Agreement

Oxford Biomedica PLC
6 June 2000


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Oxford BioMedica plc
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   OXFORD BIOMEDICA ANNOUNCES COLLABORATION EXTENSION WITH
      AVENTIS PHARMACEUTICALS INC. ON GENE THERAPY FOR
                   CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE
                              
                              

Oxford,  UK  -  6 June 2000: Oxford BioMedica plc  announced
today  that  it  had extended the scope of its collaboration
with  Aventis  Pharmaceuticals Inc. (formerly Rhone  Poulenc
Rorer).

The  original  agreement with Oxford  BioMedica,  signed  in
December  1998, gave Aventis Pharmaceuticals rights  to  use
Oxford  BioMedica's Hypoxia Response Element (HRE)  in  gene
therapy   products   for  cardiovascular  disease.   Aventis
Pharmaceuticals  is developing products for coronary  artery
disease  and  peripheral arterial disease  as  part  of  its
cardiovascular  gene therapy programme.  The  HRE  is  being
used  as  a  switch  to  regulate gene expression  in  these
product programmes.

Under  a  new agreement, Aventis Pharmaceuticals  will  also
have  access  to  BioMedica's proprietary LentiVectorr  gene
delivery  vectors  in  cardiovascular gene  therapy  product
research and development programmes.

In addition, Aventis Pharmaceuticals has exercised an option
under   the  agreement  of  December  1998  to  include   an
additional   angiogenic   gene   in   its   development   of
cardiovascular disease products using BioMedica's HRE.

Commenting  on  the agreement with Aventis  Pharmaceuticals,
Alan Kingsman, BioMedica's Chief Executive said:

'Oxford  BioMedica  has  a long-standing  relationship  with
Aventis  Pharmaceuticals dating back to 1997, in  both  gene
therapy  and genomics R&D.  We are pleased with the progress
we   have   made   in   these  interactions   with   Aventis
Pharmaceuticals  and are particularly pleased  that  Aventis
Pharmaceuticals  has  chosen to extend,  in  two  ways,  the
collaboration with us in cardiovascular disease.

'This  new deal also further strengthens our belief  in  the
value  and versatility of our LentiVectorr technology  in  a
range   of   therapeutic   and   genomics   areas.   Aventis
Pharmaceuticals  has  access  to  world-class  gene  therapy
technology  through  its  Gencell  group,  and  it   is   an
endorsement  of BioMedica's leading position in  this  field
that  they  have  again  chosen to  work  with  our  product
components.'



Notes to Editors

1.   Oxford BioMedica plc
     Established  in  1995, the Company specialises  in  the
     development  and application of gene-based therapeutics
     using  advance  gene  delivery  technologies  for   the
     treatment  of  disease in the areas of oncology,  viral
     infection   and   neurodegenerative  disease.    Oxford
     BioMedica   plc  was  floated  on  the  UK  Alternative
     Investment  Market  of  the London  Stock  Exchange  in
     December 1996.

2.   Aventis Pharmaceuticals Inc.
     Aventis Pharmaceuticals is the U.S. business of Aventis
     Pharma AG, the pharmaceutical company of Aventis S.A.
     (NYSE:AVE). Aventis Pharmaceuticals, with headquarters
     in Parsippany, N.J., focuses its activities on
     important therapeutic areas such as cardiology,
     oncology, anti-infectives, arthritis, allergy and
     respiratory, diabetes, and the central nervous system.
     
     Aventis Pharma is dedicated to treating and preventing
     human disease through the discovery, development,
     manufacture, and sale of innovative pharmaceutical
     products aimed at fulfilling unmet medical needs. The
     corporate headquarters of Aventis Pharma is in
     Frankfurt, Germany. Aventis Pharma comprises Aventis
     Pasteur, a world leader in vaccines, with corporate
     headquarters in Lyon, France, and Aventis Behring, a
     world leader in therapeutic proteins, with corporate
     headquarters in King of Prussia, Pa.
     
     Aventis S.A., one of the world's leading life sciences
     companies, is focused on two core business areas:
     pharmaceuticals and agriculture. With global corporate
     headquarters in Strasbourg, France, Aventis employs
     nearly 90,000 people in 120 countries. Aventis S.A. was
     launched in December 1999 through the merger of Hoechst
     AG and Rhone-Poulenc S.A.
     


3.    Hypoxia  Response  Element in Aventis  Pharmaceuticals
    gene therapy products
    The  Hypoxia Response Element, to which Oxford BioMedica
    has   exclusive  rights,  is  a  sophisticated   control
    mechanism  that can switch genes on or off  in  response
    to  oxygen  levels in the tissues of the  body.  Aventis
    Pharmaceuticals will use HRE in gene therapy  approaches
    to   treat   coronary  artery  disease  and   peripheral
    arterial  disease  by stimulating growth  of  new  blood
    vessels  in  areas  where existing  blood  vessels  have
    become  diseased,  and have ceased to function.  Hypoxia
    is  an  intrinsic phenotype of ischaemic  diseases.  The
    HRE  system  is  designed to ensure that any  new  blood
    vessels  will grow only where they are needed  and  will
    not  continue  to  grow once a normal blood  supply  has
    been established.
    
    Under  the  December  1998 agreement,  Oxford  BioMedica
    could  receive  payments up to  $18  million  through  a
    combination  of  access, milestone and research  funding
    payments  and  equity  subscriptions,  in  addition   to
    royalties on sales of products containing the  HRE  once
    they  reach the market.   Financial details of  the  new
    collaborative agreement have not been disclosed.
     
4.   LentiVectorsr
     In  gene therapy, the aim is to deliver a gene and  its
     necessary  regulatory elements (the gene construct)  to
     the  cell  surface,  using  a  vector  to  mediate  the
     transfer  across the cell membrane and, in some  cases,
     into  the nucleus.  A new and potentially very powerful
     vector  system  is  based on lentiviruses,  which  have
     similar  features  to  retroviruses  in  the  ease   of
     manipulation, predictable integration and reliable gene
     expression   and  regulation.   However,   their   main
     advantage over retroviruses is the ability to  function
     in non-dividing cells or cells that are dividing slowly
     -  a  feature of many tissues of the body. In addition,
     BioMedica has found that its LentiVectorsr do not  give
     rise  to  detectable  adverse  side  effects  including
     inflammatory responses.

    Lentivirus vectors are constructed from two sources:
          primate viruses e.g. human or simian immunodeficiency
       virus (HIV or SIV)
          non-primate viruses e.g. feline and bovine
       immunodeficiency viruses (FIV and BIV), and one of the most
       simple, equine infective anaemia virus (EIAV). Oxford
       BioMedica's pEGASUST vectors are based on EIAV.

     Most  lentiviral vector development to date has focused
     on  the  HIV-1-derived  system,  as  HIV  is  the  most
     thoroughly characterised of the lentiviruses.   However
     concerns over the use of HIV-based vectors for diseases
     other than HIV infection are leading to the use of non-
     primate viruses such as EIAV.
     
5.   Worldwide web
     This release is also available on the Worldwide Web  at
     http://www.oxfordbiomedica.co.uk