Oxford Biomedica sees progress in its eye drugs

British gene therapy specialist Oxford BioMedica said on Tuesday it would have all four of its eye disease drugs in clinics by the end of next year, and its cash burn would slow in the second half of 2010. The company also posted a net loss of £2.9 million ($4.5 million) for the six months to end-June, against a 0.5m loss for the same period a year ago, on revenue of £5.3m. Nearly all of Oxford's revenue came from French partner Sanofi-Aventis, which reimburses research and development costs for its four eye product candidates.

"Our ocular collaboration is proving to be very good for us," said Chief Executive John Dawson in an interview. "We will have all four drugs in the clinic by the end of 2011, and the first one (RetinoStat for age-related macular degeneration) by the end of 2010." Oxford BioMedica's two other main drugs, Parkinson's Disease medicine ProSavin and cancer vaccine Trovax, are not partnered at the moment. The company had net cash of £16.3m at June 30, which it said was enough to meet its needs into the first quarter of 2012. Its cash was lower than some analysts had predicted, however, and its shares fell as much as 10 per cent before recovering to stand just 0.1 per cent lower at 9.99 pence by 0958 GMT in a weaker London market.