CATS and dogs could benefit from cancer treatments being developed by gene therapy company Oxford Biomedica.

The company, based at Oxford Science Park, has signed a licence agreement with French veterinary medicine company Virbac for its cancer vaccine technology.

The Oxford company will earn royalties on any sales as well as upfront and staged payments.

Oxford Biomedica chief executive Prof Alan Kingsman said: "This deal represents the first of several that we are negotiating with pharmaceutical companies worldwide on our novel tumour-combating antigens.

"Strong interest is being shown in the human version of this vaccine."

The vaccine will be given to people who already have cancer, to spark their immune system into fighting the disease.

Oxford Biomedica is starting trials of a treatment for colorectal cancer on human volunteers in September. It has also signed a collaborative deal with pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca, which will use Biomedica's gene delivery system to pinpoint the genes involved in diseases like asthma, so that better drugs can be developed. Biomedica has also signed collaborations with Rhone-Poulenc Rorer to use the technique to screen possible drug candidates and pinpoint the genetic causes of diseases.

The Oxford company has established a new Unit of Drug Discovery headed by two of its senior scientists, Dr Kyriacos Mitrophanous and Dr Miles Carroll.

Prof Kingsman said: "The AstraZeneca deal adds further confirmation that our technology is not only at the forefront of gene therapy, but that it can also be applied to the new field of gene-driven drug discovery.

"It is also recognition of our very strong position in this field, having several layers of robust patent applications covering commercially valuable lentiviral vector systems. We have good reason to believe that these systems are not covered by any other company's existing patents.

"Efficient, safe and regulated gene delivery is required for both effective gene therapy and for key aspects of the difficult task of unravelling information generated by the various genomics and proteomics programmes.

"Our gene transfer systems deliver these key features which are required by the major pharmaceutical companies. We anticipate further commercial opportunities arising from Lentivectors and other technologies from our new drug discovery unit."

Oxford Biomedica says its LentiVector technology delivers genes efficiently without generating detectable adverse effects on the cell or tissue.

Story date: Tuesday 22 February

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.