Oxford BioMedica plc ("BioMedica") announced today that its motor neurone disease product development programme, a collaboration with Dr. Nicholas Boulis of the Centre for Functional and Restorative Neurosurgery, The Cleveland Clinic Foundation in Ohio, had received a grant of $ 120,000 from the USA Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Association, a prestigious charity dedicated to the fight against ALS or Lou Gehrig's Disease, named after the famous baseball player. Lou Gehrig's disease is one of the most devastating human disorders affecting the function of nerves and muscles.

BioMedica is assessing a series of five genes as components of a product to address the Motor Neurone Disease (MND) market of which Lou Gehrig's disease is the most common manifestation. The genes, which have been selected to prevent disease progression, will be delivered to motor neurones using the Company's proprietary LentiVector(R) technology. The Company has already reported that the LentiVectors(R) are able to deliver genes to motor neurones with very high efficiency. It is anticipated that, within a year, up to two of these genes will be selected as the component of the final product that will progress to clinical trial. The grant from the ALS Association is to support this initial stage of the programme, and it is anticipated that, pending regulatory approvals, the phase I trials of the new product will be conducted in late stage ALS patients at The Cleveland Clinic Foundation. In ALS motor neurones die and, as a result, the ability of the brain and the spinal cord to initiate and control muscle movement is lost. With all voluntary muscle action affected, patients in the later stages of the disease become totally paralysed. Early symptoms of ALS include increasing muscle weakness, especially involving the arms and legs, speech, swallowing and breathing. When muscles no longer receive the messages from the motor neurones that they require to function, the muscles begin to waste away and limbs begin to look thinner. Patients usually die from respiratory failure as a result of collapse of the diaphragm muscle.

Commenting on the programme BioMedica's Chief Executive, Professor Alan Kingsman said:

'Over the past year we have broadened our neurobiology portfolio to include products for Parkinson's disease (ProSavin(R)), nerve repair (Renurex(TM)) and now motor neurone disease, all based on our powerful proprietary LentiVector(R) technology. The initial research costs for this new programme will be almost entirely covered by the grant. We are particularly pleased that the prestigious ALS Association has chosen us as the leading collaborator to bring a gene therapy approach to treating this dreadful disease, it represents a considerable endorsement of the quality of the Company's LentiVector(R) gene delivery system..