing talks on TroVax.
By David Firn in London (Financial Times)
Published: September 1 2004 17:11 | Last updated: September 1 2004 17:11
Oxford Biomedica said it was in negotiations to licence the marketing rights to its TroVax anti-cancer vaccine, after reporting encouraging results from two clinical trials.
Tests of TroVax, showed that it triggered a cancer-fighting immune response in patients undergoing the two most common chemotherapy treatments for colorectal cancer.
Alan Kingsman, chief executive, said the findings were key to TroVax's potential. “This dramatically increases the market potential [and] takes it into the billion dollar range,“ he said.
TroVax, works by priming the body's immune system to detect the subtle differences that mark tumour cells out from healthy tissue.
An earlier study found that the vaccine increased survival rates when used on its own, but there were fears that chemotherapy might interfere with the immune system, making the vaccine useless in most patients.
Cancer has become one of the must have franchises for pharmaceutical companies. While other pharmaceutical segments are saturated with effective drugs, cancer remains one of the developed world's biggest killers. And a new generation of targeted treatments such as TroVax is starting to reach the market.
Nick Woolf, head of business development, said Oxford Biomedica was in talks with a number of pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies that were interested in the marketing rights, but added a deal could take some time to finalise.
The company is also poised to start human trials next year of two new treatments: a gene therapy to repair the brains of Parkinson's disease victims; and another designed to treat retinopathy, a form of blindness. Three more would follow over in the next five years.
Oxford Biomedica reported a pre tax loss of £7.29m ($13.1m) in the six months to June 30, up from £6.08m last year, on turnover that was up 166 per cent to £293,000.
Andrew Wood, chief financial officer, said cash reserves of £26.2m were enough to last until 2007, despite rising spending on clinical trials.
Oxford Biomedica shares, which have underperformed the rest of the biotechnology sector by 26 per cent this year, closed down ¾p at 16¾p. |
