OTTAWA, Ontario– Virica Biotech Inc., a leading developer of solutions for scaling of viral medicines, today announced it will collaborate with Oxford Biomedica plc (LSE:OXB), a leading gene and cell therapy company, to improve the yield and production efficiency of Oxford Biomedica’s next generation lentiviral vector gene therapies using Virica’s Viral Sensitizers (VSEs™).
Ella Korets-Smith, Chief Business Officer of Virica Biotech, said: “There is growing demand from major industry players to use leading lentivirus technologies, like Oxford Biomedica’s LentiVector® platform, to develop cell and gene therapies. We envision our VSEs™ as an ideal solution in their quest to pursue new ways to increase commercial yields in order to support the use of life-saving cell and gene therapies globally.”
Oxford Biomedica is a world-leading pioneer of cell and gene therapies. Its LentiVector® platform enables the successful development of breakthrough gene and cell-based medicines, and through collaborations with pharmaceutical partners, has delivered the first FDA and EMA approved CAR-T cell therapy.
Oxford Biomedica (LSE:OXB) is a leading, fully integrated, gene and cell therapy group focused on developing life changing treatments for serious diseases. Oxford Biomedica and its subsidiaries (the “Group”) have built a sector leading lentiviral vector delivery platform (LentiVector®), which the Group leverages to develop in vivo and ex vivo products both in-house and with partners. The Group has created a valuable proprietary portfolio of gene and cell therapy product candidates in the areas of oncology, CNS disorders and liver diseases. The Group has also entered into a number of partnerships, including with Novartis, Bristol Myers Squibb, Sio Gene Therapies, Orchard Therapeutics, Santen, Beam Therapeutics, Boehringer Ingelheim, Arcellx and Cabaletta Bio through which it has long-term economic interests in other potential gene and cell therapy products. Additionally, the Group has signed a 3-year master supply and development agreement with AstraZeneca for large-scale manufacturing of the adenoviral based COVID-19 vaccine, AZD1222. Oxford Biomedica is based across several locations in Oxfordshire, UK and employs more than 740 people.
