OXFORD, England, and BOSTON, April 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Oxxon Therapeutics Ltd (formerly Oxxon Pharmaccines), a biotechnology company developing immunotherapeutics for cancer and chronic infectious diseases based on its novel proprietary PrimeBoost technology, today announced the opening of a new US operation based in Boston, MA and the renaming of the business to Oxxon Therapeutics.
The new operation puts the company much closer to important medical and commercial opportunities and will assist Oxxon in pursuing its clinical programs aggressively. This follows the recently announced appointments of Dr Frank Malinoski from Wyeth as Chief Medical Officer and Dr John Brown, formerly Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Acambis, to the board.
To coincide with this move and for clarity, the company name has been changed to Oxxon Therapeutics.
Boston was chosen for its buoyant biotech environment, established pool of highly specialized professionals and many commercial development opportunities. According to Deirdre Gillespie, MD, Oxxon’s CEO.
“We are delighted to announce the opening of our US office and have received a great deal of positive support and feedback from the biotech community in Boston,” Gillespie said. “We look forward to becoming part of this community and to joining the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council.”
Gillespie said that Oxxon will benefit from working with US clinicians as more of its drugs enter clinical testing phases and that Boston offers many business development opportunities and much successful experience and expertise in the biotech arena. “We look forward to being part of this as we drive the business forward.”
The Boston facility will initially employ a staff of four, building to a team of ten over the next three years.
Oxxon’s laboratory-based research, early stage development and administration will continue to be run from the company’s base in Oxford, UK.
Oxxon Therapeutics(TM) is a mid-stage biotechnology company developing a portfolio of immunotherapeutics for infectious disease and cancer in man using its proprietary Heterologous PrimeBoost approach. The Company, incorporated in 1999, has already successfully progressed its products for the treatment of melanoma and hepatitis B to Phase II clinical trials, and has a number of pre-clinical products in development on its own or through collaborations.
Heterologous PrimeBoost has been demonstrated to stimulate a strong immune response in preclinical models and healthy subjects. It has a good safety profile and is applicable both to therapeutic and prophylactic settings. While Oxxon’s primary internal focus is the development of immunotherapeutic products, out-licensing this technology offers potential partners attractive opportunities for the development of human and animal vaccines and therapeutics. Oxxon will also consider the joint development of immunotherapeutics or the in-licensing of clinical stage immunotherapeutics. Clinical trials using Oxxon’s PrimeBoost for preventative vaccines include malaria and HIV/AIDS, in Phase II, and TB, in Phase I, are being driven by Oxxon’s founding collaborators and benefit from third party funding.
For more information please see http://www.oxti.com/
Oxxon Therapeutics Ltd
CONTACT: Deirdre Gillespie MD, President & CEO of Oxxon TherapeuticsLtd, +1-617-383-2100, dgillespie@oxti.com; Richard Anderson,r.anderson@defacto.com, or Maria Payne, m.payne@defacto.com, both of DeFacto Communications, UK, +44-20-7496-3300, for Oxxon Therapeutics Ltd;Edward D. Agne, +1-781-631-3117, edagne@comstratgroup.com, or Anita Harris,+1-617-354-0531, anharris@comstratgroup.com, both of CommunicationsStrategy Group, for Oxxon Therapeutics Ltd
Web site: http://www.oxti.com/
