Oxford BioTherapeutics to Present at 35th Cowen and Company Annual Health Care Conference in Boston

OXFORD, England and SAN JOSE, California, February 23, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --

Oxford BioTherapeutics, an international biotechnology company focused on the development of innovative antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) for the treatment of cancer, announces that it will present at the 35^th Cowen and Company Annual Health Care Conference at the Boston Marriott Copley Place, Boston, USA on Tuesday March 2, 2015 at 11:00am ET.  

About Oxford BioTherapeutics 

Oxford BioTherapeutics, a clinical stage biotechnology company, is developing a range of innovative antibody based therapeutics, including antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), for the treatment of cancer. The company's ADCs are based on its proprietary OGAP^® targeting platform, and incorporate novel antibody and cancer toxin technologies accessed from leading companies in the field. Oxford BioTherapeutics' network of collaborations provides a unique range of complementary ADC technologies, allowing the company to select the optimal combination for each target identified by its OGAP^® system. OGAP^® incorporates one of the world's largest proprietary cell-membrane focussed proteomic databases, with data on over 5,000 cancer membrane proteins providing unique, highly-qualified oncology targets that are selected for optimal ADC activity.

Oxford BioTherapeutics and the Menarini Group established an important strategic partnership in October 2012, covering the development and commercialization of five of Oxford BioTherapeutics' proprietary antibody-based cancer therapies. Under the collaboration, Menarini contributes preclinical, clinical and manufacturing expertise, supported by an investment of up to $1 billion, plus potential milestone payments of a similar magnitude and royalties on future sales, in exchange for commercial rights to the treatments in Europe, Asia and Latin America. Oxford BioTherapeutics retains commercial rights in North America and Japan. The partnership was recently identified as the second largest antibody and antibody-drug conjugate technology platform deal globally during the past five years*.

In October 2013, the companies designated OBT357 (MEN1112) targeting AML as the partnership's first clinical development candidate. The phase I study of OBT357/ MEN1112, a defucosylated, recombinant, humanized antibody targeting Bst1/CD157, which is highly expressed on AML blasts and the AML stem cell compartment was initiated in November 2014 and will be conducted in major European leukemia treatment centers in Belgium, France, Germany and Italy. The open label trial will enrol patients with relapsed or refractory AML in a first dose escalation phase for safety assessment, and the expansion cohort phase to determine the most appropriate dose for phase II. In addition, the trial includes correlation analyses of clinical response and target antigen expression.

In October 2014, the companies designated a first ADC targeting a novel, proprietary target highly expressed on Non-Hodgkin's B-Cell Lymphoma and various high medical need solid tumours, including triple-negative breast cancer, as the partnership's second clinical development candidate. This ADC is currently undergoing formal regulatory enabling studies to support an application for the future clinical development.

On January 14 2015, Oxford BioTherapeutics announced that Boehringer Ingelheim had exercised an option to receive exclusive rights to an oncology target from an ongoing discovery collaboration. The target was discovered using Oxford BioTherapeutics' proprietary OGAP^® system. This represented the first option exercised under the companies' oncology target discovery and validation collaboration established in 2013.  Under the terms of the agreement, Boehringer Ingelheim will be responsible for the future development and commercialization of antibody products to the target. Oxford BioTherapeutics will receive development and regulatory milestone payments, and royalties on any future product sales.  

The company is based in Oxford, UK and San Jose, CA.  Oxford BioTherapeutics has a strong management team with significant experience of developing antibody-based therapies.  For more information please visit http://www.oxfordbiotherapeutics.com.

*September 2014 biopharma dealmakers; published in September 2014 editions of Nature Biotechnology and Nature Reviews Drug Discovery

SOURCE Oxford BioTherapeutics