OXB: Three decades of innovation in cell and gene therapies

OXB, formerly Oxford Biomedica, began life in 1995 as a spinout from the University of Oxford. What started as a drug discovery company (mainly focusing on neurological diseases and cancer) has grown into a world-leading contract development and manufacturing organisation, pioneering new standards in the manufacture of viral vectors, tools made from modified virus such as lentiviruses that safely deliver genetic instructions into cells to help treat or cure disease. 

The company’s impact on patients has been profound. Perhaps most famously, OXB’s proprietary lentiviral vector platform enabled the clinical use of Kymriah, a breakthrough cancer therapy developed by the global pharmaceutical company Novartis. In 2012, Emily Whitehead became the first paediatric patient to receive Kymriah in a clinical trial after other avenues to treat her childhood leukaemia had failed. More than a decade later, Emily is still in remission and has a children’s cancer foundation in her name. 

As the first company to treat patients in vivo (where therapeutic payload is delivered directly into a patient’s body, as supposed to ex vivo where a patient’s T-cells are extracted, modified, and reinfused outside the body) using lentiviral vectors, OXB has remained at the cutting edge of cell and gene therapy. Innovative platforms – the LentiVector™ platform and the inAAVate™ platform – underpin the company’s consistent development and delivery of high-quality vector products, and with 40 active clients and facilities in the UK, US and France, OXB now supports around 50 cell and gene therapies programmes. 

An industry pioneer with an unmatched 30-year track record since spinning out of Oxford University, OXB continues to play a vital role in making next-generation medicines a clinical reality for patients around the world. 

• 30 years of manufacturing experience
• 50+ programmes supported
• 8000+ patients treated using OXB’s lentivirus
• 30+ regulatory submissions