Viragen Inc and Oxford BioMedica announced a license agreement for Oxford BioMedica's LentiVector gene delivery technology. The agreement provides Viragen with worldwide exclusive rights to utilize the proprietary LentiVector technology in its collaboration with Roslin Institute (Scotland) to develop Avian Transgenic Technology as a novel platform for the efficient and economical manufacturing of therapeutic proteins in chicken eggs.

Under the agreement, Oxford BioMedica receives an upfront license fee and annual maintenance payments. In addition, Oxford BioMedica will receive milestone payments on the achievement of technical goals by Viragen and royalties on commercialization of the Avian Transgenic Technology. Further financial details were not disclosed.

"Manufacturing protein-based drugs through an avian transgenic expression system should offer certain advantages to traditional production systems - likely in terms of speed, efficiency and cost," stated Viragen's CEO, Charles A. Rice.

Viragen and Roslin Institute have conducted preliminary studies evaluating Oxford BioMedica's LentiVector technology which have yielded promising results, demonstrating the ability to generate transgenic generations with an efficiency on the order of 10 to 100-fold higher than any previously published methods.

Oxford BioMedica's CEO, Professor Alan Kingsman, added, "Viragen's Avian Transgenics Programme has made substantial progress over the past two years and we are delighted that Oxford BioMedica's LentiVector technology has contributed to this success. We look forward to further developments following the signing of this agreement."

Viragen holds the worldwide exclusive license to commercialize Avian Transgenic Technology as granted by Roslin Institute (Scotland). The project is designed to develop the common chicken into a pharmaceutical bioreactor, one that can meet the growing need for protein-based human therapeutics.

Based on the creation of lines of transgenic hens which have been engineered to produce the target protein in their eggs, this technology is being developed as a cost-effective and efficient alternative to standard bio manufacturing techniques, having many apparent advantages in ease of scale-up, lower costs of production and quality of product produced. The proportion of protein drugs, including monoclonal antibodies, under development is forecast to be expanding rapidly and manufacturing constraints, including lack of adequate facilities, have been recognized.

Viragen is a biotechnology company specializing in the research, development and commercialization of natural and recombinant protein-based drugs designed to treat a broad range of viral and malignant diseases. These protein-based drugs include natural human alpha interferon, monoclonal antibodies and a peptide drug. Viragen's strategy also includes the development of Avian Transgenic Technology as a bio manufacturing platform for the large-scale, cost-effective production of therapeutic proteins.