Board Appointment

RNS Number : 6554F

Oxford Biomedica PLC

13 October 2008

 



For Immediate Release	13 OCTOBER 2008

OXFORD BIOMEDICA ANNOUNCES APPOINTMENT OF JOHN DAWSON AS CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

Oxford, UK - 13 October 2008: Oxford BioMedica (LSE: OXB), a leading gene therapy company, announced today that John Dawson has been appointed as permanent Chief Executive Officer with immediate effect, having served as Acting Chief Executive Officer since 29 August 2008. 

John is an experienced pharmaceutical business leader with extensive experience in the business development arena, and has led and grown businesses both organically and by acquisition. From 1996 to 2007, he held senior management positions in the European operations of Cephalon Inc., including from 2005 a management Board position as Chief Financial Officer and Head of Business Development Europe. In his time at Cephalon, he was instrumental in the many deals that built the European business to over 1,000 people, taking the business from having no sales in 1998 to a turnover of over US$300 million. In 2005 he led the US$360 million acquisition of Zeneus by Cephalon. John joined Oxford BioMedica as Non-Executive Director on 1 August 2008.

On this permanent appointment, John has been given an award under the Company's Long Term Incentive Plan (LTIP) of 2,500,000 Oxford BioMedica plc 1p ordinary shares, representing 0.47% of the issued share capital of Oxford BioMedica plc. The LTIP award is a nil-cost option. The LTIP award is subject to a three-year holding period, and is exercisable on the third anniversary of the award, subject to the satisfaction of a Total Shareholder Return (TSR) performance condition described below.

No part of the award will be released at the testing date for less than median performance of Oxford BioMedica's TSR compared to a comparator group made up of 20 companies from the biotechnology and healthcare sectors. Median performance will result in release of 25% of the shares. Upper quartile performance (i.e. greater than 75th percentile performance) will result in release of 100% of the shares, with straight-line release between these points. If the performance conditions are not satisfied or partially satisfied at the end of the holding period, the LTIP award or the balance of the award (as appropriate) not released shall lapse. There will be no re-testing of the performance conditions.  

Professor Alan Kingsman, Chairman of Oxford BioMedica, said: 'We are delighted to appoint John as permanent CEO. Since taking the role on an interim basis in August, John has demonstrated his strategic and leadership qualities. With his commitment to the Company and successful track record of building biopharmaceutical companies, the Board concluded that John is the best candidate to take Oxford BioMedica through its next phase of growth.'   

Commenting on his appointment, John Dawson said: 'I am honoured that the Board has chosen me to lead Oxford BioMedica. This is an exceptional company with an experienced management team, strong pipeline and leading technology. I look forward to the challenges ahead as we pursue our objective of becoming a highly-valued, profitable biopharmaceutical company.' 

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For further information, please contact:
Oxford BioMedica plc:  John Dawson, Chief Executive Officer Nick Woolf, Chief Business Officer	Tel: [phone]
JPMorgan Cazenove Limited: James Mitford/ Gina Gibson	Tel: [phone]
City/Financial Enquiries: Lisa Baderoon/ Mark Court/ Mary-Jane Johnson Buchanan Communications	Tel: [phone]
Scientific/Trade Press Enquiries: Katja Stout/ Holly Griffiths/ John McIntyre College Hill Life Sciences	Tel: [phone]
US Enquiries: Thomas Fechtner The Trout Group LLC	Tel: [phone]

Notes to editors

1. Oxford BioMedica

Oxford BioMedica (LSE: OXB) is a biopharmaceutical company specialising in cancer immunotherapy and gene-based therapies. The Company was established in 1995, as a spin-out from Oxford University, and is listed on the London Stock Exchange. The Company has a platform of gene delivery technologies, which are based on highly engineered viral systems. Oxford BioMedica also has in-house clinical, regulatory and manufacturing know-how. The lead product candidate is TroVax®, an immunotherapy for multiple solid cancers, which is licensed to sanofi-aventis for global development and commercialisation. TroVax is in Phase III development. Oxford BioMedica has three other products in clinical development, including ProSavin®, a novel gene-based treatment for Parkinson's disease, in a Phase I/II trial. The Company is underpinned by over 80 patent families, which represent one of the broadest patent estates in the field. Oxford BioMedica has collaborations with sanofi-aventis, Wyeth, Sigma-Aldrich, MolMed and Virxsys. Technology licensees include Biogen Idec, Merck & Co, GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer. Further information is available at www.oxfordbiomedica.co.uk

 

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