Oxford BioMedica and Viragen report avian transgenic breakthrough: Viragen and Roslin are conducting avian expression studies on various protein candidates including interferon beta-1a, which is currently marketed under two competing brand names for the treatment of MS. These MS products are Avonex®*, marketed by Biogen Idec, and Rebif®**, marketed by Serono, with combined annual global sales over $2.5 billion.

Oxford BioMedica (LSE: OXB) announced today that its partner Viragen, Inc (AMEX: VRA), along with Viragen’s collaborators at the Roslin Institute, have successfully achieved expression of significant quantities of the human protein, interferon beta-1a, in the whites of eggs laid by transgenic hens using the OVA™ System (Avian Transgenic Biomanufacturing) that employs Oxford BioMedica’s LentiVector® technology. Interferon-beta is a key component of the human immune system and is the active ingredient in several leading (MS) . These results are the first in a series of anticipated milestones demonstrating “Proof-of-Principle” with an avian-expressed version of interferon beta, and it is expected that the OVA™ System will be capable of cost-effectively expressing many types of therapeutic proteins.