Statement re Patent

Oxford Biomedica PLC
26 June 2001






FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
                                                                   26 June 2001

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





   OXFORD BIOMEDICA OBTAINS FUNDAMENTAL PATENT FOR LENTIVIRAL GENE THERAPY
                                  TECHNOLOGY



Oxford, UK - 26 June 2001: Oxford BioMedica plc announced today that it has
received allowance from the US Patent Office for a fundamental patent covering
its proprietary LentiVectora technology. The patent includes broad composition
of matter claims and methods of production claims for lentiviral vector gene
delivery systems of both human and non-human origin.



The patent is particularly important because it covers derivatives of
lentiviral vector systems that, unlike many versions of lentiviral vectors,
have real clinical utility because of their safety. The 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 the patent. 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 BioMedica's system of choice because of its superior safety profile.



Oxford BioMedica is currently utilising the EIAV-based vector system in target
validation and gene discovery and in preclinical studies in therapies for
prostate cancer and Parkinson's disease. In particular BioMedica has shown
that LentiVectora has a unique capability for the delivery of genes at high
efficiency to cells of the nervous system. This capability underlies
BioMedica's candidate Parkinson's disease product ProSavin(R), and will be one
of the main areas of focus for BioMedica Inc., Oxford BioMedica's new USA
operation.



'Oxford BioMedica's LentiVectora 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
commercial interactions and further discussions that are underway related to
this technology, and in encouraging results from a number of the Company's
preclinical studies. We are working currently on taking our first LentiVector
(R)-based products into clinical trials for cancer and for Parkinson's disease'
said Alan Kingsman, Chief Executive of Oxford BioMedica.





Notes to Editors



1.         Oxford BioMedica plc

Established in 1995, the Company specialises in the application of gene-based
technology to the development of novel therapeutics. Its three principal
activities are in the fields of gene therapy, immunotherapy and genomics, and
its principal therapeutic areas are in cancer and neurodegenerative diseases.
Oxford BioMedica plc was floated on the Alternative Investment Market of the
London Stock Exchange in December 1996, and upgraded to the United Kingdom
Listing Authority Official List in April 2001 following a successful £35.5
million fund-raising.



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





2.         Lentivirus vector systems

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 increasingly 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 clinically important
tissues including the central and peripheral nervous system.





3.         Types of lentiviruses

Lentiviral 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)





4.         BioMedica Inc.

A key part of Oxford BioMedica's strategy for growth following its recent
upgrade to the UKLA Official List and the successful £35.5 million
fund-raising is to establish a significant business unit in the USA. BioMedica
Inc. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Oxford BioMedica plc, and it plans to
establish offices and laboratories on the US west coast. On 29 May 2001
BioMedica announced the appointment of Dr Doug Jolly as CEO of BioMedica Inc.





5.         World Wide Web

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