GENETICS company Oxford Biomedica is moving into the Pacific Rim through a deal with a Korean biotech company.

It is linking up with ViroMed, which commercialises discoveries made at Seoul National University.

Oxford Biomedica, which was set up to exploit genetic research done at Oxford University, will contribute its technology to a joint venture called ViroTech, which will run clinical trials to treat cancer and other diseases.

The emphasis will be on liver and prostate cancer, which are particularly common in the Far East.

The Oxford company says ViroMed, set up by Professor SunYoung Kim, is ideally placed to orchestrate clinical trials in the Pacific Rim and to develop commercial collaborations in the area.

Ed Duer, who has worked in the Japanese pharmaceutical industry for more than 30 years, has been appointed Oxford Biomedica's business development consultant for the Japanese market.

Oxford Biomedica chief executive Prof Alan Kingsman said: "The joint venture will give us additional financial resource and manpower to progress the clinical trial programme for a number of our key products.

"These could now move into clinical trials much faster than if we continued to develop them on our own."

The company, which employs about 40 people at Oxford Science Park, is also in discussion with possible commercial partners to develop a vaccine against cancer.

Oxford University has given Prof Kingsman and his wife Sue the patent rights to discoveries made in their work at the department of genetics.

Story date: Monday 24 May

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