5th May 2005 07:00
Oxford Biomedica PLC05 May 2005 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 5 MAY 2005 OXFORD BIOMEDICA PRESENTS ENCOURAGING PRECLINICAL EFFICACY DATA WITH RETINOSTAT(R) IN AGE-RELATED MACULAR DEGENERATION Presentation at the 2005 Annual Meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) in Fort Lauderdale, Florida - Oxford, UK: 5 May 2005 - Oxford BioMedica (LSE: OXB), the leading gene therapycompany, and its collaborators from the Institute of Ophthalmology in London,are today presenting encouraging preclinical data from the RetinoStat programmeat the Annual Meeting of the Association for Research in Vision andOphthalmology (ARVO) in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA. The data show that twoversions of the product are efficacious in an industry standard model ofage-related macular degeneration (AMD), the leading cause of vision loss in thedeveloped world. RetinoStat uses a LentiVector(R) system to deliver, to the retina, genes, whichblock the formation of new blood vessels that cause AMD. Oxford BioMedica isevaluating two versions of RetinoStat with the anti-angiogenesis genes,endostatin and angiostatin, respectively. The preclinical data being presentedat ARVO assess the ability of RetinoStat to reduce the area of the eye withabnormal blood vessel growth (known as the area of choroidal neovascularisationor CNV) and to reduce blood vessel leakage in the eye, which leads to thedistortion and loss of central vision in AMD. Both versions of RetinoStat were safe and well tolerated and both achieved thetwo efficacy endpoints. The results show a statistically significant improvementin all scores. The area of CNV was reduced by 50-60% (pRelated Shares:
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