Oxford Biomedica Regulatory News (OXB)

Oxford Biomedica and PhoreMost enter gene therapy discovery collaboration

· Collaboration to develop next-generation CAR-T cell therapies with improved efficacy and durability

· PhoreMost's SITESEEKER platform will identify active peptides to be deployed within Oxford Biomedica's LentiVector® delivery system

Oxford, UK - 9 November, 2020: Oxford Biomedica plc (LSE:OXB) ("Oxford Biomedica" or "the Group"), a leading gene and cell therapy group and PhoreMost Limited ("PhoreMost"), the UK-based biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing drugs against intractable disease targets, today announced that they have entered into a discovery collaboration to develop next-generation CAR-T cell therapies. Financial details of the agreement are not disclosed.

PhoreMost will deploy its in-house expertise and next-generation phenotypic screening platform, SITESEEKER®, to identify therapeutic candidates for Oxford Biomedica's LentiVector® gene therapy delivery system. The programme will initially focus on CAR-T therapy and aims to develop next-generation cell therapies with significantly improved efficacy and durability.

John Dawson, CEO of Oxford Biomedica, said: "We are excited to apply this next-generation technology to our LentiVector platform. The collaboration has the potential to deliver more effective CAR-T therapies, and we look forward to working closely with the PhoreMost team."

Dr Chris Torrance, CEO, PhoreMost, said: "This collaboration with Oxford Biomedica, a global pioneer in cell and gene therapies, is further recognition of the power of SITESEEKER, offering an exciting opportunity to discover and accelerate the development of clinical stage products. The natural complementarity between SITESEEKER and LentiVector offers great promise for this and future collaborations between the two companies."

SITESEEKER exploits protein shape diversity to find functionally active peptides linked to any chosen disease setting, significantly enhancing the power of phenotypic screening and translation into therapeutic modalities. Based on proprietary protein interference, or 'PROTEINi®', technology, SITESEEKER is able to systematically probe the entire proteome in a live cell environment to identify and exploit novel drug targets.

Oxford Biomedica is a world-leading pioneer of cell and gene therapies. Its LentiVector® platform enables the successful development of breakthrough gene and cell-based medicines, and through collaborations with pharmaceutical partners, has delivered the first FDA and EMA approved CAR-T cell therapy.

-Ends-

PhoreMost Ltd

Dr Neil Torbett, CBO E: neil.torbett@phoremost.com 

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About Oxford Biomedica

Oxford Biomedica (LSE:OXB) is a leading, fully integrated, gene and cell therapy group focused on developing life changing treatments for serious diseases. Oxford Biomedica and its subsidiaries (the "Group") have built a sector leading lentiviral vector delivery platform (LentiVector®), which the Group leverages to develop in vivo and ex vivo products both in-house and with partners. The Group has created a valuable proprietary portfolio of gene and cell therapy product candidates in the areas of oncology, ophthalmology, CNS disorders, liver diseases and respiratory disease. The Group has also entered into a number of partnerships, including with Novartis, Bristol Myers Squibb, Sanofi, Axovant Gene Therapies, Orchard Therapeutics, Santen, Beam Therapeutics, Boehringer Ingelheim, the UK Cystic Fibrosis Gene Therapy Consortium and Imperial Innovations, through which it has long-term economic interests in other potential gene and cell therapy products. Additionally the group has signed a 3 year master supply and development agreement with AstraZeneca for large-scale manufacture of the adeno based COVID-19 vaccine candidate, AZD1222. Oxford Biomedica is based across several locations in Oxfordshire, UK and employs more than 580 people. Further information is available at www.oxb.com 

About PhoreMost Ltd

PhoreMost has developed a next-generation phenotypic screening platform called SITESEEKER® that can discern the best new targets for future therapy and crucially, how to drug them, which has the potential to significantly increase the diversity and affordability of novel therapeutics for cancer and other unmet diseases. Based on the Company's core proprietary 'Protein Interference' technology, SITESEEKER® systematically unmasks cryptic druggable sites across the entire human genome and directly links them to useful therapeutic functions in a live-cell context. Using this platform, PhoreMost is building a pipeline of novel drug discovery programmes aimed at addressing a range of unmet diseases. www.phoremost.com