Oxford BioTherapeutics Appoints Bryan G. Morton as Chairman

OXFORD, England, June 26, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

Oxford BioTherapeutics (OBT), a global biotechnology company developing first-in-class, antibody-based cancer medicines to fulfil unmet patient needs, today announces the appointment of Bryan G. Morton as the Company's new Non-executive Chairman.

Bryan Morton has over 30 years experience as a successful entrepreneur and senior manager in the pharmaceutical industry. Morton was previously CEO of EUSA Pharma, a global speciality oncology company, which was acquired by Jazz Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: JAZZ) in 2012 for $700 million.  After founding EUSA in 2005, Morton was able to fund the company's growth by raising $265 million from several prominent life science investors, including Goldman Sachs, Essex Woodland, 3i, Advent, SV Life Sciences, Neomed and Novaquest. In 2003, Morton founded and was appointed CEO of Zeneus Pharma Ltd (2003), a European speciality oncology and critical care company. He sold Zeneus to Cephalon (Nasdaq: CEPH) for $360 million, delivering generous returns to Apax Partners, an early investor. Prior to running Zeneus, Morton was president of Convatec, EMEA (Bristol Myers Squibb, NYSE: BMY) and spent over 20 years in positions of increasing responsibility at Merck & Co (NYSE: MRK).

Christian Rohlff, CEO and Founder of OBT, commenting on today's announcement said: "I am delighted that Bryan has decided to accept the position of Chairman at OBT. His success in building valuable businesses and knowledge of the cancer space in particular will be important as we look to further develop our pipeline of antibody based cancer medicines to fulfil unmet patient needs. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Dr Michael Moore for his wise counsel and support over the last three and a half years. During this time we have built OBT into a leading global mAb developer and have signed important development alliances with Menarini and Sanofi."

Bryan G. Morton, Chairman of OBT, said: "I am glad to have this opportunity to work with Christian and the team at OBT. I have been very impressed at how they have leveraged the unique OGAP database to generate their own exciting pipeline of antibody medicines and to sign collaborations with a broad range of companies focused on developing new treatments for cancer. I am looking forward to using my experience in building successful specialty pharma businesses to allow me to make an important contribution to OBT as it enters the next phase of its corporate development."

About Oxford BioTherapeutics

Oxford BioTherapeutics (OBT) is a leading global biotechnology company focused on delivering innovative and cost-effective first-in-class medicines to fulfil major unmet patient needs in the field of cancer. OBT is developing cutting-edge antibody-based cancer medicines, with integrated diagnostics, against novel targets that it has discovered through its unique OGAP^® proteomic database. OGAP^®   represents the world's largest proprietary collection of disease-associated proteins; with proteomic data on over 7,500 cancer membrane proteins and proprietary protein disease expression information on over three-quarters of the entire human proteome. Over two million human protein fragments have been sequenced in OGAP^® in 50 distinct human tissues representing 60 human diseases, including 25 forms of cancer.

OBT has access to world leading antibody technologies and expertise through its partnerships with Seattle Genetics (Nasdaq: SGEN), Bristol Myers (BMY), Amgen (Nasdaq: AMGN), Alere (NYSE: ALR) and BioWa, and through its development alliances with Menarini and Sanofi (SA). These partnerships have enabled OBT to convert its world leading capabilities in the discovery of novel oncology targets into a highly attractive pipeline of therapeutic oncology antibodies.

For further information, please see http://www.OxfordBioTherapeutics.com.

OBT Contact Information:
Chief Executive Officer:
Christian Rohlff, Ph.D.
+44(0)1235-861770
E-mail: [email protected]
Media enquiries/Citigate:
David Dible/Sita Shah
+44(0)207-638-9571
E-mail: [email protected]

SOURCE Oxford BioTherapeutics