Board Appointment

Oxford Biomedica PLC
2 January 2001


2001/OB/02 
2 January 2001

For further information, please contact:       
Oxford BioMedica plc       
Professor Alan Kingsman, Chief Executive       Tel: [phone]
City/Financial Enquiries:
David Simonson/Melanie Toyne Sewell
Merlin Financial Communications                Tel: [phone]
Scientific/Trade Press Enquiries:
Chris Gardner, HCC De Facto Group              Tel: [phone]

OXFORD BIOMEDICA APPOINTS DR PETER JOHNSON AS CHAIRMAN

Oxford, UK - 2 January 2001: Oxford BioMedica ('BioMedica') announced today
that Dr Peter Johnson, currently a non-executive director of the Company, has
been appointed non-executive chairman. He replaces Mr Alan Goodman who is
retiring as a director of BioMedica.

Dr Johnson (BSc, PhD, FRSC, FIBiol, FRCPath), joined the board of BioMedica as
a non-executive director on 26 July 1999. He has extensive drug research and
development experience with Wellcome, Hoechst and Astra. He was formerly
chairman and managing director of Smith Kline and French Research Limited and
director of pharmaceutical research and development and group main board
director of Fisons Plc. He was a non-executive director of Quadrant Healthcare
plc until December 2000 and is currently chairman of CBAMS Limited and Sterix
Limited. 

Mr Goodman, a founder of BioMedica, has served as a non-executive director for
over four years and has been chairman since 29 June 1998. He is leaving
BioMedica to concentrate on expanding his activities with Avlar BioVentures
Ltd, the biotech investment fund for new biotech ventures.

Commenting on the announcement, Professor Alan Kingsman, Chief Executive of
Oxford BioMedica, said:
'We are all delighted that Peter has agreed to take the Chair of BioMedica. As
the Company matures and progresses more and more towards advanced product
development, Peter's extensive experience of the industry will be invaluable.
We thank Alan Goodman for his key contribution to the establishment of
BioMedica as a world-class gene-based company and we wish him well in his
expanding activities with Avlar in starting new biotech ventures. Alan will
remain a corporate advisor to the Company.'


Notes to Editors

1. Oxford BioMedica plc
Established in 1995, the Company specialises in the development and
application of gene-based therapeutics and immunotherapeutics for the
treatment of disease in the areas of Oncology, Neurobiology and Viral
Infection and in Gene Discovery. Oxford BioMedica plc was floated on the
Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange in December 1996. 

Currently Oxford BioMedica has corporate collaborations with Aventis,
AstraZeneca, IDM, Modex Therapeutics, Nycomed Amersham, Valentis and Virbac.
BioMedica has two products in Phase I/II clinical trials. MetXia(R) is in
clinical trials for late-stage breast cancer (BC1) and ovarian cancer (OC1)
and TroVax(TM) is in clinical trials for late-stage colorectal cancer.

2. World Wide Web
This release is also available on the World Wide Web at
http://www.oxfordbiomedica.co.uk