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Oxford Biomedica Obtains Further Fundamental Patent For Lentiviral Gene Therapy Technology

August 13, 2003

Oxford BioMedica plc announced today that it has received allowance from the US Patent Office for a further patent covering its proprietary LentiVector technology. This additional patent compliments the US patent 6,312,682 issued in November 2001 and both include broad composition of matter claims and methods of production claims for lentiviral vector gene delivery systems of both human and non-human origin.

This patent adds further strength to Oxford BioMedica's existing patents that cover derivatives of lentiviral vector systems that, unlike many versions of lentiviral vectors, have real clinical utility because of their safety. The Oxford BioMedica team was the first to construct lentiviral vectors that contain no viral genes at all, and which comprise the minimum number of viral components in the viral particles. It is this minimisation of the vectors that is the subject of these patents. This work was done using vectors based on HIV and Equine Infectious Anaemia Virus (EIAV), a horse virus that is not linked to any disease in humans. The EIAV system is Oxford BioMedica's system of choice because of its superior safety profile.

Oxford BioMedica's LentiVector gene delivery technology is arguably the most potent system currently available for treating diseases of the central nervous system, particularly chronic neurodegenerative disorders. Oxford BioMedica has shown that minimal lentiviral vectors are able to deliver genes to a wide range of dividing and non-dividing cells, including neurones in the brain.

This technology forms the delivery system for several of the Company's products that are approaching the clinical development stage. ProSavin is Oxford BioMedica's most advanced programme for Parkinson's disease that uses the proprietary LentiVector gene delivery system. In addition to ProSavin, there are three further research/preclinical stage programmes using the LentiVector system: RetinoStat™, for retinopathy (vision loss), Innurex™, for nerve repair in spinal cord injury, and MoNuDin™, for motor neuron disease.

"Oxford BioMedica's LentiVector technology is a powerful gene delivery platform that out-performs other vector systems in terms of its combination of high gene transfer efficiencies, duration and regulation of gene expression, ease of production and safety. This is reflected in the range of existing interactions and further discussions that are underway related to this taking our first LentiVector-based product into clinical trials for Parkinson's disease," said Alan Kingsman, Chief Executive of Oxford BioMedica.

Northbank Communications