OXFORD BIOMEDICA AND ARIUS RESEARCH EXTEND COLLABORATION ON NOVEL CANCER TARGETS

Success of initial stage leads to further two-year partnership

Oxford BioMedica (LSE: OXB) and ARIUS Research Inc. (TSX-VE: ARI) announced today the first milestone and their decision to move into the next phase of their collaboration to discover and characterise novel cancer targets and downstream therapeutic products. Under the agreement, antigen targets and antibodies can be out-licensed to commercial partners or developed by one or both of the companies.

In the initial phase of the collaboration, which began on 25 July 2002, 50 functional anti-cancer antibodies from the ARIUS library were used by Oxford BioMedica to mine for novel targets. The decision to extend the collaboration comes from the successful identification of three targets that offer opportunities in a range of cancer diseases. The new collaboration will focus on one that is over-expressed in gastrointestinal and other cancers and is related to cancer metastasis.

The success of the initial phase is due to synergies between the two companies. ARIUS’ FunctionFIRST™ discovery platform starts with human tumour cells and selects for antibodies with direct anti-cancer effects. By not starting from a known target, the ARIUS platform offers opportunities to discover novel targets or the unique spots on a target that are important in triggering cancer cell death. Oxford BioMedica has a number of proprietary technologies from its gene discovery and immunotherapy programmes and has both the technical skills to develop products and the business development experience to market them.

ARIUS' President and CSO, Dr. David Young said: "Our ongoing relationship with Oxford BioMedica has the potential to deliver significant value as we move to commercialise these discoveries. Oxford BioMedica has been an excellent partner and has made an important contribution to developing these library candidates."

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