Oxford BioMedica’s biotech buy adds to its cancer vaccine pipeline
pharmafile | March 29, 2007 | News story | Sales and Marketing |Â Â Â
Oxford BioMedica has expanded its product pipeline with the £16 million acquisition of fellow Oxford-based biotech Oxxon Therapeutics.
The deal gives it access to Oxxon's lead candidate the Hi-8 MEL vaccine, which targets melanoma – the only solid tumour that Oxford BioMedica's own cancer vaccine Trovax cannot treat.
Oxford BioMedica chief executive Professor Alan Kingsman said: "We are very pleased to have been able to take this opportunity to acquire Oxxon Therapeutics.
"The acquisition expands our immunotherapy pipeline and strengthens our intellectual property position in the field of immunology.
"There is a substantial market opportunity for an effective melanoma vaccine and Hi-8 MEL has generated encouraging clinical results."
In a phase II trial 91% of patients with non-resectable, HLA-A2 positive, stage III/IV melanoma who received the highest dose of the vaccine saw immunological responses.
Melanoma is the most serious form of skin cancer and there are more than 15,000 new HLA-A2 positive cases in the developed world every year. The median survival for patients with stage IV disease is less than one year and for those with stage III disease it is less than five years.
Incidence of melanoma is increasing by more than 4% each year and by 2010 analysts Datamonitor predict the treatment market will be worth more than $775 million.
Unlike the vast majority of human tumours, melanomas do not have the antigen 5T4 on the surface of the tumour cells, which is why Oxford BioMedica's own cancer vaccine Trovax cannot be developed to target it.
In addition to Hi-8 MEL, Oxford BioMedica's acquisition of Oxxon also brings product candidates in hepatitis B and HIV and an intellectual property estate that includes the rights to 23 patent families.
Oxxon's executive deputy chairman John Berriman said: "The management and founders of Oxxon are very pleased that we have been able to secure the future of our products and technology by joining forces with one of the world's leading companies in cancer vaccines and gene therapy.
"There is clear synergy between the two companies and, given Oxford BioMedica's technical and development expertise, we believe that this combination maximises the opportunity for Oxxon's technology."
The company was founded in 1999 by a quartet of immunology experts from Oxford University and is focused on developing immunotherapies – treatments that harness the body's own immune system – to help patients with chronic infectious diseases and cancer.
Oxford BioMedica also has its roots in the city's university, having been spun out from there in 1995.
Last year it more than doubled its R&D spending to £19.5 million as its lead candidate Trovax moved into phase III development and it ended the year £17.6 million in the red.
Trovax is currently in phase III trials for renal cancer, for which a 2009 launch is anticipated, and phase II trials in colorectal and prostate cancer. Negotiations for a potential partner to help bring the vaccine to market are at an advanced stage.
