Board Appointment

RNS Number : 9433Z

Oxford Biomedica PLC

28 July 2008

 



For Immediate Release

28 JULY 2008

OXFORD BIOMEDICA APPOINTS JOHN DAWSON AS NON-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR 

Oxford, UK - 28 July 2008: Oxford BioMedica (LSE: OXB), a leading gene therapy company, announced today that John Dawson BSc (Hons), ACA, MCIM, Dip M will join the Board on 1 August 2008 as a Non-executive Director and member of the Remuneration and Audit Committees.

John Dawson 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 led 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 several hundred million US dollars. In 2005 he led the US$360 million acquisition of Zeneus by Cephalon.

Professor Alan Kingsman, Chairman of Oxford BioMedica, said: 'We are delighted that John has agreed to join the board of Oxford BioMedica. His outstanding commercial and business development experience will complement the existing team and help take the Company forward through its current challenges and on to the next exciting stages of commercial and operational development.' 

There is no other information to be disclosed under Paragraph 9.6.13 R of the Listing Rules.

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For further information, please contact:
Oxford BioMedica plc:  Mike McDonald, 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: Claire Mosley/ Holly Griffiths/ Katja Stout 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. The Company has a staff of approximately 85. 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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