Oxford BioTherapeutics Out-Licenses Therapeutic Antibody for the Treatment of Solid Cancers

OXFORD, England, January 25, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Oxford BioTherapeutics (OBT) today announces that sanofi-aventis has acquired an exclusive world-wide license to one of OBT's internal preclinical antibody programs.

sanofi-aventis intends to use the licensed antibody, which is directed against a novel, proprietary target identified by OBT, to develop, manufacture and commercialize antibody drug conjugate (ADC) products for the treatment of cancer. ADC products comprise toxins attached to antibodies which form effective therapeutic products that attack tumor cells in a highly targeted manner.

Under the terms of the agreement, sanofi-aventis agreed to pay OBT an undisclosed upfront cash payment. OBT is eligible for development and regulatory milestone payments on the program, royalties on the worldwide products sales and will receive additional performance milestones.

"This is the most advanced antibody licensing deal that OBT has signed to date and I am delighted that the target and antibody capabilities that we have built have been recognized by a world leading pharmaceutical company such as sanofi-aventis," said Christian Rohlff, CEO of OBT. "Given their expertise and experience in cancer drug development, I am very pleased that a program from our broad preclinical pipeline will be developed by sanofi-aventis."

The initiative integrates OBT's expertise in cancer target and antibody discovery with the in-house antibody development capabilities of sanofi-aventis. A key component of OBT's expertise in cancer target discovery is the company's OGAP(R) proteomic database, which represents one of the world's largest proprietary human cancer cell-surface protein repositories combined with highly relevant genomic and clinical information derived from human blood and cancer tissue studies.

About Oxford BioTherapeutics

Oxford BioTherapeutics (OBT) is focused on the development of targeted medicines for oncology. OBT's strategy is to develop innovative antibody-based cancer drugs, with integrated diagnostics, against novel targets that it has discovered in its unique OGAP(R) proteomic database.

OBT, through its alliances with the world leaders in antibody development, has been able to use its unique position to convert its novel targets into a highly attractive pipeline of therapeutic antibodies. OBT's pipeline will deliver innovative and cost-effective medicines to fulfil major unmet patient needs in the field of cancer.

OBT, a privately held company, was formed in 2004 and is based near Oxford, UK.

For further information, please see http://www.OxfordBioTherapeutics.com or http://www.oxbt.co.uk

About OGAP(R)

The Oxford Genome Anatomy Project (OGAP(R)) database represents the world's largest proprietary collection of disease-associated proteins. OGAP(R) oncology contains proteomic data on 5,000 cancer membrane proteins combined with their genomic and clinical information derived from human blood and cancer tissue studies. OGAP(R) contains proprietary target information on three quarters of the entire human proteome. Over one million human protein fragments have been sequenced in OGAP in 50 different human tissues representing 60 diseases have been mapped to approximately 15,000 different genes and over eight million SNPs and haplotypes.

OGAP(R) is a registered trade mark of Oxford BioTherapeutics Ltd.

For further information, please see http://www.OxfordBioTherapeutics.com or http://www.oxbt.co.uk

    
    Oxford BioTherapeutics Enquiries:
    Chief Executive Officer:
    Christian Rohlff, Ph.D.
    +(44)-(0)1235-861770
    E-mail - cr@oxbt.co.uk

    Media enquiries/Citigate:
    David Dible
    +(44)-(0)207-638-9571
    E-mail - david.dible@citigatedr.co.uk