OXFORD BIOMEDICA’S INNUREX^® PRODUCT RESTORES LIMB FUNCTION IN A PRECLINICAL MODEL OF AVULSION INJURY

Data presented at the 7th Annual Meeting of the American Society For Gene Therapy

Oxford BioMedica (LSE: OXB), the leading gene therapy company, announced today that preclinical data from the Innurex nerve repair programme are being presented by Dr. Nicholas Mazarakis, the Company’s Vice President for Neurobiology, at the 7th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Gene Therapy held in Minneapolis from June 2-6. The data, which will shortly be sent for peer-reviewed publication, show that Innurex is able to restore function to damaged limbs in a model of avulsion (stretch) injury. These results indicate that Innurex may have clinical benefit in patients with nerve damage resulting from severe pull/stretch injury, a common consequence of sporting and motor accidents.

Within the field of neurobiology nerve repair has been a long sought goal for the treatment of nerve damage and spinal injury. The aim is to induce nerve cells to regrow and bridge sites of injury thereby reconnecting the nerve fibres and restoring function. At present there are no effective therapies for nerve damage and spinal injury.

The new results with Innurex are the first functional data to come from Oxford BioMedica’s nerve repair programme and they indicate that the new nerve connections induced by Innurex restore substantial function to limbs that have a damaged nerve supply. The data were generated from an ongoing collaboration between Oxford BioMedica and Professors Malcolm Maden and Stephen McMahon at King’s College London.

Prof. Alan Kingsman, Oxford BioMedica’s Chief Executive, said: “Innurex goes from strength to strength. In December of last year we announced that Innurex had been shown to induce nerve regrowth in vivo. We now know that the regrowth is significant in that injured limbs regain both movement and sensation as a result of treatment with Innurex.”

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