annual report and accounts 2012  strategy and review
01  our mission
02  operational and ﬁnancial highlights
04 chairman’s message
05  management team
06 our strategy for success
08  chief executive officer’s review
09 gene therapy at a glance 
10 product pipeline
13  operational review
 
 13  lentivector
®
 platform development
   – ocular portfolio
 17  lentivector
®
 platform manufacturing
 18  other assets
 19  intellectual property and technology  
   licensing
 21  5t4 tumour antigen platform 
 22 manufacturing feature
  
28 financial review
30 corporate social responsibility
32 principal risks and uncertainties
governance 
36 the board of directors
38 corporate governance
41 directors’ remuneration report
47 directors’ report
group ﬁnancial statements
50  independent auditors’ report 
51  consolidated statement of  
comprehensive income
52 balance sheets
53 statements of cash ﬂows
54  statements of changes in equity  
attributable to owners of the parent
55  notes to the consolidated ﬁnancial 
statements
78  technology and product glossary
80 advisers
we are one of the leading companies 
in gene therapy and immunotherapy 
with a platform of exclusive and 
pioneering technologies to design 
develop and manufacture unique 
genebased medicines our pipeline 
addresses diseases for which there  
is currently no treatment or that are 
inadequately treated today including 
ocular diseases neurodegenerative 
disorders and cancer and our product 
candidates have the potential to 
transform treatment landscapes 
through our inhouse development 
programmes and collaborations with 
leading industry partners our goal  
is to improve the lives of patients  
with debilitating and lifethreatening 
diseases
oxford biomedica in brief    01
our mission is to build a toptier 
proﬁtable biopharmaceutical company 
founded on the successful development 
and commercialisation of breakthrough 
genebased medicines
we have a unique contribution  
to make to healthcare oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 02
operational and ﬁnancial
1
 highlights
1audited ﬁnancial results  
 sanoﬁ ocular partnership  
nearing successful conclusion 
us53 million committed to date
—   options exercised for stargen
™
 
and ushstat
®
 for a total of  
us3 million
—    groundbreaking retinostat
®
 
data show sustained  
doserelated protein expression 
treatment of ﬁnal patient  
cohort ongoing
lentivector
®
 platform evolution 
supports next generation of ocular 
gene therapies
—   growing clinical data set 
underscores conﬁdence  
in the technology platform
—   preclinical evaluation of 
glaucomagt ongoing to 
maximise proof of concept
—   planning underway for  
preclinical evaluation of  
four new ocular products
manufacturing capability 
complements commercial  
strategy
—   gmp facility approved to 
manufacture supplies for  
clinical studies 
—   inhouse manufacturing  
and analytical development 
activities underway to secure 
future alliances
—   launch of oxb solutions 
microsite to showcase leading 
gmp manufacturing and 
analytical competences 
wwwoxbsolutionscouk
pioneering prosavin
®
 phase iii 
study successfully met primary 
endpoints
—     prosavin
®
 is safe welltolerated 
and mediates longterm 
improvement of motor function
—   nonclinical programme for  
dose optimisation on track 
industry collaborations validate 
oxford biomedica’s 5t4 tumour 
antigen technology
—   imaginab option exercise for 
5t4targeted in vivo diagnostic 
for cancer imaging
—    multiple presentations of  
5t4adc programme by pﬁzer  
at key industry conferences
during 2012 we reported positive developments across our core clinical 
programmes strengthened our lentivector
®
 technology platform and 
secured mhra approval for our gmp manufacturing plant macroeconomic 
conditions remain challenging however sentiment towards the 
biopharmaceutical sector is improving and we are seeing more interest  
than ever in personalised medicines and niche disease indications  
all of which positions oxford biomedica well for further developments  
in the year ahead  oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 03
research and development £m
   external
  internal
  amortisation
12
10
08
06
04
02
0
2012 2011
revenue analysis £m
   sanoﬁ upfront
 sanoﬁ rd
  sanoﬁ options
  other
50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
05
0
2011 2012
£116m
fundraising of £116 million 
completed in july 2012  
net proceeds £101 million
£140m
research and development  
costs of £140 million  
2011 £178 million
£105m
net cash burn
2
 of £105 million  
2011 net cash burn
2
 £165 million
2  net cash used in operating activities  
plus sales and purchases of noncurrent  
assets and interest received
£7 8m
revenue of £78 million  
2011 £77 million
£87m
net loss of £87 million  
2011 £126 million
£141m
net cash
3
 of £141 million  
as at 31 december 2012  
2011 £143 million
3  cash cash equivalents and available  
for sale investments chairman’s message
 
gene therapy is the future
in november 2012 the european commission approved 
its ﬁrst gene therapy product glybera
®
 to treat patients 
suffering from a rare disease this key regulatory and 
industry milestone supports the future for gene therapy  
in major markets particularly the us where a gene 
therapy product is yet to be licensed we are seeing 
greater interest than ever in gene therapy and with  
a leading gene therapy technology platform in terms  
of its design manufacturing and clinical development 
status i believe we are now very wellpositioned to 
exploit the considerable effort that has been invested  
over a number of years
biotech is coming back…
the eu biotechnology sector as a whole gained 258  
in 2012 versus 33 in 2011 outperforming the larger 
pharmaceutical sector and the broader market indices 
source nomura code european biotechnology index 
whilst this highlights the volatile nature of the sector it 
also appears to underline increasingly positive investor 
sentiment in terms of uk biotechnology performance 
was not as strong largely due to investors’ continued 
aversion to risk however we are seeing signs of renewed 
interest in the sector and an opportunity for recognised 
technology leaders to prosper
finding tomorrow’s treatments
the pressures on the healthcare industry continue 
particularly given the resource constraints across  
payers pharmaceutical companies and biotechnology 
innovators with ageing populations and growing 
societies in emerging markets the industry needs  
to accelerate medicines for diseases which impose  
a signiﬁcant social burden such as chronic and 
neurodegenerative conditions it is exactly these sorts  
of indications which oxford biomedica can target  
with its lentivector
®
 platform product candidates
strategy commitment
our strategy remains to build a ﬁnancially selfsustaining 
company based on our proprietary lentivector
®
  
platform targeting high value fast growing markets  
such as ophthalmology there is potential for four 
revenue streams i through the exploitation of our 
existing product portfolio ii by developing new product 
opportunities iii by securing specialist manufacturing 
alliances and iv by leveraging our intellectual property  
in addition the board is continuing to seek out 
complementary acquisitions as a means to secure 
commercial success 
board change
i am delighted that martin diggle joined the board in 
october 2012 as a nonexecutive director he has a 
wealth of ﬁnancial investment experience across many 
sectors and through vulpes investment management  
of which he is a founder he has been a supporter of  
a number of life sciences businesses the vulpes life 
sciences fund is our largest shareholder and martin  
brings a clear investor’s perspective to the board
in conclusion
i believe that oxford biomedica has a unique contribution 
to make to healthcare and there is a great sense of pride 
in what we do within the company our employees have 
once again made a considerable effort during 2012 and 
we are grateful for their contribution we have some 
exciting prospects ahead and with a highlyexperienced 
team leading the evolution of the company i am 
conﬁdent that our science and our strategy will deliver
nick rodgers
chairman
nick rodgers
chairman
oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 08 oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 04
oxford biomedica delivered another year of strong operational progress 
during 2012 highlights included the mhra approval of our manufacturing 
facility sanoﬁ’s us3 million option exercise payment for stargen
™
  
and ushstat
®
 and the raising of a further £116 million these developments 
highlight our commitment to creating value in the business and we are 
grateful for the continued support from our shareholders oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 05
1 john dawson
chief executive officer
john dawson joined oxford biomedica’s board as  
a nonexecutive director in august 2008 and was 
appointed chief executive officer on 13 october 2008 
from 1996 to 2007 mr dawson held senior management 
positions in the european operations of cephalon inc 
where he led many of the deals that built the european 
business to over 1000 people taking the business from 
having no sales in 1998 to revenue of several hundred 
million us dollars 
team expertise
— leadership and strategy
—   business development
2 tim watts
chief financial officer
tim watts was appointed to the board as chief financial 
officer and company secretary in february 2012 he is  
a chartered accountant with over 30 years’ experience  
in leading multinational and entrepreneurial businesses 
prior to joining oxford biomedica mr watts held senior 
ﬁnance positions at ici astrazeneca and archimedes 
pharma mr watts has a proven track record in the 
industry including managing corporate transactions  
ma activity fundraising and strategic implementation
team expertise
—   financial management
—   strategic implementation
   3 dr stuart naylor
chief scientiﬁc officer
dr stuart naylor joined oxford biomedica in 1997 and  
was appointed to the board in july 2008 he established 
an international reputation at two world class cancer 
institutes the imperial cancer research fund and the 
institute of cancer research dr naylor’s career has 
covered many aspects of tumour biology from its 
molecular basis to the clinic
team expertise
—   technical and regulatory acumen
—   alliance management
    4 peter nolan
senior vice president commercial development
peter nolan was appointed to oxford biomedica’s  
board in may 2002 having been a senior member of  
the company since its foundation he is also a director  
of the uk bioindustry association and is a past chairman 
of the oxfordshire bioscience network prior to joining 
oxford biomedica mr nolan served as head of the 
biotechnology unit at the uk department of trade  
 industry for eight years
team expertise
—   inoutlicensing collaborations and legal issues
—   intellectual property strategy and management
management team
2 1 4 3 oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 06
our strategy for success
our strategy is to build and grow a ﬁnancially selfsustaining company  
based on our proprietary lentivector
®
 platform targeting high value  
rapidly expanding markets such as ophthalmology 
our approach is underpinned by four core principles against which  
we delivered many successes during 2012
manage risks and resources
our aim is to ensure that oxford biomedica is an 
efficient focused and resilient organisation pioneering 
innovation within the ﬁeld of biotechnology comes 
with inherent risk and our risk management processes 
are set out in the governance report our strategy is 
to mitigate both technical and ﬁnancial risk through 
careful planning and management of projects and 
partnerships that bring the clinical regulatory and 
commercialisation capabilities required to maximise 
the market potential of our novel treatments we take 
careful consideration in allocating resources and remain 
focused on developing our core lentivector
®
 platform 
products which we believe have the highest potential  
in the nearterm
there is potential for four revenue streams i exploiting 
our existing product portfolio ii developing new product 
opportunities iii securing specialist manufacturing 
alliances and iv leveraging our intellectual property 
key achievements 2012
—  options exercised by sanoﬁ for stargen
™
  
and ushstat
®
 for a total of us3 million  
future milestonesroyalties
—  fundraising of £116 million completed in july 2012 
net proceeds £101 million
—   funding award of us125000 for ushstat
®
  
phase iiia study from foundation fighting  
blindness
key achievements 2012
—  sanoﬁ exercised its options to acquire two exclusive 
worldwide licences for stargen
™
 and ushstat
®
—  collaborators at cardiff university wales uk 
initiated a phase ii trial of trovax
®
 in colorectal cancer
—  new master services agreement signed with 
immune design corp to leverage oxford 
biomedica’s expertise in lentiviral vector clinical 
development
—  imaginab exercised its option to acquire an 
exclusive worldwide licence for a 5t4targeted  
in vivo diagnostic for cancer imaging
focus 2013
—   generate income from our manufacturing facility
—  seek funding from translational grant opportunities 
and charities
—   continue to strike a balance between growing  
the company whilst also being careful with costs
focus 2013
—  secure new manufacturing alliances
—  complete nonclinical programme for enhanced 
prosavin
®
 construct
—  leverage relationships with key opinion leaders
pursuing partners to help take programmes forward
with one of the broadest patent estates in our chosen 
ﬁelds we are wellpositioned to exploit the value of  
our products and intellectual property through strategic 
partnerships our progress to date reﬂects the 
importance of strong relationships and industry 
alliances in delivering success we continuously  
seek ways to improve the value of our assets so as  
to increase the value of future partnerships examples 
include product optimisation for prosavin
®
 biomarker 
development for trovax
®
 and furthering the development 
of glaucomagt towards a ﬁrstinman clinical study
we are actively pursuing multiple initiatives to secure 
further funding for our core programmes and continue 
to evaluate development strategies in light of our 
ﬁnancial resources oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 07
what is gene therapy
ensuring timely delivery of pipeline
timely delivery is a core component of our strategy  
as one of the leading companies in the ﬁeld of gene 
therapy and immunotherapy we work closely with 
regulatory agencies to deﬁne appropriate development 
pathways however as with other biotechnology 
companies forecasting product development timelines 
can be challenging – particularly as our product 
candidates are based on groundbreaking science and 
therefore unexpected delays may occur we endeavour 
to provide guidance on timelines based on our best 
assumptions and are committed to ensuring timely 
delivery of our goals and milestones
key achievements 2012
—  pioneering prosavin
®
 phase iii study successfully 
met primary endpoint
—    gmp facility approved by uk medicines and 
healthcare products regulatory agency mhra  
to manufacture material supplies for clinical studies
—  groundbreaking retinostat
®
 data reported which 
show sustained doserelated protein expression
—  safety data from stargen
™
 and ushstat
®
 phase iiia 
studies announced following positive reviews  
by data safety monitoring board dsmb
key achievements 2012
—  following the strategic acquisition of a plant in 
february 2011 attaining certiﬁcation for specialist 
manufacturing capabilities provides a robust 
commercial arm to our business
focus 2013
—    complete retinostat
®
 phase i study
—  initiate preclinical development of the next 
generation of ocular product opportunities
focus 2013
—  evaluate complementary acquisition opportunities
seizing opportunity
oxford biomedica has evolved from being a  
researchdriven organisation into a more commercially
focused company the management team has the 
breadth and depth of expertise necessary to manage 
the company in today’s environment and enables us to 
respond quickly to market conditions and opportunities 
for example ophthalmology is a high growth market 
estimated to be worth €134 billion in 2011 increasing  
to €16 billion worldwide by 2016 source visiongain 
there is strong demand for innovative products and 
oxford biomedica is in an increasingly strong position  
to develop a new wave of high value ocular products  
in addition to organic growth we remain alert to 
external opportunities for strategic corporate activity  
as a means to accelerate proﬁtability oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 08
portfolio progress
we continue to build a leading position within the ﬁeld  
of ophthalmology our landmark ocular partnership  
with sanoﬁ is starting to generate milestone revenues 
following the option exercise payment received for 
stargen
™
 and ushstat
®
 treatment of the ﬁnal retinostat
®
 
patient cohort is underway we are extremely encouraged 
by the results to date and should sanoﬁ choose to exercise 
its option for retinostat
®
 during 2013 we are eligible  
to receive a substantial milestone payment we are also 
privileged to be working with mayo clinic a global leader 
in medical research to develop glaucomagt a novel 
gene therapy for chronic glaucoma as a recognised 
technology pioneer we are wellplaced to leverage our 
expertise to exploit new opportunities and planning is 
underway for the preclinical evaluation of a tranche of 
new ocular product candidates the prosavin
®
 phase iii 
study successfully met its primary endpoint and we  
are currently evaluating a more potent product construct 
to ensure the greatest chance of success in phase ii studies
proprietary manufacturing
we successfully attained gmp certiﬁcation for our  
stateoftheart facilities in june 2012 just 16 months 
after the acquisition the mhra conducted inspections  
in march and may 2012 to evaluate whether our 
processes facilities and quality management systems 
were in accordance with eu gmp standards this is  
an impressive achievement for a company of our size  
and i express my sincere thanks to everyone involved  
our specialist manufacturing capabilities provide a robust 
commercial arm to our business  not only to deliver 
signiﬁcant operational and cost efficiencies for our 
internal programmes but also to generate revenue  
from new alliances
partnering initiatives
since we cannot fund the development of all our portfolio 
product opportunities we continuously seek ways to 
improve the value of our assets so as to increase the value 
of future partnerships examples include the ongoing  
dose optimisation for prosavin
®
 and for trovax
®
 the uk 
investigatorled phase ii studies which will further validate 
use of the biomarker to predict those patients who are 
likely to beneﬁt we also continue to move glaucomagt 
towards a future ﬁrstinman clinical study
financial management
cash cash equivalents and available for sale investments 
were £141 million at 31 december 2012 and we have 
sufficient ﬁnancial resources to fund the business until  
q1 2014 this does not take into account the signiﬁcant 
potential milestone payment should sanoﬁ elect to 
exercise its option for retinostat
®
 during 2013 nor does  
it factor in potential revenue from manufacturing or 
product partnerships
outlook
the continued success of the ocular products partnered 
with sanoﬁ our conﬁdence in the lentivector
®
 platform 
and our manufacturing capability underline our belief that 
our strategy should be founded on the development  
of ophthalmology products and the exploitation of our 
manufacturing and technical expertise we are resolutely 
focused on turning oxford biomedica into a company 
that is ﬁnancially selfsustaining to this end in 2013  
our goals are to complete the retinostat
®
 phase i study 
generate income from our manufacturing facility and 
initiate preclinical development of the next generation  
of ocular product opportunities
john dawson
chief executive officer 
chief executive officer’s review
i am pleased to report that we achieved many operational successes during 
2012 – our clinical ophthalmology programmes continued to deliver positive 
results we completed the prosavin
®
 phase iii study in parkinson’s disease  
and we received mhra approval for our manufacturing plant in addition  
we received option exercise payments from sanoﬁ and imaginab signed  
a new master services agreement with immune design corp and received  
a funding award for ushstat
®
 from foundation fighting blindness  
our progress to date reﬂects the importance of strong relationships  
and industry alliances in delivering success
john dawson
chief executive officer oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 09
gene therapy at a glance
what is gene therapy 
gene therapy is a technique 
which arms the body with its 
own biological ammunition 
to ﬁght disease 
deoxyribonucleic acid dna  
is a complex chemical that carries 
genetic information genes are 
speciﬁc units of dna which encode 
instructions on how to make 
proteins the building blocks which 
cells in the body require to function 
properly  examples of proteins 
include enzymes hormones  
and antibodies
there are several gene therapy 
approaches in development such as
—  inserting a healthy copy of a 
gene to address a mutated gene 
that causes disease
—  inactivating or “knocking out”  
a mutated gene that is 
functioning improperly  
gene silencing
—  introducing a new gene or 
genes into speciﬁc cells within 
the body to help ﬁght a disease
one of the most common forms  
of gene therapy involves inserting 
healthy genes into speciﬁc cells
within a patient who has inherited  
a faulty copy of the gene for 
example stargen
™
 inserts the 
healthy abcr gene into the retina  
of patients with stargardt disease 
and similarly ushstat
®
 delivers  
a healthy myo7a gene to treat 
patients with usher syndrome  
type 1b
 
how does it work 
in order to deliver the functional 
gene into the target cells such as  
the eye for example the gene needs  
to be carried by a “vector” which can 
enter the cell without causing any 
damage viruses have spent millions 
of years living in human cells and 
have adapted to be able to grow and 
replicate ie make more of themselves 
very well using a type of virus called 
a lentivirus our scientists have hijacked 
the virus’ ability to get into target 
cells in order to deliver a signiﬁcant 
amount of genetic information safely 
and very efficiently
using a lentivirus called equine 
infectious anaemia virus eiav we 
strip out the virus’ ability to replicate 
and then insert the desired genetic 
payload into this vector once 
administered directly to the target 
tissue in the patient the shell of  
the virus knows what to do
1   it provides the mechanism for 
entry into the target cell across  
the cell surface membrane
2   it takes the dna genes into the 
nucleus the control centre which 
contains the cell’s own dna
 —   lentiviruses are speciﬁcally 
adapted to perform this task 
efficiently in nondividing cells 
such as retinal cells in the eye 
or neurons in the brain
3   the vector inserts the genetic 
payload into the cell’s dna sequence
4   the viral shell is naturally 
degraded away
5    the newlyinserted genes is  
then able to make a new protein 
product to target disease or produce 
a molecule that inactivates a 
mutated gene
 
future development 
in november 2012 the european 
commission approved its ﬁrst  
gene therapy product glybera
®
  
to treat patients with lipoprotein 
lipase deﬁciency 
only two other gene therapy 
products are approved for use 
gendicine
™
 in china for cancer  
and neovasculgen in russia for 
peripheral arterial disease gene 
therapy offers a longlasting 
treatment from a single administration 
and although still very much in 
development scientiﬁc breakthroughs 
continue to move this technology 
towards mainstream medicine
gene therapy has the potential to create medicines and treatments  
that could improve life for millions of people worldwide oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 10
product pipeline
technology platform product partnerfunding
lentivector
®
ophthalmology
retinostat
®
 sanoﬁ
genebased treatment for neovascular “wet” agerelated macular degeneration 
amd which aims to preserve and improve vision
stargen
™ 
sanoﬁ
genebased treatment for stargardt disease which delivers a healthy version of the 
abcr gene to address vision loss 
ushstat
®
 sanoﬁ
genebased treatment for the treatment of usher syndrome type 1b the disease leads 
to progressive retinitis pigmentosa combined with a congenital hearing defect
encorstat
®
 sanoﬁ
genebased treatment for the prevention of corneal graft rejection 
glaucomagt mayo clinic usa
genebased treatment for chronic glaucoma which aims to provide longterm control 
of intraocular pressure to minimise the risk of vision loss
5t4  
tumour antigen
cancer
trovax
® 
cardiff university
a therapeutic vaccine that stimulates the immune system to destroy cancerous cells 
expressing the 5t4 tumour antigen which is present on most solid tumours
anti5t4 antibody pﬁzer
a 5t4targeted antibodydrug conjugate adc which binds to 5t4 on the surface of 
cancerous cells once bound the complex is internalised by the tumour cell the anticancer 
agent is released from the antibody and the free drug kills the cancerous cell
monudin
®
 uk motor neurone disease association
genebased treatment for motor neuron disease used to prevent further degeneration 
of the motor neurons and potentially restore motor function
prosavin
®
genebased treatment for parkinson’s disease which converts cells into a dopamine 
“factory” thus replacing the patient’s own lost source of dopamine
lentivector
®  
central nervous  
system
lentivector
®
 technology is one of the most advanced gene delivery  
systems currently available it has speciﬁc advantages in certain neurological 
and ocular disorders and could achieve permanent therapeutic beneﬁt 
the 5t4 tumour antigen is a unique protein found on most common  
types of solid cancer which makes it a potentially valuable target for novel 
anticancer interventions  
oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 11
stage of development indication
“wet” agerelated macular degeneration
stargardt disease
usher syndrome type 1b
corneal graft rejection
chronic glaucoma
colorectal cancer
cancer
phase ii trial ongoing
preclinical
phase i trial ongoing
phase iiia trial ongoing
phase iiia trial ongoing
phase iii trial preparation
preclinical
motor neuron disease research 
parkinson’s disease phase iii trial completed   12
the european commission approved its ﬁrst gene therapy product  
to treat patients suffering from an orphan disease in 2012 an industry 
milestone which supports the potential of gene therapy 
 
ophthalmology is a high growth market estimated to be worth  
€16 billion worldwide by 2016 as conﬁdence in gene therapy grows  
we are wellpositioned to ﬁght ocular disease with the next generation  
of high value genebased medicines oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 13
operational review
lentivector
® 
platform development
oxford biomedica’s proprietary lentivector
®
 technology 
platform is a highly efficient system for the delivery of 
therapeutic genes to a wide range of tissues and it has 
speciﬁc advantages for targeting diseases of the eye and 
the central nervous system it is anticipated that a single 
application of a lentivector
®
 platform product could 
provide longterm or potentially permanent efficacy  
the company’s product candidates beneﬁt from a 
common manufacturing platform which can facilitate 
accelerated development and regulatory strategies  
with strong industry alliances a growing clinical data  
set and a favourable safety proﬁle the lentivector
®
 
platform is increasingly recognised as a leading platform 
to ﬁght chronic disease 
ocular portfolio
revenuegenerating ocular collaboration  
us53 million committed by sanoﬁ to date
in april 2009 oxford biomedica became the ﬁrst 
company to establish a lentiviral vector multiproduct 
alliance with a large pharmaceutical company the sanoﬁ 
partnership comprises four lentivector
®
 platform product 
candidates for four ocular indications retinostat
®
 for 
“wet” agerelated macular degeneration amd stargen
™
 
for stargardt disease ushstat
®
 for usher syndrome type 
1b and encorstat
®
 for corneal graft rejection the 
agreement included an upfront receipt of us26 million 
and up to us24 million in development funding over  
the initial phase of development
options exercised for stargen
™
  
and ushstat
®
 for a total of us3 million
in june 2012 sanoﬁ elected to exercise its options  
under the 2009 agreement to acquire exclusive 
worldwide licences for further development manufacture 
and commercialisation of stargen
™
 and ushstat
®
  
oxford biomedica received the aggregate option  
exercise payments of us3 million in july 2012 and is 
eligible for further development and commercialisation 
milestone payments and royalties on any future sales  
of the products oxford biomedica is currently conducting  
the ongoing phase iiia trials for stargen
™
 and ushstat
®
 
the companies continue to work together to plan  
the next stages of development and ﬁnalise the terms  
of the worldwide licence agreements
groundbreaking retinostat
®
 data show sustained 
doserelated protein expression
oxford biomedica delivered data from its phase i  
study in “wet” agerelated macular degeneration amd 
throughout 2012 the ﬁrst results were announced at  
the 2012 annual meeting of the association for research 
in vision and ophthalmology arvo the largest and 
most respected eye and vision research organisation  
in the world the ongoing study is led by professor  
peter campochiaro at the wilmer eye institute at johns 
hopkins baltimore usa and oxford biomedica opened  
a second clinical site in august 2012 at the oregon health 
 science university portland usa with dr andy lauer 
as principal investigator the latest highlights from the  
trial include
—    favourable longterm safety proﬁle now up  
to 19 months posttreatment dose level 1
—    successful retinal transduction as shown by substantial 
increase in expression and secretion of endostatin  
and angiostatin proteins measured in the anterior 
chamber of the eye following a single administration 
of retinostat
®

—     longterm protein expression
1
 now sustained for at 
least one year posttreatment at dose levels 1 and 2 
and at least two months at dose level 3 and
—    further preliminary data continue to show a dose 
response with the escalation to dose levels 2 and 3 
yielding an increase in average protein expression
  1 as at latest available time points
the retinostat
®
 phase i study was the ﬁrst us clinical 
study to directly administer a lentiviral vectorbased 
treatment to patients furthermore oxford biomedica 
believes this is the ﬁrst time that protein expression has 
been directly demonstrated in the eye following the 
administration of a gene therapy 
favourable retinostat
®
 safety proﬁle supports 
treatment of less severe “wet” amd patients
oxford biomedica has completed the ﬁrst three  
patient cohorts n9 ascending dose levels 1 2 and 3  
and treatment of the ﬁnal patient cohort is ongoing 
conﬁrmatory dose level given the encouraging 
preliminary data in december 2012 oxford biomedica 
and sanoﬁ submitted an amendment to the existing 
phase i study protocol to broaden the patient population 
to include up to 12 patients with a less severe level  
of the disease in the conﬁrmatory dose cohort 
as a regulatory requirement retinostat
®
 must ﬁrst be 
tested for safety in patients with a severe level of disease 
as such patients can often be elderly and may ﬁnd  
the commitment of surgery plus frequent follow up 
appointments challenging whilst recruitment of the  
ﬁnal patient cohort was slower than anticipated during 
q4 2012 the protocol amendment has considerably 
widened the pool of eligible patients which is expected  
to positively inﬂuence recruitment onto the study
3m
total option exercise payment of 
us3 million received in july 2012 
potential for future development and 
commercialisation milestone 
payments plus royalties on sales oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 14
operational review
lentivector
® 
platform development
funding award for ushstat
®
 phase iiia study  
from foundation fighting blindness
in july 2012 the us nonproﬁt organisation the 
foundation fighting blindness granted oxford biomedica 
an award of us125000 the award will support the 
opening of a second clinical site for the ongoing ushstat
®
 
phase iiia study currently led by professor richard 
weleber in the us at the oregon health  science 
university’s casey eye institute the second clinical site 
will be at centre hospitalier national d’ophtalmologie des 
quinzevingts in paris france with professor joséalain 
sahel as principal investigator the company submitted  
a dossier to the haut conseil des biotechnologies hcb 
in q4 2012 subject to receiving regulatory approval  
the second clinical site is expected to open in h2 2013
continued support from expert data safety  
monitoring board dsmb
as expected oxford biomedica reported early stargen
™
 
data in august 2012 following a positive review of  
the ongoing retinostat
®
 and stargen
™
 studies by the  
dsmb an independent panel of experts in the ﬁeld of 
ophthalmology virology and vectorology in addition  
the company announced a further update across its 
clinical ocular programmes in november 2012 following  
a positive dsmb review of ﬁrst patient cohort in ushstat
®
 
phase iiia study
next objectives
treatment of the ﬁnal retinostat
®
 patient cohort  
nup to 12 is ongoing and sixmonth data are expected 
to be reported by the end of the year at any time prior  
to or within a deﬁned period after completion of the 
retinostat
®
 phase i study sanoﬁ can exercise its option  
to license retinostat
®
 which would trigger a signiﬁcant 
milestone payment to oxford biomedica as funding 
resources have been focused on the clinical development 
of the ﬁrst three products the companies continue to 
evaluate the optimal development strategy for encorstat
®

market opportunity
amd is a major cause of blindness affecting an  
estimated 25 million to 30 million people worldwide  
and the incidence of amd is steadily increasing 
neovascular “wet” amd accounts for 90 of all severe 
vision loss from the disease with up to 45 million  
patients worldwide source amd alliance international 
the industry standard treatment for “wet” amd and  
other related ocular conditions had global sales in  
excess of us48 billion in 2012 source novartisroche
regeneron on the basis of nonclinical data it is 
anticipated that retinostat
®
 may require only a single 
administration if so this would give the product  
a signiﬁcant advantage over currently available  
treatments in the market that require frequent  
repeated administration with no approved treatments  
for stargardt disease stargen
™
 usher syndrome  
type 1b ushstat
®
 or corneal graft rejection encorstat
®
 
these indications have an estimated market of  
780 million source oxford biomedica
glaucomagt targeting chronic glaucoma  
with mayo clinic
in collaboration with mayo clinic rochester usa  
oxford biomedica is developing a novel gene therapy  
for the treatment of chronic glaucoma under the terms 
of the agreement mayo clinic and oxford biomedica will 
undertake preclinical studies to establish the feasibility  
of treating glaucoma using oxford biomedica’s proprietary 
lentivector
®
 gene delivery technology expressing a 
cox2 gene and a pgf2α receptor gene to reduce 
intraocular pressure
oxford biomedica has successfully completed initial 
preclinical studies which have demonstrated that the 
lentivector
®
 platform is both welltolerated at high  
vector dose and transduces suitable target cells following 
transcorneal injection into the front of the eye in 
preparation for the preclinical efficacy study to assess  
the lowering of intraocular pressure the company has 
decided to evaluate a more translational glaucoma model 
in order to maximise proof of concept this preclinical 
evaluation is ongoing results from which are expected  
by the end of h1 2013
next objectives
the collaboration includes an option for exclusive us 
rights to license mayo clinic’s glaucoma technology 
which oxford biomedica can choose to exercise under 
conﬁdential terms agreed by both parties in the longer 
term it is likely that oxford biomedica will require a future 
partner for glaucomagt but in the meantime the 
company will continue to move the product towards 
clinical development in order to add value to the asset
market opportunity
glaucoma is a group of eye diseases characterised by 
vision loss due to damage of the optic nerve affecting 
over 60 million people worldwide source mayo clinic 
glaucoma represents the largest ophthalmic market with 
global sales of over us5 billion in 2008 the most 
common form of glaucoma is classed as primary 
openangle glaucoma also known as chronic glaucoma 
or chronic openangle glaucoma which accounts for 
7595 of all glaucoma cases source datamonitor 2010 
current treatment options for glaucoma aim to reduce 
intraocular pressure either through topical methods eg 
eye drops or eye surgery however these approaches are 
not effective in all cases it is anticipated that the use of  
a novel gene therapy to provide longterm control of 
intraocular pressure could minimise the risk of disease 
progression and obviate the requirement for surgery
90
neovascular “wet” amd accounts  
for 90 of all severe vision loss from  
the disease with up to 45 million  
patients worldwide platform evolution the next generation  
of ocular gene therapies
ophthalmology is a high growth market estimated  
to be worth €134 billion in 2011 increasing to €16 billion 
worldwide by 2016 source visiongain there is strong 
demand for innovative products and the lentivector
®
 
platform is well suited to creating novel longacting 
products which could command attractive pricing 
moreover a common manufacturing platform can 
facilitate predictable or accelerated development and 
regulatory strategies for new ocular products by 
crossreferring data generated across the lentivector
®
 
platform portfolio oxford biomedica is in an increasingly 
strong position to develop a new wave of high  
value products and improve its leading intellectual 
property position 
oxford biomedica is currently evaluating product 
candidates for four new ocular indications including 
uveitis and three undisclosed genetic retinal diseases 
where there is a clear unmet medical need the  
company plans to seek funding from translational grant 
opportunities and charities in addition to leveraging its 
relationships with key opinion leaders in order to initiate 
preclinical programmes to demonstrate proof of concept 
the ﬁrst two preclinical programmes are expected to 
start in h2 2013 
market opportunity
the three undisclosed genetic retinal diseases have  
a conservatively estimated market of over 400 million 
source oxford biomedica and niche indications  
such as these can build signiﬁcant business value  
uveitis has an estimated market of over 300 million 
source globaldata 
oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 15
current treatment options for glaucoma aim  
to reduce intraocular pressure either through 
topical methods eg eye drops or eye surgery 
however these approaches are not effective  
in all cases 
the novel gene therapy we are working on  
could provide longterm control of intraocular 
pressure this approach could minimise  
the risk of disease progression and obviate  
the requirement for surgery
 
€16bn
ophthalmology is a high growth  
market estimated to be worth  
€134 billion in 2011 increasing  
to €16 billion worldwide by 2016
300m
uveitis has an estimated  
market of over 300 million     16
our pioneering technology has inspired powerful industry alliances  
we are privileged to be working alongside global pharmaceutical players 
professors academic institutions charitable organisations and industry 
specialists within our chosen ﬁelds of development 
together we can bring hope and relief to people suffering from chronic  
and life threatening illness oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 17
oxford biomedica is a world leader in the development  
of lentiviral vectorbased products and in february 2011 
the company acquired a manufacturing site situated  
at cowley close to its headquarters in oxford the 
rationale for the acquisition was to deliver longterm 
operational and ﬁnancial efficiencies for the company  
by manufacturing its own clinical study material as 
opposed to outsourcing to a contract manufacturing 
organisation the cost of the acquisition refurbishment 
and equipment was £36 million  
certiﬁcation attained to perform gmp  
manufacturing activities for clinical supply 
in june 2012 oxford biomedica announced that it had 
received approval from the uk medicines and healthcare 
products regulatory agency mhra to manufacture  
bulk drug material for investigational medicinal  
products imps at its specialist manufacturing facility  
this represents an extension of oxford biomedica’s 
existing good manufacturing practice gmp certiﬁcation 
which covers the established inhouse activities for 
testing and subsequent release of imps for clinical 
development having attained gmp certiﬁcation the  
plant has since been fullyoperational and authorised  
to perform gmp manufacturing activities in support  
of clinical supply
inhouse manufacturing activities underway  
with potential to secure future alliances
the manufacturing plant totals approximately  
16000 square feet which includes c 4400 square feet  
in cleanrooms with two primary clean room suites on  
the ﬁrst ﬂoor there is also capacity for a third suite in 
addition to ﬁll and ﬁnish capabilities on the ground ﬂoor 
oxford biomedica therefore has ﬂexibility to run up to 
three specialist manufacturing suites in parallel since 
june 2012 oxford biomedica has been working on the 
stargen
™
 and ushstat
®
 technology transfer to sanoﬁ 
which has required some manufacturing activity  
the company has also produced test batches of the 
enhanced prosavin
®
 product construct to support the 
ongoing preclinical bridging studies and test batches of 
retinostat
®
 for mhra comparability testing requirements 
not only does oxford biomedica have the capacity to 
support its existing programmes but there is also ample 
opportunity for the company to become the supplier  
of choice for its current and future partners
oxb solutions wwwoxbsolutionscouk
oxford biomedica has launched a microsite called oxb 
solutions designed to support the company’s alliances  
in gmp manufacturing and leverage its leading position  
in intellectual property translational research and clinical 
development this online communications tool provides 
a strong platform from which oxford biomedica can 
inform and update its existing partners and key 
stakeholders it will also help to build new relationships 
and industry alliances across all stages of viral vector 
product development and gmp manufacturing from 
clinical to commercial scale
new master services agreement with  
immune design corp
in september 2012 oxford biomedica signed a master 
services agreement with immune design the collaboration 
aims to leverage oxford biomedica’s expertise in lentiviral 
vector clinical development by focusing on the design 
and validation of custom analytical methods in order to 
facilitate the future clinical development path for immune 
design’s preclinical therapeutic vaccine candidate for  
the treatment of cancer
next objectives
oxford biomedica regularly manufactures test batches  
of viral vector for third parties this could lead to new 
alliances or research collaborations in 2013
operational review
lentivector
® 
platform manufacturing
£36m
total cost of the acquisition  
refurbishment and equipment  
relating to our stateoftheart 
manufacturing facility  oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 18
operational review
lentivector
® 
platform development
other assets
prosavin
®
 genebased therapy for parkinson’s disease 
parkinson’s disease pd is a progressive movement 
disorder caused by the degeneration of dopamine 
producing nerve cells in the brain prosavin
®
 uses the 
company’s lentivector
®
 gene delivery technology to 
deliver the genes for three enzymes that are required for 
dopamine synthesis the product is administered locally 
to the region of the brain called the striatum converting 
cells into a replacement dopamine factory within the 
brain thus replacing the patient’s own lost source of the 
neurotransmitter in a tonic level analogous to natural 
dopamine supply in the absence of pd
pioneering phase iii study successfully  
met primary endpoints
in april 2012 oxford biomedica announced that a phase  
iii study to assess the safety efficacy and dose evaluation 
of prosavin
®
 in patients with midtolatestage pd 
successfully met its primary endpoints the study 
evaluated three ascending dose levels of prosavin
®
  
1x 2x and 5x in a total of 15 patients the primary 
endpoints were safety and efficacy as measured by 
improvements in motor function at six months prosavin
®
 
has demonstrated a longterm safety proﬁle and all  
15 patients showed improvements in motor function  
at the sixmonth efficacy endpoint relative to baseline
prosavin
®
 mediates longterm improvement  
of motor function 
oxford biomedica will monitor all patients treated for at 
least 10 years posttreatment motor function assessments 
at the latest available time points indicate
—    cohort 1 1x dose  
improvement vs baseline after four years n2 of 3
—    cohort 2 2x dose  
improvement vs baseline after three years n3 of 3
—    cohort 3 2x dose enhanced technique 
improvement vs baseline after two years n2 of 3
—    cohort 4 5x dose enhanced technique  
improvement vs baseline after 12 months n6 of 6
results can vary considerably when treating small patient 
numbers particularly in a heterogeneous disease such  
as pd for example a patient in cohort 1 at four years 
and another in cohort 3 at two years did not show  
an improvement over baseline at their latest assessments 
however given the nature of this inexorably degenerative 
disease the overall results are very encouraging as the 
expected disease progression without prosavin
®
 may  
be signiﬁcantly worse 
nonclinical programme for product  
optimisation on track
oxford biomedica is currently evaluating a more  
potent product construct to ensure the greatest chance  
of success in future randomised phase ii studies by 
increasing the beneﬁt for patients and to increase the 
commercial opportunity by offering extended patent 
protection and a relative reduction in cost of goods  
the company initiated a nonclinical programme in  
h1 2012 to evaluate the efficacious dose range of the 
enhanced product construct using the gold standard 
mptp model of parkinson’s disease the nonclinical 
programme will evaluate improvements in motor 
function in addition to positron emission tomography 
pet data to assess dopaminergic activity progress  
is on track and the full nonclinical programme  
is expected to complete in q3 2013
next objectives
oxford biomedica is seeking further funding via a 
development partnership or grant opportunities to 
support a small phase iia trial which would generate 
valuable data the company holds regular updates with 
interested parties and is evaluating the most effective 
strategy to advance the enhanced prosavin
®
 construct 
into its next stage of development
market opportunity
parkinson’s disease affected approximately 23 million 
patients in 2011 in the seven major markets us japan 
uk france germany italy and spain projected to rise  
to 28 million by 2021 source datamonitor none  
of the current treatments provide longterm relief from 
symptoms yet by 2019 sales of these treatments could 
exceed us28 billion in the seven major markets source 
datamonitor prosavin
®
 has the potential to address a 
major unmet medical need in parkinson’s disease offering 
longlasting beneﬁt from a single administration with  
an excellent safety proﬁle the product could therefore 
also signiﬁcantly reduce the social care burden that  
is associated with the mid to latestage of disease
23m
parkinson’s disease affected  
approximately 23 million patients  
in 2011 in the seven major markets  
us japan uk france germany  
italy and spain projected to rise  
to 28 million by 2021 oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 19
intellectual property and  
technology licensing
monudin
®
 motor neuron disease
the preclinical development of monudin
®
 is supported 
by the uk motor neurone disease association mnda 
the lentivector
®
 platform technology has the ability to 
deliver genes safely and efficiently to the neuronal cells 
affected by motor neuron disease in collaboration with 
vibuniversity of leuven funded by a grant from the 
mnda oxford biomedica is exploring novel therapeutic 
approaches to treat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis als 
the most prevalent type of motor neuron disease a route 
of administration directly into the cerebrospinal ﬂuid 
bathing the spinal cord has been established two forms 
of vascular endothelial growth factor vegf have since 
been evaluated using this method further preclinical 
work to evaluate the efficacy of these vegf forms in  
a model of als is ongoing one of the major hurdles  
to treating motor neurone disease is ensuring that 
therapeutic agents are delivered to the relevant site  
of action in the brain and spinal cord therefore this 
collaboration continues to support the future clinical 
development of monudin
®

market opportunity
despite being one of the most common 
neurodegenerative diseases of adult onset motor neuron 
disease has a high unmet need amyotrophic lateral 
sclerosis als often referred to as lou gehrig’s disease  
is the most prevalent type of motor neuron disease  
in the us there are an estimated 30000 patients with  
als and nearly 6000 new cases are diagnosed annually 
source als association if monudin
®
 proves to be  
an effective neuroprotective treatment that can slow  
or arrest injury to patients’ motor neurons it would  
have compelling competitive advantages
the lentivector
®
 platform technology is protected by  
a comprehensive patent portfolio of around 60 patent 
families including over 500 issued patents in november 
2012 oxford biomedica announced that the carnegie 
institution for science and the university of massachusetts 
medical school were granted a key us patent for the use 
of rna interference rnai to inhibit expression of a target 
gene in animal cells including mammalian cells the 
patent covers vectorbased delivery of rnai and as a 
result triggered a modest milestone payment by oxford 
biomedica for its exclusive rights to this technology  
this patent further strengthened the company’s  
leading intellectual property position
the company also has the potential to enjoy future 
milestone payments and royalties from a number of 
licensing agreements with partners who are developing 
midtolatestage products including
molmed 2004 
licensed oxford biomedica’s retroviral ex vivo gene 
delivery technology tk008 in phase iii for transplant 
rejection in patients with acute leukaemia
bavarian nordic 2010  
licensed oxford biomedica’s heterologous primeboost 
technology patents and poxvirus patents prostvac
™
  
is in phase iii for advanced prostate cancer
emergent biosolutions 2010 
licensed oxford biomedica’s heterologous primeboost 
technology patents and poxvirus patents tuberculosis 
vaccine is in phase ii
30000
in the us there are an estimated  
30000 patients with als and nearly  
6000 new cases are diagnosed  
annually our capabilities cover the entire product lifecycle from preclinical 
development to regulatory support to all future stages of clinical 
development and specialist manufacturing with multiple opportunities  
ahead our highlyexperienced management team is resolutely  
focused on leading our evolution
   20 oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 21
oxford biomedica’s proprietary 5t4 antigen is an ideal 
target for anticancer treatment given its restricted 
expression on normal tissues and its high prevalence  
on the surface of cancerous cells across a wide range  
of solid tumours 
trovax
®
 mva5t4 therapeutic cancer vaccine  
with a biomarker
trovax
®
 is a latestage clinical asset that has completed  
10 clinical trials in colorectal renal and prostate cancer 
few immunotherapy treatments have demonstrated a 
direct link between the predicted mode of action and 
clinical beneﬁt trovax
®
 stands apart as a cancer vaccine 
that elicits a strong and readily deﬁnable immune response 
oxford biomedica has identiﬁed a biomarker using a 
simple blood test which predicts both the magnitude  
of the induced 5t4 antibody response and treatment 
beneﬁt this enables us to identify those patients who  
are most likely to beneﬁt from treatment with trovax
®
 
encouraging preliminary biomarker data
in october 2012 oxford biomedica made a strategic 
decision to close its us phase ii study in hormone 
refractory prostate cancer hrpc to focus on investigator 
led phase ii studies as the hrpc study closed prior to 
completion of patient recruitment the efficacy results 
should be interpreted with caution however data indicate
—    a trend towards increased time to disease progression 
in patients who received trovax
®
 plus chemotherapy 
drug docetaxel versus those who received docetaxel 
alone and
—    prospective validation that oxford biomedica’s 
pretreatment biomarker can identify patients most 
likely to beneﬁt from treatment with trovax
®

first of multiple phase ii investigatorled  
studies underway
in july 2012 oxford biomedica’s partners at cardiff 
university wales uk initiated a phase ii trial to assess  
the safety and immunological activity of trovax
®
 in 
patients with inoperable metastatic colorectal cancer the 
company expects two further sponsored phase ii studies 
in mesothelioma and ovarian cancer to be initiated in the 
uk by academic collaborators in 2013 all of these studies 
will use the biomarker to select patients for the studies
next objectives
securing a partner to fund trovax
®
’s future latestage 
development remains a priority expenditure on trovax
®
 
to support the investigatorled phase ii studies will  
be modest 
5t4targeted antibody therapy for cancer  
partnered with pﬁzer
pﬁzer’s continued commitment to the 5t4adc 
programme as demonstrated by presentations at key 
industry conferences during 2012 is encouraging the 
potential value of oxford biomedica’s collaboration with 
pﬁzer is up to us28 million which comprises upfront 
payments license option fees and milestone payments 
that are subject to the achievement of certain project 
objectives the next milestone payment to oxford 
biomedica would be due if pﬁzer initiates clinical trials  
for the development of a 5t4targeted antibody therapy
diagnostic cancer imaging research collaboration 
with imaginab
in november 2012 imaginab exercised its option  
to acquire an exclusive worldwide licence for 
commercialisation of an in vivo 5t4based imaging 
diagnostic imaginab is preparing to initiate clinical 
development of the 5t4 in vivo diagnostic in 2013  
under the terms of the agreement oxford biomedica 
received an upfront option exercise payment and could 
receive proceeds up to a total of us4 million in future 
initiation and development milestone payments  
in addition to royalties on product sales subject  
to the achievement of certain programme objectives
market opportunity
the oncology market was estimated to be 72 billion  
in 2010 forecast to grow to 93 billion in 2015 source 
datamonitor 2011 in particular the cancer targeted 
therapies and immunotherapy market was 195 billion  
in 2009 forecast to increase to 368 billion in 2019 
source datamonitor 2010 trovax
®
 is administered  
in the same way as most infectious disease vaccines  
are given a simple injection in the arm if shown to be 
efficacious in a pivotal trial for even just one of the major 
cancers where it is known that 5t4 is present on the 
tumours trovax
®
 has signiﬁcant potential the concept of 
an anticancer therapy which has antibodylike speciﬁcity 
as well as chemotherapylike potency is clearly attractive 
the 5t4targeted antibody therapy has the potential  
to beneﬁt patients with any solid cancer that expresses 
the 5t4 tumour antigen which represents a multibillion 
us dollar market targeted molecular imaging for the 
diagnosis and staging of cancer also holds signiﬁcant 
promise in the era of personalised medicine
operational review
5t4 tumour antigen
 
platform
195bn
the cancer targeted therapies  
and immunotherapy market  
was 195 billion in 2009 forecast  
to increase to 368 billion in 2019 oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 22
having attained gmp certiﬁcation from the mhra in june 2012 our 
stateoftheart manufacturing plant is now fullyoperational and authorised 
to perform gmp manufacturing activities in support of clinical supply
the investment in specialist manufacturing processes addresses one  
of the main hurdles associated with the rapid progression of products 
through to market not only do we have capacity to support our existing 
programmes but there is also ample opportunity for us to become the 
supplier of choice for our current and future partners
our manufacturing capabilities cover the entire product lifecycle  
from preclinical development to regulatory support to all future stages  
of viral vector product clinical development and commercial scale  
ongoing process development aims to optimise our manufacturing 
processes to develop highly innovative technologies and therapies 
manufacturing feature
our stateoftheart fullyoperational facility
gmp
our world class facilities provide the 
full range of services from proof of 
concept through gmp manufacture 
and supply for clinical trials
2004
we attained glp accreditation  
in 2004 gmp in 2005 and gcp 
certiﬁcation in 2006 from the  
mhra and have continued to 
operate under glp gmp and gcp 
accreditations ever since oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 23 oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 24
manufacturing feature
interview with our head of manufacturing
james christie joined oxford biomedica in february 2011 with over 30 years 
of experience in the industry  led by james an integrated team comprising 
manufacturing development quality control quality assurance engineering 
and logistics were engaged in commissioning the newlyacquired 
manufacturing facility in line with expectations and on budget the 
manufacturing facility produced its ﬁrst pilot run at the end of 2011  
and oxford biomedica attained gmp certiﬁcation in june 2012
q what attracted you to oxford biomedica
a  oxford biomedica has a broad portfolio of exciting 
products underpinned by the lentivector
®
 gene 
delivery technology platform i felt i could work well 
with the company’s strong management team and 
apply my experience to bring the manufacturing plant 
to operational readiness and contribute to delivering  
a commercial arm to the business
q  what sets your team’s expertise apart from  
others in the industry
a  we have worldclass expertise in gene therapy and 
immunotherapy our unique technical experience 
with the lentivector
®
 platform has underpinned  
a successful track record to date in bringing novel 
genebased products into clinical development  
our scientists and engineers are tasked with ﬁnding 
the best ways to improve our systems processes  
and procedures in order to keep us at the forefront  
of science and technology it’s an exciting place  
to be
q  what have you been doing in the facility  
since you bought it
a  following the acquisition in 2011 we worked very 
hard on commissioning the plant and preparing  
for the mhra inspection to obtain a gmp licence for 
production since obtaining mhra approval in june 
2012 we have produced materials for various internal 
and external projects we continuously aim to 
enhance our novel product candidates therefore 
ongoing process development aims to further 
improve our processes at all stages of development 
in addition we launched the oxb solutions microsite 
to give key stakeholders the opportunity to learn 
about our team facilities and technologies associated 
with our production and analytics this online tool  
is very useful to showcase our expertise and support 
our alliances 
q can you explain your manufacturing process
a  in general our manufacturing process involves 
culturing a human cell line through revival and 
expansion phases followed by a production phase 
the material is then puriﬁed and further processed  
to drug substance prior to generation of ﬁnal drug 
product more speciﬁcally we revive cells from a 
frozen cell bank and introduce three pieces of dna 
required for production two pieces of dna remain 
the same for all platform products one for the shell  
of the vector and its associated enzymes and a 
second to provide a surface protein that is required 
for subsequent entry into target cells  oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 25
james christie
head of manufacturing
the third piece of dna changes depending on which 
product you are making but essentially provides the 
genetic “payload” for delivery to target cells
q what is the production capacity of the facility
a  the facility is very ﬂexible ideally suited to our needs 
and is conﬁgured speciﬁcally to provide efficient ﬂows 
of product materials and personnel we currently 
have two independent suites in operation with a third 
suite for additional capacity when required the 
facility currently meets our needs for our existing 
clinical trials and collaborative partnerships
q  what are the speciﬁc challenges in manufacturing 
genebased medicines
a  currently i think the main challenges are i minimising 
cost of goods ii improving the scale of operation  
and iii having the correct analytics to test and 
characterise the product here at oxford biomedica 
we meet these challenges head on by bringing 
multidisciplinary teams together in order to provide 
solutions and improvements
q what else can you make in your plant
a  the plant is very ﬂexible so it could potentially  
be used to produce any gene therapy product  
the plant is currently equipped to support lentiviral 
vector production but it beneﬁts from typical 
pharmaceutical utilities eg puriﬁed water clean 
steam compressed gases which will support 
bioreactors and other upstream and downstream 
technologies for production
q  what impact do you feel the manufacturing  
facility has made to oxford biomedica
a  the plant provides a strong commercial arm  
to our business it will deliver signiﬁcant operational 
and cost efficiencies for our internal programmes  
but we also expect to generate revenue from new 
alliances this will help us fund new high value 
projects in terms of the future i would like to see 
manufacturing play a key role in the growth of the 
business by providing a real opportunity to bring 
products into clinical development and to market  
i would also like us to build longlasting relationships 
with our key partners oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 26
manufacturing feature
inside the facility
4400ft
2
the facility includes 4400ft
2
  
409m
2
 in cleanrooms
16000ft
2
the manufacturing facility totals 
approximately 16000ft
2
 1486m
2

ground ﬂoor
 
1 office and admin
2   primary change
  provides appropriate cleanroom appropriate gowning 
goggles hair nets and face masks 
3  material transfertemperaturecontrolled storage 
temperature monitored and validated cold storage 
equipment facilitates the storage of raw materials 
drug substance and drug product
4   plant and utilities 
the heating ventilation and air conditioning hvac 
system is situated here the plant utilises four 
independent hvac systems for providing single pass 
air supply to the clean room facilities 
5    fill and ﬁnish
  aseptic ﬁll and ﬁnish is the last step of a biologic drug 
manufacturing process and results in packaged 
product in its ﬁnal form
first ﬂoor
 
6  clean room suites 
with two primary clean room suites on the ﬁrst  
ﬂoor and additional capacity on the ground ﬂoor  
we have the capability to run up to three specialist 
manufacturing suites in parallel
7  central services 
used to prepare mediabuffer and any other 
equipment and materials required for the 
manufacturing bioprocess
8  process development 
dedicated laboratories that are fully equipped to 
support all aspects of upstream and downstream 
process development
9  microqc labs 
where we perform quality control qc activities such 
as environmental monitoring raw material analyses 
and cleaning validation and testing
9
8
6
5
7
1
2
3
4 oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 27 oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 28
key performance indicators
the key performance indicators monitored regularly  
by the board are
—  cash balance total of cash cash equivalents and
 current ﬁnancial investments
  at the start of 2012 the cash balance was  
£143 million this fell to £90 million at 30 april 2012 
and £66 million at 30 june 2012 following the 
fundraising in july 2012 the balance at 31 october 
2012 was £144 million and £141 million at  
31 december 2012
—  cash burn net cash used ingenerated from
 operations plus sales and purchases of noncurrent
 assets and interest received
  during 2012 the cash burn was £105 million 
compared with £165 million during 2011
—  headcount
  at 31 december 2012 the number of employees  
was 81 compared with 99 at 31 december 2011 
revenue £7 8m 2011 £7 7m
 2012 2011 
 £’000 £’000
sanoﬁ –  
2009 agreement upfront recognition 3414 4665
sanoﬁ –  
2009 agreement rd funding 1932 2651
sanoﬁ –  
exercise of stargen
™
 and ushstat
®
 options 1913 –
technology licences  other revenue 497 402
total revenue 7 756 7 718
revenues were virtually unchanged in 2012 compared 
with 2011 although the composition was slightly different 
the bulk of the group’s revenue in 2012 and 2011 was 
generated from the collaboration with sanoﬁ which 
began in april 2009 there are three elements in 2012 
first in 2009 the group received a nonrefundable 
upfront payment of us26 million £166 million which  
is being spread over the term of the agreement revenue 
to date of £159 million has been recognised under this 
collaboration of which £34 million was recognised in 
2012 £47 million in 2011 the remaining £07 million  
is classiﬁed as deferred income and is expected to be 
recognised as income in the next 12 months 
secondly sanoﬁ is funding rd expenditure on the  
four products covered by the collaboration agreement  
up to a maximum of 24 million to date £133 million 
us211 million has been recognised as revenue  
of which £19 million was recognised in 2012  
£27 million in 2011 £06 million has been classiﬁed  
as current deferred income 
finally under the 2009 agreement sanoﬁ has the  
option to acquire exclusive worldwide licences for further 
development manufacture and commercialisation of  
any one or all of the products covered by the agreement 
financial review
 
tim watts
chief financial officer
2012 has been an important developmental year for oxford biomedica from  
a ﬁnancial perspective in february 2012 steps were taken to reduce costs and 
16 staff were made redundant this included the closure of the small us office 
in june 2012 our manufacturing facility in oxford was approved by the mhra 
medicines and healthcare products regulatory agency to manufacture  
bulk drug material for investigational medicinal products this approval gives 
us the opportunity in the future of generating revenues which would reduce 
our cash burn as well as making substantial savings on our internal rd 
programmes we also beneﬁted in june 2012 from sanoﬁ exercising  
its options over stargen
™
 and ushstat
®
 which brought in 30 million  
£19 million and opens up the prospect of future development milestones  
in july 2012 we completed a firm placing and open offer raising £101 million 
net of expenses at the end of 2012 we had £141 million of cash cash 
equivalents and available for sale investments  oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 29
in june 2012 sanoﬁ exercised its options in relation  
to stargen™ and ushstat
®
 triggering option fees of  
20 million and 10 million respectively in aggregate 
£19 million which were recognised as revenue in full  
in 2012
cost of sales £07m 2011 £06m
costs of sales are the royalties payable to third party 
licensors attributable to upfront and option fees from  
the sanoﬁ agreement that are recognised as revenue  
the increase in cost of sales in 2012 is caused by the 
royalty payments due to licensors triggered by the receipt 
of the option fees for stargen™ and ushstat
®
 
research  development costs preexceptional  
£140m 2011 £147m
 2012 2011 
 £’000 £’000
external costs 3783 4766
inhouse costs 9862 9494
amortisation of intangibles 370 450
total nonexceptional  
research  development costs 14015 14710
rd costs comprise external costs paid for clinical trial 
materials and outsourced activities inhouse expenditure 
including staff costs rd consumables intellectual 
property facilities and depreciation of rd assets and 
amortisation of intangibles external costs in 2012 were 
lower than in 2011 mainly because the costs of the sanoﬁ 
collaboration activities £19 million were lower than in 
2011 £27 million other external costs were mainly in 
respect of the enhanced prosavin
®
 construct nonclinical 
studies and the trovax
®
 prostate cancer study the latter 
of which was terminated in october 2012
administrative expenses £36m 2011 £38m
administrative expenses of £36 million in 2012 were  
£02 million lower than in 2011 despite the inclusion  
in 2012 of redundancy costs and the closure of the  
us office and also £04 million professional fees incurred 
on a conﬁdential corporate project 
operating loss preexceptional £105m 2011 £113m 
the operating loss in 2012 of £105 million was  
£08 million lower than in 2012 because of the lower  
rd and administrative expenses 
net ﬁnance income £01m 2011 £01m
finance income in 2012 was virtually unchanged from 
2011 as interest rates remain low and average cash 
balances in the two years were similar
tax credit £16m 2011 £17m
the tax credit of £16 million 2011£17 million represents 
the amount expected to be received under current 
legislation on research and development tax credits  
for small and mediumsized companies 
loss for the year before exceptional items  
£87m 2011 £95m
before exceptional items the lower net loss in 2012  
is attributable to the lower costs and operating loss 
balance sheet
noncurrent assets decreased from £73 million at the 
start of the year to £68 million at 31 december 2012 
there were additions of £02 million intangible assets  
and £03 million property plant and equipment which 
were offset by £04 million amortisation of intangible 
assets and £06 million depreciation of ﬁxed assets
current assets declined from £188 million at the start  
of the year to £176 million due mainly to lower trade and 
other receivables the 2011 trade and other receivables 
balance had a signiﬁcant vat receivable and also larger 
clinical trial prepayments than at 31 december 2012
current liabilities have decreased from £77 million at  
31 december 2011 to £43 million at 31 december 2012 
trade and other payables are £05 million lower mainly 
due to lower trade payables and current deferred 
revenue is £28 million lower because most of the  
sanoﬁ collaboration agreement upfront payment  
has now been recognised
cash resources
cash used in operations in 2012 was £115 million  
£28 million less than in 2011 and the rd tax credit 
received was a similar amount at £15 million 2011  
£14 million fixed asset purchases of £05 million in  
2012 were much lower than in 2011 when £36 million 
was spent largely on the purchase and refurbishment  
of the manufacturing facility
in 2012 £103 million net proceeds were received from 
the issue of ordinary shares compared with £186 million 
in 2011
at the end of 2012 the group had £141 million of cash 
cash equivalents and current ﬁnancial investments  
2011 £143 million 
financial outlook
with £141 million cash resources at the end of 2012  
the group has sufficient ﬁnancial resources to fund the 
business into q1 2014 however this does not take into 
account the potential revenue generating possibilities 
from the manufacturing facility nor the signiﬁcant  
option fee should sanoﬁ choose to exercise its option 
over retinostat
®
 during 2013 we are also continuing  
to explore ways of generating cash from prosavin
®
  
and trovax
®

our objective is to develop oxford biomedica’s  
business model in a balanced way such that net cash 
burn is reduced to the point where we reach sustainable 
proﬁtability we also continue to seek to leverage  
the value of our intellectual property through strategic 
partnerships and other growth opportunities may  
also come from corporate activity  oxford biomedica plc   annual report and accounts 2012 30
at oxford biomedica we recognise our obligation  
to behave as a responsible corporate citizen and believe 
that by doing so we will minimise business risk and 
enhance our reputation the board recognises the 
potential beneﬁts of corporate social responsibility  
csr for the competitiveness of oxford biomedica and 
encourages a culture of continuous improvement in 
csrrelated issues we have set speciﬁc policies that  
cover key aspects of csr and strive to operate at  
the highest level of integrity
 
our relationships
internal relationships
attracting motivating and retaining a highly skilled 
workforce is critical to oxford biomedica’s success and 
sustainability the company’s employment policies are 
based on guidelines for best practice they recognise the 
rights and ensure equal opportunities for all employees 
without discrimination the board as a whole takes 
considerable interest in employment matters which are 
represented at board level by the chief executive officer
training and development 
we aim to develop and maintain a motivated and 
professional workforce through career development 
performance management training and promotion  
our managers are responsible for developing employees 
and identifying talent within the workforce training is 
given in a wide variety of ways including onthejob 
coaching inhouse and external courses our annual 
employee appraisal process continues to function well  
by providing a formal process for setting objectives  
and reviewing performance
company values 
our mission vision and values aim to encourage 
innovation amongst our people the values are designed 
to engage and inspire employees to work together to 
achieve timely delivery and to cultivate enthusiasm in  
the work place by implementing these new initiatives  
we are motivating our staff to work to the best of their 
ability and strive to be the best
sharing information 
we acknowledge the importance of communication 
between colleagues company brieﬁngs rd  
seminars and informal allstaff meetings are held to  
keep employees informed of general business issues  
and any other matters of interest the circulation of  
press announcements and internal newsletters keeps 
employees informed of business and employee activities 
at the start of 2013 we also conducted an employee 
engagement survey to learn more about views and 
opinions within the company and enable us to identify 
areas that may need attention
external relationships
our external stakeholders include shareholders patients 
healthcare professionals patient advocacy organisations 
charitable institutions partners collaborators licensees 
suppliers and advisers
these relationships are a fundamental aspect of our 
business activities we are committed to interacting  
with all stakeholders in an ethical manner and to ensuring 
that the relationships are maintained at a professional  
and appropriate level our interactions with external 
stakeholders are regularly reviewed by the senior 
management group
clinical trials 
we have a policy for the management of clinical trials  
to ensure compliance with appropriate guidelines and 
legislation our website wwwoxfordbiomedicacouk 
provides information on ongoing clinical trials and we 
also disclose our trials on a us governmentsponsored 
website wwwclinicaltrialsgov
communication 
the chief executive officer and executive directors  
have primary responsibility for communication  
with shareholders and related stakeholders we also  
use the services of external ﬁnancial and corporate 
communications agencies we seek to disseminate 
information in a timely reliable and comprehensive 
fashion and we comply with the rules and guidelines  
of the uk listing authority for a company on the  
official list further information is given in the 
governance report
 
product development
animal testing
it is legally mandated by regulatory authorities worldwide 
that all new therapeutic products must be extensively 
tested for safety before they are administered to patients 
and there is currently no alternative to using animal 
models as part of this process we are committed to 
following the principles of the three “rs” replacement 
reﬁnement and reduction of animal testing these 
principles ensure that animals are only used when 
necessary and where there are no alternatives  
oxford biomedica minimises the use of animal models  
by crossreferring lentivector
®
 platform data packages  
for the regulatory authorities
quality assurance
we are committed to operating all of our activities at a 
high level of scientiﬁc quality and regulatory compliance 
our policies reinforce senior management’s commitment 
to high standards of quality being maintained at all times 
a set of regulations and procedures provide guidance and 
instruction pertaining to the development manufacturing 
testing clinical evaluation storage and distribution  
of investigational medicinal products imp performed  
by or authorised by the company
corporate social responsibility oxford biomedica plc   annual report and accounts 2012 31
we place the highest priority on the safety and well 
being of our clinical trial patients who are treated with  
our products it is a regulatory and company requirement  
that employees are aware of the implications and 
importance of maintaining drug safety quality and 
efficacy throughout its clinical trial programmes  
oxford biomedica regularly holds companywide  
good manufacturing practice gmp good clinical 
practice gcp good laboratory practice glp and 
pharmacovigilance training to ensure that employees  
are aware of and compliant with current best practice 
the company continues to support ongoing and  
periodic training as an essential part of its continuous 
improvement philosophy
strong emphasis is also placed on maintaining the 
integrity of the company’s products including their safe 
manufacture controlled distribution and compliance with 
all relevant regulations oxford biomedica is responsible 
for ensuring that each batch of product is ﬁtforpurpose 
in terms of safety quality identity strength purity and 
expected efficacy oxford biomedica continues to operate 
under gcp gmp and glp accreditations on an ongoing 
basis and has remained within compliance throughout 
2012
manufacturing
in february 2011 oxford biomedica invested in its 
specialist manufacturing processes by acquiring a uk 
manufacturing facility based in cowley oxford during 
the refurbishment and recommissioning phase of the 
manufacturing facility the company took the opportunity 
to upgrade and replace old equipment with new energy 
efficient systems the manufacturing facility complies 
with oxford biomedica’s general environmental policy
our environment
health and safety
we are committed to protecting the health safety  
and welfare of our employees and strive to maintain an 
effective health and safety culture within the organisation 
our health and safety management system covers all 
work activities such as the usage of biological chemical 
and radioactive materials and the operation of laboratory 
equipment the health and safety management system  
is reviewed and updated in order to improve current 
systems and procedures adapt to variations in scientiﬁc 
work and reﬂect changes in legislation oxford biomedica 
continues to have a strong safety record all health  
and safety issues are represented at board level by  
the chief scientiﬁc officer
environmental policies
we fully recognise our responsibility to protect the 
environment and we review our environmental policy 
objectives and guidelines regularly the company 
complies with all regulations that cover the processing 
and disposal of laboratory waste using qualiﬁed licensed 
contractors for the collection and disposal of chemical 
and radioactive waste and decontaminated biological 
materials no laboratory waste goes to landﬁll sites as 
part of our commitment to the environment our policies 
are designed to motivate our staff to be energy conscious 
and environmentally friendly the company’s recycling 
program continues to function effectively and the 
majority of our cardboard and office paper is recycled 
environmental issues are represented at board level  
by the chief executive officer
charitable giving
for the third consecutive year we have continued  
to recycle our coffee disks in order to raise money  
for macmillan cancer support in june 2012 oxford 
biomedica donated £1200 to the sue kingsman memorial 
scholarship fund which via the carriacou children’s 
education fund ccef will fund a student’s two year 
college course oxford biomedica plc   annual report and accounts 2012 32
principal risks and uncertainties
risk assessment and evaluation is an integral  
part of oxford biomedica’s planning many of the 
group’s risks and uncertainties are common to all 
developmentstage biopharmaceutical companies 
where possible the group’s strategy is designed  
to manage and mitigate these risks the board has  
overall responsibility for the group’s systems of risk 
management and internal control the management 
structure of the group allows the executive directors 
to be personally involved in all material aspects of risk 
assessment management and mitigation some risk is 
difficult to mitigate in particular that related to gene 
therapy and its efficacy for other risks management’s 
experience planning and vigilance can mitigate the 
risks to a greater extent for example those associated 
with intellectual property and ﬁnancial risk the board 
members have relevant qualiﬁcation and experience 
and they have access to external resources where 
required the board meets regularly and frequently 
enough to ensure that it is fully informed to oversee 
this activity in a timely manner the following are the 
principal risks and uncertainties facing the business 
intellectual property and patent protection risk
the group’s success depends amongst other things  
on maintaining proprietary rights to its products and 
technologies and the board gives high priority to  
the strategic management of the group’s intellectual 
property portfolio there can be no guarantee that oxford 
biomedica’s products and technologies are adequately 
protected by intellectual property furthermore if the 
group’s patents are challenged the defence of such rights 
could involve substantial costs and an uncertain outcome 
thirdparty patents may emerge containing claims  
that impact the group’s freedom to operate there can  
be no assurance that the group will be able to obtain 
licences to these patents at reasonable cost if at all  
or be able to develop or obtain alternative technology 
where copyright design right andor “know how” protect 
the group’s products or technology there can be no 
assurance that a competitor or potential competitor  
will not independently develop the same or similar 
products or technology 
rights of ownership over and rights to license and use 
intellectual property depend on a number of factors 
including the circumstances under which the intellectual 
property was created and the provisions of any agreements 
covering such intellectual property there can be no 
assurance that changes to the terms within licence 
agreements will not affect the entitlement of the group  
to the relevant intellectual property or to license the 
relevant intellectual property from others
gene therapy risk
the commercial success of oxford biomedica’s gene 
therapy products will depend in part on their acceptance 
by the medical community and the public for the 
prevention andor treatment of diseases to date only  
one gene therapy product has been approved in europe 
and none in the usa furthermore speciﬁc regulatory 
requirements over and above those imposed on other 
products apply to gene therapy and there can be no 
assurance that additional requirements will not be 
imposed in the future this may increase the cost  
and time required for successful development of the 
group’s products
development risks
to develop a pharmaceutical product it is necessary  
to conduct preclinical studies and human clinical trials 
for product candidates to demonstrate safety and efficacy 
the number of preclinical studies and clinical trials  
that will be required varies depending on the product 
candidate the indication being evaluated the trial results 
and the regulations applicable to the particular product 
candidate in addition the group or its partners will need 
to obtain regulatory approvals to conduct clinical trials 
and manufacture drugs before they can be marketed  
this development process takes many years the group 
may fail to develop successfully a product candidate  
for many reasons including
—  failure to demonstrate longterm safety
—  failure to demonstrate efficacy
—  failure to develop technical solutions to achieve 
necessary dosing levels or acceptable delivery 
mechanisms
—  failure to establish robust manufacturing processes
—  failure to ﬁnd a development partner or  
alternative funding
—  failure to obtain regulatory approvals to conduct 
clinical studies or ultimately to market the product
—  failure to recruit sufficient patients into clinical studies
the failure of the group to develop successfully a product 
candidate could adversely affect the future proﬁtability of 
the group there is a risk that the failure of any one product 
candidate could have a signiﬁcant and sustained adverse 
impact on the company’s share price there is also the 
risk that the failure of one product candidate in clinical 
development could have an adverse effect on the 
development of other product candidates or on the 
group’s ability to enter into collaborations in respect  
of product candidates  oxford biomedica plc   annual report and accounts 2012 33
safety risks
safety issues may arise at any stage of the drug 
development process an independent data safety 
monitoring board the relevant regulatory authorities  
or the group itself may suspend or terminate clinical  
trials at any time there can be no assurances that any  
of the group’s product candidates will ultimately prove  
to be safe for human use adverse or inconclusive results  
from preclinical testing or clinical trials may substantially 
delay or halt the development of product candidates 
consequently affecting the group’s timeline for proﬁtability 
the continuation of a particular study after review by  
an independent data safety monitoring board or review 
body does not necessarily indicate that all clinical trials 
will ultimately be successfully completed
efficacy risks
human clinical studies are required to demonstrate 
efficacy in humans when compared against placebo  
andor existing alternative therapies the results of  
preclinical studies and initial clinical trials of the  
group’s product candidates do not necessarily predict  
the results of later stage clinical trials unapproved 
product candidates in later stages of clinical trials may  
fail to show the desired efficacy despite having progressed 
through initial clinical trials there can be no assurance 
that the efficacy data collected from the preclinical 
studies and clinical trials of the group’s product 
candidates will be sufficient to satisfy the relevant 
regulatory authorities that the product should be  
given a marketing license
technical risks
during the course of a product’s development further 
technical development may be required to improve the 
product’s characteristics such as the delivery mechanism 
or the manufacturing process there is no certainty  
that such technical improvements or solutions can  
be identiﬁed
manufacturing risk
there can be no assurance that the group’s product 
candidates will be capable of being produced in 
commercial quantities at acceptable cost the group’s 
lentivector
®
 platform product candidates use specialised 
manufacturing processes for which there are only a few 
suitable manufacturers including the group’s own facility 
there can be no assurance that the group will be able  
to manufacture the group’s product candidates at 
economic cost or that contractors who are currently  
able to manufacture the group’s product candidates will 
continue to make capacity available at economic prices 
or that suitable new contractors will enter the market 
manufacturing processes that are effective and practical  
at the small scale required by the early stages of clinical 
development may not be appropriate at the higher scale 
required for later stages of clinical development or for 
commercial supply there can be no assurance that the 
group will be able to adapt current processes or develop 
new processes suitable for the scale required by later 
stages of clinical development or commercial supply  
in a timely or costeffective manner nor that contract 
manufacturers will be able to provide sufficient 
manufacturing capacity when required
collaboration and funding risk
collaborations and licensing are an important component 
of the group’s strategy to realise value and manage risk 
the group is dependent on collaborative relationships 
with third parties to facilitate and fund the research 
development manufacture commercialisation and marketing 
of products there is no guarantee that such collaborations 
and funding will continue to be found there can also be 
no assurance that the group’s existing relationships will 
not be terminated or require renegotiation for reasons 
that may be unrelated to the potential of the programme 
circumstances may also arise where the failure  
by collaborators and third parties such as contract 
manufacturers to perform their obligations in accordance 
with our agreements could delay or halt entirely 
development production or commercialisation of our 
products or adversely impact our cash ﬂows currently 
the group’s most important collaborators are sanoﬁ  
and pﬁzer if the relationship with either of these parties 
were to deteriorate oxford biomedica’s development 
programme could be adversely impacted  oxford biomedica plc   annual report and accounts 2012 34
principal risks and uncertainties
regulatory risk
the clinical development and marketing approval of 
oxford biomedica’s product candidates and the group’s 
manufacturing facility are regulated by healthcare 
regulatory agencies such as the fda usa ema  
europe and mhra uk during the development  
stage regulatory reviews of clinical trial applications  
or amendments can prolong development timelines 
similarly there can be no assurance of gaining the 
necessary marketing approvals to commercialise products 
in development regulatory authorities may impose 
restrictions on a product’s use or may require additional 
data before granting approval if regulatory approval is 
obtained the product and manufacturer will be subject  
to continual review and there can be no assurance that 
such an approval will not be withdrawn or restricted  
the group’s laboratories and manufacturing facility are 
also subject to regular audits by the mhra to ensure  
that they comply with good laboratory practice and 
good manufacturing practice standards failure to meet 
such standards could result in the laboratories or the 
manufacturing site being closed until corrective actions 
have been implemented and accepted by the regulator
failure to recruit sufficient patients into clinical studies
clinical trials are established under speciﬁc protocols 
which specify how the trials should be conducted 
protocols specify the number of patients to be recruited 
into the study and the characteristics of patients who can 
and cannot be accepted into the study the risk exists that 
it proves very difficult in practice to recruit the number  
of patients with the speciﬁed characteristics this could  
be caused by a variety of reasons such as the speciﬁed 
characteristics being too tightly deﬁned resulting in a very 
small population of suitable patients or the emergence  
of a competing drug either one that is approved or 
another drug in the clinical stage of development
longerterm commercialisation risks
in the longer term the success of the group’s  
products will depend on the regulatory and commercial 
environment several years into the future future 
commercialisation risks include
—  the emergence of new andor unexpected  
competitor products or technologies the 
biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries  
are subject to rapid technological change which  
could affect the success of the group’s product 
candidates or make them obsolete
—  regulatory authorities becoming increasingly 
demanding regarding efficacy standards or risk  
averse regarding safety
—  governments or other payers being unwilling to  
payreimburse gene therapy products at a level which 
would justify the investment based on clinical studies 
to date the group’s lentivector
®
 platform product 
candidates have the unique potential to provide 
permanent therapeutic beneﬁt from a single 
administration the pricing of these therapies will 
depend on assessments of their costbeneﬁt and  
cost effectiveness
—  the willingness of physicians andor healthcare 
systems to adopt new treatment regimes
any or all of these risks could result in the group’s  
future proﬁtability being adversely affected as future 
royalties and milestones from commercial partners  
could be reduced 
attraction and retention of key employees
whilst the group has entered into employment 
arrangements with each of its key personnel with  
the aim of securing their services the retention of  
their services cannot be guaranteed oxford biomedica  
is signiﬁcantly dependent on certain scientiﬁc and 
management personnel incentivisation of key employees 
to remain with the group remains critical to the group’s 
success the loss of those employees could weaken the 
group’s scientiﬁc and management capabilities resulting 
in delays in the development of its drugs and impacting 
negatively on the group’s business the biotechnology 
industry has a highly competitive market for qualiﬁed 
scientiﬁc and managerial employees competitors may 
try to recruit some of the group’s important employees 
recruiting and retaining management and scientiﬁc 
personnel as the group develops will be critical to  
the group’s success
financial risks
the group is exposed to several ﬁnancial risks
—  product liability and insurance risk
—  foreign currency exposure
—  continuing losses oxford biomedica plc   annual report and accounts 2012 35
product liability and insurance risk
in carrying out its activities the group potentially faces 
contractual and statutory claims or other types of claim 
from customers suppliers andor investors in addition 
the group is exposed to potential product liability risks 
that are inherent in the research preclinical and clinical 
evaluation manufacturing marketing and use of 
pharmaceutical products while the group is currently 
able to obtain insurance cover there can be no assurance 
that any future necessary insurance cover will be available 
to the group at an acceptable cost if at all or that in  
the event of any claim the level of insurance carried by 
the group now or in the future will be adequate or that a 
product liability or other claim would not have a material 
and adverse effect on the group’s future proﬁtability  
and ﬁnancial condition
foreign currency exposure
the group records its transactions and prepares its 
ﬁnancial statements in pounds sterling but currently  
the majority of the group’s income from collaborative 
agreements and patent licences is received in us dollars 
furthermore the group incurs a proportion of its 
expenditure in us dollars and other currencies especially 
the euro relating primarily to preclinical and clinical 
development that it conducts in the us and other 
countries outside the uk the group’s cash balances are 
predominantly held in pounds sterling in the short to 
medium term covering a period that is at least 12 months 
from the date of this document expenditure denominated 
in foreign currency is matched to a signiﬁcant degree  
by income denominated in us dollars such that the risk  
of material losses or gains on one is hedged by the other  
to the extent that the group’s foreign currency assets  
and liabilities in the longer term are not so well matched 
ﬂuctuations in exchange rates between pounds sterling 
the us dollar and the euro may result in realised and 
unrealised gains and losses on translation of the 
underlying currency into pounds sterling that may 
increase or decrease the group’s results of operations  
and may adversely affect the group’s ﬁnancial condition 
each stated in pounds sterling in addition if the 
currencies in which the group earns its revenues and 
or holds its cash balances weaken against the currencies 
in which it incurs its expenses this could adversely affect 
the group’s future proﬁtability
continuing losses
the group expects to incur signiﬁcant further costs as  
it continues to develop its portfolio of candidate products 
manufacturing capability and related technology the 
directors estimate that the current cash and available for 
sale investments held by the group will be sufficient to 
support the current level of activities into the ﬁrst quarter 
of 2014 without any additional revenue streams based 
on anticipated progress in the business in 2013 the 
directors also expect to secure additional collaborative 
andor commercial manufacturing income or ﬁnancing 
sufficient for the future needs of the business beyond the 
ﬁrst quarter of next year however there is no certainty 
that adequate resources will be available on a timely basis 
and in the event that further funding is not achieved then 
the group would have to curtail or suspend the existing 
programme development in order to conserve cash  
and extend the cash runway oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 36
1 nick rodgers 54
nonexecutive chairman
 
appointment
—  appointed a director in march 
2004 and became chairman  
in may 2011 
committee membership
—  chairman of nomination  
and audit committees 
mr rodgers is a former investment 
banker with considerable experience 
in the life sciences sector he is 
currently chairman of sehta 
enterprises limited the commercial 
arm of south east health technologies 
alliance and a director of productiv 
limited an automotive technology 
enabler until january 2013 he was 
chief executive of ipso ventures plc 
having been head of life sciences 
and jointhead of corporate finance 
at evolution beeson gregory until 
december 2003 mr rodgers joined 
beeson gregory in 1989 from 
accountants ernst  young and had 
also worked in the listing department 
of the london stock exchange
2 john dawson 53
chief executive officer 
 
appointment
—  appointed a director in august 
2008 and became chief executive 
officer in october 2008 
committee membership
—  none 
from 1996 to 2007 mr dawson held 
senior management positions in the 
european operations of cephalon inc 
including from 2005 a management 
board position as chief financial 
officer and head of business 
development europe in his time at 
cephalon he led many of the deals 
that built the european business to 
over 1000 people taking the business 
from having no sales in 1998 to 
revenue of several hundred million  
us dollars in 2005 mr dawson led 
the us360 million acquisition of 
zeneus by cephalon between 1991 
and 1996 he was director of finance 
and administration of serono 
laboratories uk limited
the board of directors
5
3
6
4
1
2
7
8 oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 37
3 tim watts 55
chief financial officer
 
appointment
—  appointed a director and chief 
financial officer in february 2012  
committee membership
—  none 
mr watts has over 20 years’ 
experience in the pharmaceutical  
and biotechnology sectors in 1985  
he joined ici initially in the corporate 
headquarters and from 1990 in the 
pharmaceuticals division eventually 
becoming finance director of the 
zeneca pharmaceuticals business 
following the merger of astra and 
zeneca mr watts became group 
financial controller of astrazeneca 
plc in 2001 in 2007 he left 
astrazeneca to become chief 
financial officer at archimedes 
pharma mr watts is a member  
of the institute of chartered 
accountants in england and wales
4 dr stuart naylor 49
chief scientiﬁc officer
 
appointment
—  appointed a director in july 2008 
committee membership
—  none 
dr naylor joined oxford biomedica  
in 1997 his career has covered many 
aspects of tumour biology from  
its molecular basis to the clinic  
and he established an international 
reputation at two world class cancer 
institutes – the imperial cancer 
research fund and the institute of 
cancer research he has published 
numerous primary and review  
articles notably in the ﬁeld of cytokine 
research and gene therapy and has  
an extensive network of collaborators 
in many aspects of basic and 
translational research clinical 
oncology and ophthalmology
5 peter nolan 60
senior vice president 
commercial development
 
appointment
—  appointed a director in may 2002 
committee membership
—  none 
peter nolan was appointed to the 
board in may 2002 having been  
a senior member of the company  
since its foundation he is currently  
a director of the uk bioindustry 
association and is a past chairman  
of the oxfordshire bioscience 
network prior to joining oxford 
biomedica mr nolan served as head 
of the biotechnology unit at the  
uk department of trade  industry 
for eight years in that role he was 
responsible for establishing and 
managing complex collaborative 
research programmes involving 
industry research councils and  
other government departments 
6 dr andrew heath 64
deputy chairman and 
senior independent director
 
appointment
—  appointed a director in january 
2010 and became deputy 
chairman and senior independent 
director in may 2011 
committee membership
—  audit committee remuneration 
committee nomination 
committee 
dr heath is a biopharmaceutical 
executive with indepth knowledge  
of us and uk capital markets and 
international experience in marketing 
and sales rd and business 
development he was chief executive 
officer of protherics plc from 1997  
to 2008 taking the company from  
to 350 staff and managing its eventual 
acquisition by btg for £220 million 
prior to this dr heath held senior 
positions at astra ab and astra usa 
including vice president marketing 
and sales and at glaxo sweden  
as associate medical director  
he is currently chairman of anew 
inc a nonexecutive director of xl 
techgroup inc pioneer technology 
inc and a director of the bioindustry 
association
7  dr paul blake 65
nonexecutive director
 
appointment
—  appointed a director in  
january 2010 
committee membership
—  chairman of remuneration 
committee nomination 
committee 
dr blake has over 30 years 
international pharmaceuticalbiotech 
experience and is currently senior 
vice president and chief medical 
officer of æterna zentaris inc a 
global biopharmaceutical company 
focused on oncology and endrocrine 
therapy from 2001 to 2006 he held 
senior management positions at 
cephalon inc including executive 
vice president worldwide medical 
and regulatory operations from 
2005 dr blake’s previous positions 
include senior vice president and 
medical director clinical research 
and development at smithkline 
beecham pharmaceuticals he gained 
his medical degree from the london 
university royal free hospital 
8 martin diggle 50
nonexecutive director
 
appointment
—  appointed a director in october 
2012  
committee membership
— none 
mr diggle is a founder of vulpes 
investment management a cayman 
fund manager which currently 
manages ﬁve funds including the 
vulpes life sciences fund which  
is the group’s largest shareholder  
an investment professional with over  
29 years’ experience in investment 
banking and fund management  
mr diggle has extensive ﬁrsthand 
knowledge of the global ﬁnancial 
markets and is an expert in emerging 
markets and russia in particular 
where he was a partner and director 
of ubs brunswick between 1994 and 
2003 he has been an investor in life 
sciences and biotechnology since 
1999 and has developed a passionate 
interest in the sector having worked 
closely with several companies as  
a stakeholder over the past decade 
mr diggle holds a master’s degree  
in philosophy politics and economics 
from university of oxford  oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 38
corporate governance
the board
the board is collectively responsible for promoting the 
success of the group by directing and supervising the 
group’s activities to create shareholder value in doing  
so it ensures there are robust corporate governance  
and risk management processes in place
the board considers that it has complied throughout  
the year with the uk corporate governance code  
the “code” except where indicated below in this report 
the board’s powers and responsibilities are set out in  
the company’s articles of association and it has a formal 
schedule of matters reserved for the board’s approval 
which include
—  the group’s strategy
—  the ﬁnancial statements and accounting policies
—  acquisitions disposals and capital expenditure
—  financing and capital structure
—  corporate governance
—  internal control and risk management
—  board membership and remuneration
—  appointment and remuneration of auditors
each director is provided with an appropriate induction 
on appointment and is supplied on a timely basis with 
ﬁnancial and operational information sufficient for the 
board to discharge its duties certain responsibilities  
are delegated to three board committees – the audit 
nomination and remuneration committees these 
committees operate under clearly deﬁned terms of 
reference reports from these committees are included  
on pages 39 to 46
from january 2012 to october 2012 the board comprised 
the nonexecutive chairman four executive directors  
and two other nonexecutive directors on 9 february 
2012 andrew wood stepped down from the board and 
was replaced on that date as chief financial officer and 
company secretary by tim watts on 4 october 2012 
martin diggle was appointed as a nonexecutive director 
so that there are now four executive directors and  
four nonexecutive directors the chairman met the 
independence criteria recommended by the code when 
he was appointed in may 2011 andrew heath the senior 
independent director and paul blake are considered  
to be independent martin diggle is a founder of vulpes 
investment management which through its vulpes life 
sciences fund is the group’s largest investor and as such 
he is not considered independent under the code the 
group therefore complies with provision b12 of the code 
which recommends that a small company should have  
at least two independent nonexecutive directors 
there is a clear division of responsibilities between the 
chairman and chief executive officer all directors and 
the board and its committees have access to advice and 
services of the company secretary and also to external 
professional advisers as required the appointment and 
removal of the company secretary is a matter for the 
board as a whole to consider the chairman’s other 
commitments do not adversely impact the time he  
can devote to the group
board meetings
the board meets regularly with meeting dates agreed  
for each year in advance during 2012 there were 12 
board meetings including one called at short notice  
on 28 june 2012 to approve the placing and open offer 
the attendance of individual directors at board and 
committee meetings was as follows 
    board audit committee remuneration committee nominations committee
    possible attended possible attended possible attended possible attended
paul blake 12 11   4 4 2 2
john dawson 12 12      
martin diggle
1
 3 3      
andrew heath 12 12 2 2 4 4 2 2
stuart naylor 12 12      
peter nolan 12 10      
nick rodgers 12 12 2 2   2 2
tim watts
2
 10 10      
1 martin diggle was appointed to the board on 4 october 2012
2 tim watts was appointed to the board on 9 february 2012 oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 39
the chairman holds meetings from time to time with 
nonexecutive directors without the executive directors 
in attendance 
retirement of directors
in accordance with the articles of association at each 
annual meeting any director who was appointed after  
the last annual general meeting or has served for three 
years and one third of the other directors retire from 
office by rotation 
at the 2013 annual general meeting the following 
directors will retire from the board and stand for  
reelection in accordance with article 38 of the 
company’s articles of association
—  martin diggle
—  paul blake
—  nick rodgers
review of performance
during november 2012 the board carried out a 
comprehensive selfassessment of its performance during 
the year both the chairman and the senior independent 
director separately and conﬁdentially sought the input of 
individual directors and the company secretary prepared 
an analysis of the company’s governance performance as 
compared with the requirements of the code the board 
collectively reviewed and discussed these inputs in 
december and concluded that the board’s composition 
modus operandi and dynamics are appropriate for  
the company and have worked well during 2012 
communication with shareholders
the board recognises the importance of effective 
communication with shareholders and endeavours to 
achieve this using a variety of channels these include
—  chief executive officer and chief financial officer 
meetings with institutional shareholders – there were 
a substantial number of these meetings in 2012 
particularly during may and june leading up to the 
placing and open offer announced on 29 june 2012
—  chairman and senior independent director meetings 
with shareholders – the chairman and senior 
independent director have meetings as required with 
major shareholders and the senior independent 
director is available to shareholders if concerns cannot 
be resolved through normal channels
—  announcement of preliminary results  
6 march 2012 interim results 31 august 2012  
and interim management statements 11 may 2012 
and 14 november 2012 – the preliminary and interim 
results announcements are followed with an analyst 
brieﬁng and simultaneous conference call which  
can be accessed by all shareholders 
—  annual report – the 2011 annual report was 
published on 27 april 2012
—  annual general meeting – this was held in london  
on 7 june 2012 a number of shareholders attended 
the meeting the results of which were announced  
that afternoon
—  announcements of material developments through 
the london stock exchange and other news services 
—  the company’s investor relations manager works 
closely with the company’s brokers and regularly 
discusses company matters with current and potential 
investors
—  group website – the website contains details of  
the group’s activities as well as copies of regulatory 
announcements and press releases and copies  
of the group’s ﬁnancial statements
risk management
the board is responsible for determining the nature  
and extent of the risks it is willing to take in achieving  
the objectives of the group the executive directors  
and other senior managers are accountable for identifying  
the risks and formulating risk mitigation plans the  
active involvement of the executive directors in the 
management committees allows them to monitor and 
assess signiﬁcant business operational ﬁnancial 
compliance and other risks the executive directors 
provide reports to each board meeting covering inter alia 
ﬁnancing investor relations research and development 
clinical development ﬁnancial performance commercial 
interactions and intellectual property management
management 
management is conducted by the chief executive officer 
and the executive directors who together with other 
senior managers form the senior management team  
the executive directors participate actively in the 
functional and crossfunctional activities of the group 
such that a direct link exists between the determination  
of strategy by the board and the execution of the 
company’s policies by management and employees
board committee reports 
audit committee report
the audit committee comprises two nonexecutive 
directors nick rodgers chairman and andrew heath 
the board considers that both members of the audit 
committee possess recent and relevant ﬁnancial 
experience provision c31 of the code states that  
the company chairman should not chair the audit 
committee when the composition of the board and its 
committees was reorganised in may 2011 nick rodgers 
became company chairman and retained on a pro tem 
basis the chair of the audit committee the board 
recognises that this arrangement is not in compliance 
with the code and when appropriate the intention  
is to appoint an appropriately qualiﬁed independent 
nonexecutive director who could chair the  
audit committee oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 40
corporate governance
the primary duties of the audit committee as set out  
in its written terms of reference are to
—  keep under review the group’s reporting and internal 
control policies and procedures
—  oversee the relationship with the external auditors 
including their appointment subject to approval  
by shareholders at the annual general meeting 
remuneration independence and the provision  
of nonaudit services
—  review and recommend to the board the ﬁnancial 
statements and associated announcements
provision c35 of the code states that the audit 
committee should review the effectiveness of the 
company’s internal audit function the audit committee 
considers that given the size of the company it is 
unnecessary for it to have an internal audit function
the audit committee met twice in 2012 shortly before 
the announcements of the 2011 preliminary results in 
march 2012 and the 2012 interim results in august 2012 
the chief financial officer and the external auditors 
attended both meetings at the committee’s invitation  
in march the committee considered the auditors’ audit 
clearance memorandum for the year ended 31 december 
2011 and in august the committee reviewed the audit 
strategy for 2012
pricewaterhousecoopers llp pwc have been auditors  
to the company and the group since 1997 the audit 
committee has reviewed the relationship with the 
auditors and is satisﬁed with their effectiveness and  
that they remain independent the review also included 
the terms of engagement and audit fees there are no 
contractual obligations restricting the company’s choice 
of external auditor following this assessment the audit 
committee has recommended to the board that pwc 
should be reappointed for the 2013 audit and this will  
be recommended to shareholders at the 2013 annual 
general meeting at the end of the 2012 audit miles 
saunders will step down as the group’s senior statutory 
auditor in accordance with pwc’s rotation policy  
he will be replaced as senior statutory auditor for  
the 2013 audit by stuart newman 
under the group’s policy on nonaudit services the  
audit committee is advised of and approves all nonaudit 
services provided by the auditors as part of this approval 
process the audit committee ensures that the provision 
of nonaudit services will not impact the auditors’ 
objectivity and independence during 2012 nonaudit 
services provided by pwc included corporate ﬁnance 
services connected with the placing and open offer  
tax compliance and advisory services and advice to  
the remuneration committee relating to the company’s 
share option and long term incentive plans the fees 
payable to pwc in respect of services provided during 
2012 are set out in note 8
internal control
the directors are responsible for oxford biomedica’s 
system of internal control and for reviewing its 
effectiveness the system is designed to manage rather 
than eliminate the risk of failure to achieve business 
objectives and can only provide reasonable and not 
absolute assurance against material misstatement or loss 
in addition the board annually reviews the effectiveness 
of all signiﬁcant aspects of internal control including 
ﬁnancial operational and compliance controls and risk 
management the review for 2012 was conducted by the 
audit committee which reported it’s ﬁndings to the 
board and did not highlight any matters that require 
reporting to shareholders
nomination committee report
the nomination committee leads the process for making 
appointments to the board and comprises the non
executive directors and the company chairman who is 
chairman of the nomination committee during 2012 the 
nomination committee met formally on two occasions 
resulting in the appointments of tim watts and martin 
diggle to the board for the appointment of tim watts the 
committee engaged the services of a search agency and 
the search was undertaken against a speciﬁc job 
description for the appointment of martin diggle a 
search agency was not used as this appointment was 
made speciﬁcally to give vulpes life sciences fund a seat 
on the board given the size of its investment in the group
share capital
the information about the share capital required by the 
takeover directive is in the directors’ report on page 48 oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 41
directors’ remuneration report
remuneration committee report
only paragraphs marked with ‘’ within this report have been audited
the remuneration committee members are paul blake chairman and andrew heath who are both independent 
nonexecutive directors at the invitation of the committee chairman and on an agendadriven basis other directors 
have been invited to attend meetings during 2012 the committee met four times
the responsibilities of the committee are set out in its terms of reference and include
—  recommending to the board the policy and framework for the remuneration of the executive directors  
and senior management the remuneration of the nonexecutive directors are a matter for the chairman
—  approval of individual remuneration packages for executive directors
—  approval of annual performance incentive plans and bonuses payable under such plans
—  approval of the company’s long term incentive plan for executive directors and senior management  
and awards granted under such plans
—  approval of options granted to all employees under the company’s share option plan
the committee has access to professional advice both inside and outside the company as required during 2012  
the committee received advice on the company’s 2007 share option plan and 2007 long term incentive plan ltip 
from pricewaterhousecoopers llp pwc pwc were used for this purpose for continuity of advice because the 2007 
share option plan and ltip were designed by halliwell consulting which was acquired by pwc in 2009
the key activities of the committee during 2012 have been to 
—  approve the ltip awards granted under the ltip to executive directors in june 2012 
—  approve the overall total of share options granted in 2012 to staff who do not participate in the ltip
—  approve the 2012 bonus payments made to the executive directors
the 2011 remuneration report was approved at the 2012 annual general meeting with 864 of the votes cast  
in favour of the resolution
remuneration policy and framework
the group’s policy on remuneration is to provide competitive remuneration for the delivery of target performance 
with additional incentives to deliver outstanding personal and group performance in determining the framework  
the committee refers to independent remuneration surveys and industry trends in remuneration the current 
framework provides executive directors with 
—  base salary 
—  company contributions of 10 of base salary to a deﬁned contribution personal pension scheme 
—  discretionary nonpensionable annual incentive plan of up to 60 of base salary
—  beneﬁts principally comprising healthcare insurance
—  discretionary long term incentive plan ltip
directors’ service contracts
executive directors’ service contracts are for an initial term of 12 months and thereafter are subject to 12 months’ 
notice contractual termination payments do not exceed the director’s current salary and beneﬁts for the notice 
period nonexecutive directors’ service contracts are for an initial term of three years 
the details of service contracts of those who served as directors during the year are
     unexpired term  contractual 
    contract date at 31 december 2012 notice period termination payments
paul blake 9 december 2009 0 months
3
 3 months notice period only
john dawson 10 october 2008 na  12 months notice period only
martin diggle
1
 4 october 2012 2 years 9 months 3 months notice period only
andrew heath 9 december 2009 0 months
3
 3 months notice period only
stuart naylor 1 july 2008 na  12 months notice period only
peter nolan 1 may 2002 na  12 months notice period only
nick rodgers 5 may 2011 1 years 4 months 12 months notice period only
tim watts 9 february 2012 na  12 months notice period only
andrew wood
2
 31 october 1996 nil
2
 12 months notice period only
1 martin diggle was appointed to the board on 4 october 2012
2 andrew wood resigned from the board on 9 february 2012
3  the initial contracts for paul blake and andrew heath were for 3 year terms expiring on 31 december 2012 their contracts have been renewed for a further 3 year term 
andrew heath was reelected at the 2012 annual general meeting paul blake will stand for reelection at the 2013 annual general meeting oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 42
directors’ remuneration report
remuneration committee report
chairman and nonexecutive directors
the chairman’s fees are set by the independent nonexecutive directors in consultation with the chief executive 
officer the nonexecutive directors’ fees are set by the chairman the chairman and nonexecutive directors do not 
receive pension contributions or a bonus and do not participate in the company’s share option schemes 
executive directors
base salary
executive directors’ base salaries are reviewed annually by the committee and by reference to remuneration surveys 
for comparable companies and to the speciﬁc experience and performance of the individual with one exception  
there have been no increases to executive directors’ base salaries in the last three years
annual incentive plan
under the annual incentive plan executive directors may at the discretion of the committee and subject to achieving 
corporate and personal performance targets be awarded nonpensionable cash bonuses of up to 60 of base salary 
for the chief executive officer the corporatepersonal split is 7525 for the other executive directors the split is 6040
for 2012 the group performance measures related to the following goals
—  secure funding to at least end of 2013
—  achieve mhra licence for manufacturing site
—  trovax
®
prosavin
®
 – satisfactory progression of clinical and preclinical studies
—  ocular products – satisfactory progression of ocular product clinical studies and relationship with sanoﬁ
—  other targets
critically management was successful in securing further funding and the committee decided to reward this 
performance with bonuses of between 5 and 10 of base annual salary however although several of the other 
objectives were delivered in 2012 in light of the share price performance throughout the year the committee  
decided that no further bonuses would be paid to the executive directors in respect of 2012 
long term incentive plan ltip
directors and senior managers participate in a sharebased ltip awards under the ltip are options exercisable at par 
the vesting period is 3 years and vesting is conditional on the achievement of performance criteria which are 
established at the date of the award
on 25 march 2012 the ltip award made on 25 march 2009 was tested against its performance condition which was  
to achieve at least median total shareholder return tsr performance as measured on the third anniversary against  
a peer group of 20 companies since the company’s tsr performance fell below the median level in the peer group  
all of the awards granted to directors on 25 march 2009 have lapsed
the ltip awards granted in 2010 and 2011 were subject to the same performance condition as the 2009 ltip ie  
tsr performance at least at the median level of the peer group but a second set of performance conditions was added 
relating to the delivery of company objectives based on the share price on 31 december 2012 it is unlikely that any  
of the ltip awards granted in 2010 or 2011 will vest when the performance criteria are tested in 2013 and 2014 
respectively
a further tranche of ltip awards were granted on 30 june 2012 the performance metric for the 2012 award is  
absolute total shareholder return tsr this is a change from previous ltip awards for which the performance 
condition was relative tsr compared with a peer group the committee considers relative tsr performance to be 
unsatisfactory as options could potentially vest despite a decline in the share price the 2012 awards will only vest  
if tsr growth is achieved over the period of the award since the company is unlikely to pay a dividend in the 
foreseeable future tsr growth is essentially represented by the share price by rewarding growth in tsr the plan  
will ensure that payouts are only achieved if signiﬁcant returns are made to shareholders through share price 
appreciation the vesting schedule is as follows
      tsr growth over 3 year period   of award vesting
below threshold   100 ie 2 times baseline share price   0
threshold   100 ie 2 times baseline share price   25
upper level   200 ie 30 times baseline share price  100
 straight line vesting between these points oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 43
the baseline share price for the 2012 ltip awards is 250p being the price used for the ﬁrm placing and open  
offer fund raising announced on 29 june 2012 the awards are nominal cost options exercisable at par and  
are subject to a three year holding period they are exercisable from the third anniversary of the award subject  
to the achievement of the above performance condition although no award can be exercised until the end of the  
three year vesting period directors will be able to “bank” a fraction of the appropriate vesting percentage on each 
anniversary of the date of grant should the target have been met at those dates this will be limited to 25 of the 
potential vesting amount after one year 50 after two years and 100 after three years banked awards will not 
actually vest until the third anniversary of award
following the introduction of the ltip in 2007 executive directors and certain senior managers who participate in the 
ltip no longer receive awards under the company’s share option scheme prior to 2007 options were awarded under 
the share option scheme to executive directors however during 2012 the last tranche of ordinary share options 
granted to directors has lapsed so no directors now have an interest in ordinary share options
directors’ remuneration 
details of individual directors’ emoluments for the year are as follows
       compensation  2012 total    2011 total    
    salary and   for loss excluding  2012  excluding 2011  
    fees bonus beneﬁts
 8
 of office pension pension pension pension 
name of director £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £
chairman
nick rodgers
 12
 75000 – – – 75000 – 81388 –
executive
john dawson  330000 33000 5480 – 368480 33000 335408 33000
stuart naylor  187500 9375 2183 – 199058 18750 189741 18750
peter nolan 173565 8678 3259 – 185502 17356 176861 17357
andrew wood
 3
 68213 – 2072 213663 283948 25661 222054 21995
tim watts
 4
 184102 20000 – – 204102 18410 – –
non–executive
paul blake  38500 – – – 38500 – 37333 –
andrew heath
 2
 45500 – – – 45500 – 42000 –
martin diggle
 5
 – – – – – – – –
former directors
alan kingsman
 6
 – – – – – – 181062 –
alex lewis
 7
 – – – – – – 17500 –
    1102380 71053 12994 213663 1400090 113177 1283347 91102
1 nick rodgers was appointed as chairman on 5 may 2011 £32078 of his fee for 2011 relates to the period prior to 5 may 2011
2 these amounts represent amounts payable to controlled companies for the services of nonexecutive directors
3 andrew wood resigned from the board on 9 february 2012
4 tim watts was appointed to the board on 9 february 2012
5 martin diggle was appointed to the board on 4 october 2012 but receives no remuneration for his services
6 alan kingsman resigned from the board on 5 may 2011
7  alex lewis resigned from the board on 24 may 2011
8 beneﬁts comprises medical insurance
during 2012 retirement beneﬁts accrued to ﬁve directors 2011 four under oxford biomedica uk limited’s deﬁned 
contribution pension scheme  oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 44
directors’ interests
interest in shares
the interests of the directors including persons connected with the directors in the shares of the company  
at 31 december 2012 and 31 december 2011 are shown below 
           31 december 31 december 
the company – ordinary shares of 1p each      2012
 2
 2011
 3
paul blake      420000  200000
john dawson      2000000  1700000
martin diggle
 1
     361841956  353512545
 4
andrew heath      320000  200000
stuart naylor      288921  88921
peter nolan      563638  363638
nick rodgers      352000  152000
tim watts      3000000  –
4
1  includes interests of vulpes life sciences fund and other parties connected to martin diggle
2 there were no changes in the directors’ shareholdings between 31 december 2012 and the date of this report
3 andrew wood who resigned from the board on 9 february 2012 held 305067 shares at 31 december 2011
4 at date of appointment as a director
interests in share options
the interests of the directors in options over the ordinary shares of the company were as follows
          date from 
    1 january    31 december exercise which expiry 
    2012 granted exercised lapsed  2012  price exercisable date
dr stuart naylor  120750 – – 120750 – 290p 151208 151212
peter nolan  153000 – – 153000 – 290p 151208 151212
directors’ remuneration report
remuneration committee report oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 45
longterm incentive plan
awards have been made to executive directors under the ltip as follows
 1
 
    1 january    31 december  award vesting 
    2012 granted exercised lapsed  2012   date date
 
john dawson  1000000 – – – 1000000  131008 131011
john dawson
 24
 2500000 – – 2500000 –  250309 250312
john dawson
 2
  1692000 – – – 1692000  150610 150613
john dawson
 2
 1704000 – – – 1704000  130411 130414
john dawson
 3
 – 6600000   6600000  300612 300615
    6896000 6600000 – 2500000 10996000
 
stuart naylor
 24
 811000 – – 811000 –  250309 250312
stuart naylor
 2
 897000 – – – 897000  150610 150613
stuart naylor
 2
 968000 – – – 968000  130411 130414
stuart naylor
 3
 – 3760000   3760000  300612 300615
    2676000 3760000 – 811000 5625000  
 
peter nolan
 24
 854000 – – 854000 –  250309 250312
peter nolan
 2
 890000 – – – 890000  150610 150613
peter nolan
 2
  896000 – – – 896000  130411 130414
peter nolan
 3
 – 3480000   3480000  300612 300615
    2640000 3480000 – 854000 5266000  
 
tim watts
 3
 – 6000000 – – 6000000  300612 300615
 
andrew wood
 245
 1082000 – – 1082000 –  250309 250312
andrew wood
 245
 1128000 – – – 1128000  150610 150613
andrew wood
 245
 1136000 – – – 1136000  130411 130414
    3346000 – – 1082000 2264000  
1  all awards made under the ltip have been nominalcost share options options exercisable at par value subject to performance conditions these options vest on the 
third anniversary of the date of grant and if vested may be exercised until the tenth anniversary of the date of grant
2  the performance condition for these awards compares the company’s total shareholder return ‘tsr’ to the tsr of a chosen group of healthcare and biotechnology 
companies over a three year period a median ranking must be achieved before any part of the award vests 25 of the award and an upper quartile ranking must be 
achieved for the award to vest in full for the ltip awards in 2010 and 2011 a secondary performance test based on events that are expected to be signiﬁcant drivers of 
value for the company will be applied if tsr is above median but below the upper quartile in these circumstances up to 50 of the ltip award will be released on the 
achievement of the speciﬁed milestone events
3  for the 2012 ltip awards the performance condition is that the share price must reach 50p as a minimum before any awards vest 25 and need to reach 7 5p for 100 
vesting of the awards 
4  on 25 march 2012 the tsr performance test was applied to the ltip award made on 25 march 2009 the company’s tsr over the 3 year period was below the median of 
the comparator group and consequently none of the awards vested 
5  andrew wood resigned on 9 february 2012 the company agreed that the ltip awards held by mr wood at 9 february 2012 should not lapse as a consequence of the 
termination of his employment with the company but should continue as if he had remained an eligible employee and participant both terms as deﬁned in the ltip rules 
until the expiry date of the last of such ltip awards
except as detailed above no directors had interests in shares or share options of the company or any other group 
company at 31 december 2012 there have been no changes in the interests of the directors in office at the date  
of this report in the ordinary shares of the company between 31 december 2012 and the date of this report 
the market value of ordinary shares as at 31 december 2012 was 23p 31 december 2011 35p the market value  
of ordinary shares during the year ranged from 205p to 58p oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 46
directors’ remuneration report
remuneration committee report
comparison of ﬁve year total shareholder return 
the chart below illustrates the company’s tsr performance over the last ﬁve years relative to the ftse allshare  
index and the ftse techmark mediscience index the ftse allshare index has been selected because it represents  
a broadbased objective measure of investment return from equities the ftse techmark mediscience index 
comprising biotech companies provides a second benchmark that is a more speciﬁc comparator
the sharp fall in the share price and relative tsr in 2008 was due to the failure of the trovax
®
 “trist” study to meet  
its primary end point the decline at the end of 2010 was prompted by the announcement of a fundraising and  
in december 2011 there was a further decline following the announcement of interim update on the prosavin
®
  
phase iii study in parkinson’s disease
dr paul blake
chairman of the remuneration committee
key
oxford biomedica plc
ftse techmark mediscience index
ftse allshare index 
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
january 2008 january 2009 january 2010 january 2011 january 2012 oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 47
the directors present their annual report and audited 
consolidated ﬁnancial statements for the year ended  
31 december 2012 as set out on pages 51 to 77 this 
report should be read in conjunction with the 
governance reports on pages 36 to 46
principal activity
oxford biomedica lse oxb is a biopharmaceutical 
company developing innovative genebased medicines 
and therapeutic vaccines that aim to improve the lives  
of patients with high unmet medical needs the group’s 
technology platform includes a highly efficient 
lentivector
®
 gene delivery system which has speciﬁc 
advantages for targeting diseases of the central nervous 
system and the eye and a unique tumour antigen 5t4 
which is an ideal target for anticancer therapy the 
company is listed on the london stock exchange 
more detail on the principal activity is contained in  
the operational review on pages 13 to 27
business review and future developments
a review of the group’s activities and future developments 
is contained within the introduction pages 1 to 3 6 and 7 
the chairman’s message page 4 the chief executive 
officer’s review page 8 the operational review on pages 
13 to 27 and the ﬁnancial review on pages 28 to 29 the 
consolidated statement of comprehensive income for  
the year is set out on page 51
key performance indicators kpis
key performance indicators are outlined in the ﬁnancial 
review on pages 28 to 29
corporate governance
the company’s statement on corporate governance is 
included in the corporate governance report on pages  
38 to 40 of these ﬁnancial statements
risk management
the group’s risk management objectives and exposure  
to risks is set out on pages 32 to 35 principal risks and 
uncertainties and pages 60 to 61 note 3 ﬁnancial risk 
management
dividends
the directors do not recommend payment of a dividend 
2011 £nil
directors
the current directors of the company and their 
biographical details are given on pages 36 to 37 as 
previously announced andrew wood resigned from the 
board on 9 february 2012 and tim watts was appointed 
chief financial officer and company secretary from  
that date martin diggle was appointed to the board as a 
nonexecutive director on 4 october 2012 the contracts 
of employment of the executive directors are subject  
to twelve months’ notice the directors’ remuneration 
and their interests in the share capital of the company  
at 31 december 2012 are disclosed in the remuneration 
committee report on pages 41 to 46
appointment and replacement of directors
directors may be appointed by an ordinary resolution  
at any general meeting of shareholders or may be 
appointed by the existing directors provided that any 
director so appointed shall retire at the next following 
annual general meeting and may offer himself for  
reelection at each annual general meeting any director 
who has served for three years and one third of the  
other directors must retire and may offer themselves for 
reelection a director may be removed in the following 
ways by an ordinary resolution at a general meeting  
if he is prohibited by law from being a director in the 
event of bankruptcy if he is suffering from speciﬁed 
mental disorders if he is absent without consent for more 
than six months or by request in writing by all the other 
directors any director may appoint another director  
or another person approved by the other directors  
as an alternate director
directors’ third party indemnity provision
the company maintains a qualifying third party 
indemnity insurance policy to provide cover for legal 
action against its directors this was in force throughout 
2012 and at the date of approval of the ﬁnancial 
statements
 
share capital
 
structure of the company’s capital
the company’s share capital comprises a single class of 
1p ordinary shares each carrying one vote and all ranking 
equally with each other following the adoption of new 
articles of association in 2010 the authorised share capital 
of the company is unlimited on 26 july 2012 the 
company issued 463362652 new ordinary shares at 25p 
per share in a placing and open offer raising £116 million 
before expenses on 14 november 2012 the company 
issued 7910796 new ordinary shares at 247p per share  
to licensors of patent rights at 31 december 2012 the 
company had 1416149005 shares in issue all allotted 
and fully paid there are no restrictions on the transfer  
of shares in the company or on voting rights all shares 
are admitted to trading on the london stock exchange 
directors’ report
for the year ended 31 december 2012 oxford biomedica plc   annual report and accounts 2012 48
directors’ report
for the year ended 31 december 2012
rights to issue and buy back shares
each year at the annual general meeting the directors 
seek rights to allot shares the authority when granted 
lasts for 15 months or until the conclusion of the next 
annual general meeting if sooner at the last annual 
general meeting held on 7 june 2012 authority was given 
to allot up to 314958519 shares that number being one 
third of total issued share capital of the company at the 
time subject to the normal preemption rights reserved 
to shareholders contained in the companies act 2006 
and to allot up to a further 314958500 shares solely in  
a rights issue authority was also given subject to certain 
conditions to waive preemption rights over up to 
47243700 shares being 5 of the shares then in issue  
no rights have been granted to the directors to buy  
back shares 
substantial shareholdings
at 14 february 2013 the latest practical date prior to 
approval of the directors’ report the company had been 
notiﬁed of the following shareholdings amounting to  
3 or more of the ordinary share capital of the company
     number of percentage of issued 
shareholder ordinary shares share capital
vulpes life sciences fund 361829411 256
mg investment  
management limited 257435087 182
jp morgan asset
management 78909732 56
barclays stockbrokers 61236891 43
td waterhouse  
stockbrokers 56892519 40
gam london limited 43389470 31
no other person has reported an interest in the ordinary 
shares of the company required to be notiﬁed to the 
company no person holds shares carrying special rights 
with regard to control of the company 
group research and development activities
during 2012 the group incurred nonexceptional research 
and development expenditure of £14015000 2011 
£14710000 in 2011 the group also incurred exceptional 
research and development costs of £3136000 these 
costs were expensed in the statement of comprehensive 
income further information is given in the operational 
review pages 13 to 27 and ﬁnancial review pages 28 to 29
charitable donations
in 2012 the board agreed to make a charitable donation  
of £1200 to the sue kingsman scholarship fund carriacou 
childrens’ education fund which will allow it to fund one 
student for a twoyear course this donation was made  
in memory of dr susan kingsman a former director who 
died in 2011 no charitable donations were made in 2011
employees
the group communicates and consults regularly with 
employees throughout the year employees’ involvement 
in the group’s performance is encouraged with all 
employees eligible to participate in the share option 
scheme or the long term incentive plan certain 
employees participate in discretionary bonus schemes
the group’s aim for all members of staff and applicants for 
employment is to ﬁt the qualiﬁcations aptitude and ability 
of each individual to the appropriate job and to provide 
equal opportunity regardless of sex religion or ethnic 
origin the group does all that is practicable to meet its 
responsibility towards the employment and training of 
disabled people 
further details on employees health and safety 
environmental matters and corporate social responsibility 
are in the corporate social responsibility statement on 
pages 30 to 31 
employee share schemes
the company has a share incentive plan under which 
shares may be held in trust for employees the trustees 
may only exercise the voting rights in respect of such 
shares in accordance with the employees’ instructions 
currently there are no such shares held in trust
agreements that take effect alter or terminate because 
of a takeover bid or on change of control
there are no such agreements that the directors consider 
are material there are no agreements providing for 
compensation for loss of office for directors or employees 
in the event of a takeover bid
supplier payment policy
the group pays its suppliers in accordance with the terms 
and conditions agreed in advance with each supplier the 
group’s average creditor payment period at 31 december 
2012 was 27 days 2011 27 days the company has no 
trade payables 2011 nil oxford biomedica plc   annual report and accounts 2012 49
—  make judgements and accounting estimates that  
are reasonable and prudent and
—  state whether applicable ifrss as adopted by the 
european union have been followed subject to any 
material departures disclosed and explained in the 
ﬁnancial statements
the directors are responsible for keeping adequate 
accounting records that are sufficient to show and explain 
the group’s transactions and disclose with reasonable 
accuracy at any time the ﬁnancial position of the 
company and the group and enable them to ensure that 
the ﬁnancial statements and the directors’ remuneration 
report comply with the companies act 2006 and as 
regards the group ﬁnancial statements article 4 of the ias 
regulation they are also responsible for safeguarding the 
assets of the company and the group and hence for 
taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection 
of fraud and other irregularities
the directors are responsible for the maintenance and 
integrity of the group’s website 
legislation in the united kingdom governing the 
preparation and dissemination of ﬁnancial statements 
may differ from legislation in other jurisdictions
each of the directors whose names and functions are 
listed in this section conﬁrm that to the best of their 
knowledge
—  the group ﬁnancial statements which have been 
prepared in accordance with ifrss as adopted by the 
eu give a true and fair view of the assets liabilities 
ﬁnancial position and loss of the group and
—  the directors’ report contained in this section includes 
a fair review of the development and performance of 
the business and the position of the group together 
with a description of the principal risks and 
uncertainties that it faces
statement as to disclosure of information to auditors
in accordance with s418 of the companies act 2006  
so far as each director is aware there is no relevant audit 
information of which the company’s auditors are unaware 
and each director has taken all the steps that he ought to 
have taken as a director in order to make himself aware  
of any relevant audit information and to establish that the 
company’s auditors are aware of that information
independent auditors
the auditors pricewaterhousecoopers llp have indicated 
their willingness to continue in office and a resolution 
concerning their reappointment will be proposed at the 
annual general meeting
by order of the board
tim watts
company secretary 
26 february 2013
going concern
oxford biomedica plc is a research and development 
based business with no currently marketed products  
the group’s business activities together with the factors 
likely to affect its future development performance and 
position are set out in the introduction pages 1 to 3 6 and 
7 the chairman’s message page 4 the chief executive 
officer’s review page 8 the operational review on pages 
13 to 21 and the principal risks and uncertainties on pages 
32 to 35 the ﬁnancial position of the group including its 
cash ﬂows is described in the ﬁnancial review on pages 
28 to 29 in addition note 3 to the ﬁnancial statements 
includes the group’s objectives policies and processes  
for managing its capital its ﬁnancial risk management 
objectives and its exposure to cash ﬂow and liquidity risk
the group expects to incur signiﬁcant further costs as it 
continues to develop its portfolio of candidate products 
manufacturing capability and related technology the 
directors estimate that the current cash and available for 
sale investments held by the group will be sufficient to 
support the current level of activities into the ﬁrst quarter 
of 2014 without any additional revenue streams based 
on anticipated progress in the business in 2013 the 
directors also expect to secure additional collaborative 
andor commercial manufacturing income or ﬁnancing 
sufficient for the future needs of the business beyond the 
ﬁrst quarter of next year however there is no certainty 
that adequate resources will be available on a timely basis 
and in the event that further funding is not achieved then 
the group would have to curtail or suspend the existing 
programme development in order to conserve cash  
and extend the cash runway
after making enquiries the directors consider that the 
company and the group have adequate resources to 
continue in operational existence for the foreseeable 
future accordingly they have adopted the going concern 
basis in preparing the ﬁnancial statements
amendment of the company’s articles of association
amendment of the company’s articles may be made by 
special resolution at a general meeting of shareholders 
statement of directors’ responsibilities
the directors are responsible for preparing the annual 
report the directors’ remuneration report and the 
ﬁnancial statements in accordance with applicable  
law and regulations
company law requires the directors to prepare ﬁnancial 
statements for each ﬁnancial year under that law the 
directors have prepared the group and parent company 
ﬁnancial statements in accordance with international 
financial reporting standards ifrss as adopted by the 
european union under company law the directors must 
not approve the ﬁnancial statements unless they are 
satisﬁed that they give a true and fair view of the state  
of affairs of the group and the company and of the proﬁt 
or loss of the group for that period in preparing these 
ﬁnancial statements the directors are required to
—  select suitable accounting policies and then apply 
them consistently oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 50
independent auditors’ report 
to the members of oxford biomedica plc
we have audited the ﬁnancial statements of oxford 
biomedica plc for the year ended 31 december 2012 
which comprise the consolidated statement of 
comprehensive income the balance sheets the 
statements of cash ﬂows the statements of changes  
in equity attributable to owners of the parent company 
and the related notes the ﬁnancial reporting framework 
that has been applied in their preparation is applicable  
law and international financial reporting standards 
ifrss as adopted by the european union and as regards 
the parent company ﬁnancial statements as applied  
in accordance with the provisions of the companies  
act 2006
respective responsibilities of directors and auditors 
as explained more fully in the statement of directors’ 
responsibilities set out on page 49 the directors are 
responsible for the preparation of the ﬁnancial statements 
and for being satisﬁed that they give a true and fair view 
our responsibility is to audit and express an opinion on 
the ﬁnancial statements in accordance with applicable 
law and international standards on auditing uk and 
ireland those standards require us to comply with the 
auditing practices board’s ethical standards for auditors 
this report including the opinions has been prepared  
for and only for the company’s members as a body in 
accordance with chapter 3 of part 16 of the companies 
act 2006 and for no other purpose we do not in giving 
these opinions accept or assume responsibility for any 
other purpose or to any other person to whom this report 
is shown or into whose hands it may come save where 
expressly agreed by our prior consent in writing
scope of the audit of the ﬁnancial statements
an audit involves obtaining evidence about the amounts 
and disclosures in the ﬁnancial statements sufficient to 
give reasonable assurance that the ﬁnancial statements 
are free from material misstatement whether caused by 
fraud or error this includes an assessment of whether 
the accounting policies are appropriate to the group’s  
and the parent company’s circumstances and have been 
consistently applied and adequately disclosed the 
reasonableness of signiﬁcant accounting estimates made 
by the directors and the overall presentation of the 
ﬁnancial statements in addition we read all the ﬁnancial 
and nonﬁnancial information in the annual report and 
accounts to identify material inconsistencies with the 
audited ﬁnancial statements if we become aware of any 
apparent material misstatements or inconsistencies we 
consider the implications for our report
opinion on ﬁnancial statements 
in our opinion 
—  the ﬁnancial statements give a true and fair view of the 
state of the group’s and of the parent company’s affairs 
as at 31 december 2012 and of the group’s loss and 
the group’s and parent company’s cash ﬂows for the 
year then ended
—  the group ﬁnancial statements have been properly 
prepared in accordance with ifrss as adopted by the 
european union 
—  the parent company ﬁnancial statements have been 
properly prepared in accordance with ifrss as adopted  
by the european union and as applied in accordance  
with the provisions of the companies act 2006 and
—  the ﬁnancial statements have been prepared in 
accordance with the requirements of the companies  
act 2006 and as regards the group ﬁnancial statements 
article 4 of the ias regulation 
opinion on other matters prescribed by the  
companies act 2006 
in our opinion 
—  the part of the directors’ remuneration report to be 
audited has been properly prepared in accordance with 
the companies act 2006
—  the information given in the directors’ report for the 
ﬁnancial year for which the ﬁnancial statements are 
prepared is consistent with the ﬁnancial statements and
—   the information given in the corporate governance 
statement set out on pages 38 to 40 with respect to 
internal control and risk management systems and  
about share capital structures is consistant with the 
ﬁnancial statements
matters on which we are required to report by exception 
we have nothing to report in respect of the following  
under the companies act 2006 we are required to report  
to you if in our opinion 
—  adequate accounting records have not been kept by the 
parent company or returns adequate for our audit have 
not been received from branches not visited by us or 
—  the parent company ﬁnancial statements and the part of 
the directors’ remuneration report to be audited are not  
in agreement with the accounting records and returns or 
—  certain disclosures of directors’ remuneration speciﬁed  
by law are not made or 
—  we have not received all the information and  
explanations we require for our audit or
—   a corporate governance statement has not been prepared  
by the parent company
under the listing rules we are required to review 
—  the directors’ statement set out on page 49 in relation  
to going concern
—  the parts of the corporate governance statement relating  
to the company’s compliance with the nine provisions  
of the uk corporate governance code speciﬁed for our 
review and
—  certain elements of the report to shareholders by the 
board on directors’ remuneration
miles saunders senior statutory auditor 
for and on behalf of pricewaterhousecoopers llp  
chartered accountants and statutory auditors 
 
reading 
26 february 2013 oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 51
consolidated statement of comprehensive income
for the year ended 31 december 2012
 2012 2011
         pre exceptional 
         exceptional items 
        total items note 6 total 
    notes    £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
revenue 4    7756 7718 – 7718
cost of sales      667 555 – 555
gross proﬁt     7089 7163 – 7163
research and development costs 8    14015 14710 3136 17846 
administrative expenses 8    3619 3811 – 3811 
other operating income grants receivable     58 56 – 56
operating loss     10487 11302 3136 14438
finance income 7    141 144 – 144 
finance costs 7    3 8 – 8
loss before tax     10349 11166 3136 14302
taxation 9    1619 1671 – 1671
loss for the year 26    8730 9495 3136 12631
       
other comprehensive income
exchange adjustments     – 2 – 2
total recognised comprehensive  
expense for the year  
attributable to owners of the parent     8730 9497 3136 12633
basic loss and diluted loss  
per ordinary share 10    076p   135p
  oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 52
balance sheets 
as at 31 december 2012
 group company
        2012 2011 2012 2011 
      notes  £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
assets     
non–current assets     
intangible assets   12  2931 3106 – –
property plant and equipment    13  3902 4213 – –
financial assets investments in subsidiaries   14  – – 31841 33115
        6833 7319 31841 33115
current assets
trade and other receivables   15  1705 2800 11 1
current tax assets     1824 1641 – –
financial assets available for sale investments   16  5105 7500 – –
cash and cash equivalents   16  8956 6835 743 –
        17 590 18776 754 1
current liabilities
trade and other payables   17  2702 3226 23 46
deferred income   18  1568 4386 – –
provisions   19  – 41 – –
        4270 7653 23 46
net current assetsliabilities     13320 11123 731 45
non–current liabilities
deferred income   18  – 170 – –
provisions   19  510 501 – –
        510 671 – –
net assets     19643 17 771 32572 33070
equity attributable to owners of the parent
ordinary shares    22  14162 9449 14162 9449
share premium    23  130304 124755 130304 124755
merger reserve   27  14310 14310 13599 13599
other reserves   27  682 682 4642 4302
accumulated losses   26  138451 130061 130135 119035
total equity     19643 17 771 32572 33070
 
the company’s registered number is 03252665 
the ﬁnancial statements on pages 51 to 77 were approved by the board of directors on 26 february 2013  
and were signed on its behalf by 
john dawson 
chief executive officer oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 53
statements of cash ﬂows
for the year ended 31 december 2012
 group company
        2012 2011 2012 2011 
      notes  £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
cash ﬂows from operating activities
cash used in operations   28  11470 14323 293 139
interest paid     3 – – –
tax credit received     1500 1418 – –
overseas tax paid     64 78 – –
net cash used in operating activities     10037 12983 293 139
cash ﬂows from investing activities
loan to subsidiary     – – 9226 18433
purchases of property plant and equipment      476 3640 – –
purchases of intangible assets     195 9 – –
net maturitypurchase of available for sale investments    2395 1897 – –
interest received     172 144 – –
net cash generated fromused in investing activities    1896 5402 9226 18433
cash ﬂows from ﬁnancing activities
proceeds from issue of ordinary share capital     11779 20000 11779 20000
costs of share issues     1517 1430 1517 1430
net cash generated from ﬁnancing activities     10262 18570 10262 18570
net increasedecrease in cash and cash equivalents    2121 185 743 2
cash and cash equivalents at 1 january     6835 6653 – 2
effects of exchange rate changes     – 3 – –
cash and cash equivalents at 31 december   16  8956 6835 743 – oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 54
statements of changes in equity attributable to owners of the parent
for the year ended 31 december 2012
      share  share merger other accumulated 
      capital premium reserve reserves losses total 
group notes  £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
at 1 january 2011   5449 110387 14310 680 117861 11605
year ended 31 december 2011
exchange adjustments   – – – 2 – 2
loss for the year   – – – – 12631 12631
total comprehensive expense for the year   – – – 2 12631 12633
transactions with owners
share options 
 value of employee services 25  – – – – 431 431
issue of shares excluding options 22 23  4000 16000 – – – 20000
costs of share issues 23  – 1632 – – – 1632
at 31 december 2011   9449 124755 14310 682 130061 17 771
year ended 31 december 2012       
exchange adjustments   – – – – – –
loss for the year   – – – – 8730 8730
total comprehensive expense for the year   – – –  8730 8730
transactions with owners
share options 
 value of employee services 25  – – – – 340 340
issue of shares excluding options 22 23  4713 7066 – – – 11779
costs of share issues 23  – 1517 – – – 1517
at 31 december 2012   14162 130304 14310 682 138451 19643
      share  share merger other accumulated 
      capital premium reserve reserve losses total 
company notes  £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
at 1 january 2011   5449 110387 13599 3871 103174 30132
year ended 31 december 2011       
loss for the year   – – – – 15861 15861
total comprehensive expense for the year 11  – – – – 15861 15861
transactions with owners
share options 
 credit in relation to  
 employee share schemes 25  – – – 431 – 431
issue of shares excluding options 22 23  4000 16000 – – – 20000
costs of share issues 23  – 1632 – – – 1632
at 31 december 2011   9449 124755 13599 4302 119035 33070
year ended 31 december 2012
loss for the year   – – – – 11100 11100
total comprehensive expense for the year 11  – – – – 11100 11100
transactions with owners
share options 
 credit in relation to  
 employee share schemes 25  – – – 340 – 340
issue of shares excluding options 22 23  4713 7066 – – – 11779
costs of share issues 23  – 1517 – – – 1517
at 31 december 2012   14162 130304 13599 4642 130135 32572 oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 55
notes to the consolidated ﬁnancial statements 
for the year ended 31 december 2012
1 accounting policies 
oxford biomedica plc the company is a company 
incorporated and domiciled in the united kingdom and 
listed on the london stock exchange the consolidated 
ﬁnancial statements for the year ended 31 december 2012 
comprise the results of the company and its subsidiary 
undertakings together referred to as the group  
the company’s principal subsidiary is oxford biomedica 
uk limited
the group is a gene therapy research and development 
based business with no currently marketed products
basis of preparation
the principal accounting policies adopted in the preparation 
of these ﬁnancial statements are set out below these 
policies have been consistently applied to all the ﬁnancial 
years presented unless otherwise stated the ﬁnancial 
statements have been prepared in accordance with 
international financial reporting standards ‘ifrs’ as 
adopted by the european union and with the companies 
act 2006 
as fully explained in the directors’ report on pages 47 to 
49 the going concern basis has been adopted in preparing 
the ﬁnancial statements 
a summary of the more important group accounting 
policies are set out in note 1 below
the preparation of ﬁnancial statements in conformity 
with ifrs requires the use of certain critical accounting 
estimates it also requires management to exercise  
its judgement in the process of applying the group’s 
accounting policies the areas involving a higher degree 
of judgement or complexity or where assumptions  
and estimates are signiﬁcant to the ﬁnancial statements 
are disclosed in note 2
going concern
oxford biomedica plc is a research and development 
based business with no currently marketed products  
the group’s business activities together with the factors 
likely to affect its future development performance and 
position are set out in the introduction pages 1 to 3 6  
and 7 the chairman’s message page 4 the chief executive 
officer’s review page 8 the operational review on pages 
13 to 27 and the principal risks and uncertainties on pages 
32 to 35 the ﬁnancial position of the group including its 
cash ﬂows is described in the ﬁnancial review on pages 
28 to 29 in addition note 3 to the ﬁnancial statements 
includes the group’s objectives policies and processes  
for managing its capital its ﬁnancial risk management 
objectives and its exposure to cash ﬂow and liquidity risk
the group expects to incur signiﬁcant further costs as it 
continues to develop its portfolio of candidate products 
manufacturing capability and related technology the 
directors estimate that the current cash and available for 
sale investments held by the group will be sufficient to 
support the current level of activities into the ﬁrst quarter 
of 2014 without any additional revenue streams based 
on anticipated progress in the business in 2013 the 
directors also expect to secure additional collaborative 
andor commercial manufacturing income or ﬁnancing 
sufficient for the future needs of the business beyond the 
ﬁrst quarter of next year however there is no certainty 
that adequate resources will be available on a timely basis 
and in the event that further funding is not achieved then 
the group would have to curtail or suspend the existing 
programme development in order to conserve cash and 
extend the cash runway
after making enquiries the directors consider that the 
company and the group have adequate resources to 
continue in operational existence for the foreseeable 
future accordingly they have adopted the going concern 
basis in preparing the ﬁnancial statements
accounting developments
the following new standards amendments to standards 
and interpretations are mandatory for the ﬁrst time for the 
ﬁnancial year beginning 1 january 2012 but are not 
currently relevant for the group
—  amendments to ifrs 7  
‘financial instruments disclosures’ 
—  amendment to ifrs 1 ‘first time adoption’  
on ﬁxed dates and hyperinﬂation 
—  amendment to ias 12 ‘income taxes’ on deferred tax 
the new standards new interpretations and amendments 
to standards and interpretations listed below have been 
issued but are not effective for the ﬁnancial year beginning 
1 january 2012 and have not been adopted early 
the following standards are not expected to have  
a signiﬁcant impact on the group
—  ias 19 ‘employee beneﬁts’ amended in june 2011 
—  ifrs 10 ‘consolidated ﬁnancial statements’ 
—  ifrs 11 ‘joint arrangements’ issued in may 2011 
—  ifrs 12 ‘disclosures of interests in other entities’
—  ifrs 13 ‘fair value measurement’
—  ifric 20 ‘stripping costs in the production phase  
of a surface mine’
—  amendment to ias 27 ‘separate financial statements’ 
—  amendment to ias 28 ‘associates and joint ventures’ 
—  amendment to ifrs 7  ‘financial instruments disclosures’ 
—  amendment to ias32 ‘financial instruments 
presentation’
—  amendment to ifrs 1 ‘first time adoption’  
on government loans 
—  amendment to ias 1 ‘presentation of ﬁnancial 
statements’
—  amendments to ifrs 10 11 and 12  
‘transitional guidance’ 
—  annual improvements 2011 oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 56
the group is assessing whether the following standard 
will have any impact on the accounting for ﬁnancial 
instruments
—  ifrs 9 ‘financial instruments’ issued in december 
2009 this addresses the classiﬁcation and 
measurement of ﬁnancial assets the standard is  
not applicable until 1 january 2015 but is available  
for early adoption
basis of consolidation
the consolidated financial statements comprise the 
company and its subsidiary undertakings for the year  
to 31 december each year subsidiaries are entities  
that are directly or indirectly controlled by the group 
subsidiaries are consolidated from the date at which 
control is transferred to the group control exists where 
the group has the power to govern the ﬁnancial and 
operating policies of the entity so as to obtain beneﬁts 
from its activities the group does not currently have  
any associates
all intragroup transactions and balances are eliminated  
on consolidation 
business combinations are accounted for using the 
acquisition method the cost of an acquisition is measured 
as the fair value of the assets transferred equity instruments 
issued and liabilities incurred or assumed at the date of 
exchange identiﬁable assets acquired and liabilities and 
contingent liabilities assumed in a business combination 
are measured initially at their fair values at the acquisition 
date irrespective of the extent of any minority interest 
any excess of the cost of the acquisition over the fair 
value of the group’s share of the identiﬁable net assets 
acquired is recorded as goodwill if the cost of acquisition 
is less than the fair value of the net assets of the subsidiary 
acquired the difference is recognised directly in the 
statement of comprehensive income where necessary 
adjustments are made to the ﬁnancial statements of 
subsidiaries to bring accounting policies used into line 
with those of the group
the group and company have elected not to apply  
ifrs 3 ‘business combinations’ retrospectively to business 
combinations which took place prior to 1 january 2004 
namely the acquisition in 1996 of 100 of the issued 
share capital of oxford biomedica uk limited that has 
been accounted for by the merger accounting method
foreign currencies
transactions in foreign currencies are translated into 
sterling at the rate of exchange ruling at the transaction 
date assets and liabilities in foreign currencies are 
retranslated into sterling at the rates of exchange ruling  
at the balance sheet date differences arising due to 
exchange rate ﬂuctuations are taken to the statement of 
comprehensive income in the period in which they arise
the assets and liabilities of foreign operations including 
goodwill intangible assets and fair value adjustments 
arising on consolidation are translated at foreign exchange 
rates ruling at the balance sheet date the revenues  
and expenses of foreign operations are translated at an 
average rate for the period where this rate approximates 
to the foreign exchange rates ruling at the dates of the 
transactions exchange differences arising from this 
translation of foreign operations and of related qualifying 
hedges are taken directly to the translation reserve they 
are released into the statement of comprehensive income 
upon disposal
revenue
revenue comprises income from product and technology 
licence transactions funded research and development 
programmes and fees charged for providing shortterm 
scientiﬁc services to third parties 
product licence transactions typically have an initial 
upfront nonrefundable payment on execution of the 
licence and the potential for further payments conditional 
on achieving speciﬁc milestones plus royalties on product 
sales technology licence transactions typically have an 
initial upfront nonrefundable payment on execution  
of the licence and the potential for further annual 
maintenance payments for the term speciﬁed in the 
licence where the initial fee paid is nonrefundable and 
there are no ongoing commitments from the group and 
the licence has no ﬁxed end date the group recognises 
the element received upfront as a payment in 
consideration of the granting of the licence on execution 
of the contract amounts receivable in respect of 
milestone payments are recognised as revenue when the 
speciﬁc conditions stipulated in the licence agreement 
have been met payments linked to “success” such as 
regulatory ﬁling or approval achievement of speciﬁed 
sales volumes are recognised in full when the relevant 
event has occurred maintenance fees within the contracts 
are spread over the period to which they relate usually  
a year otherwise amounts receivable are recognised  
in the period in which related costs are incurred or over  
the estimated period to completion of the relevant phase 
of development or associated clinical trials 
research and development funding is recognised  
as revenue over a period that corresponds with the 
performance of the funded research and development 
services where the group incurs passthrough expenses 
in relation to collaborative partners’ own research and 
development programmes such costs are included in the 
group’s ﬁnancial statements as operating expenses net  
of collaborator reimbursement and the reimbursement 
received does not form part of the group’s revenue 
amounts recognised exclude value added tax differences 
between cash received and amounts recognised are 
included as deferred income where cash received exceeds 
revenue recognised and as accrued income where 
revenue has yet to be billed to the customer
notes to the consolidated ﬁnancial statements 
for the year ended 31 december 2012 oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 57
cost of sales
the group’s products and technologies include 
technology elements that are licensed from third parties 
cost of sales is the royalty arising on such third party 
licenses where royalty due on revenue has not been paid 
it is included in accruals where revenue is spread over  
a number of accounting periods the royalty attributable 
to the deferred revenue is included in prepayments 
passthrough costs reimbursed by collaborative partners 
do not form part of cost of sales
research and development
research and development expenditure is charged to  
the statement of comprehensive income in the period  
in which it is incurred 
expenditure incurred on development projects relating  
to the design and testing of new or improved products  
is recognised as intangible assets when it is probable  
that the project will generate future economic beneﬁt 
considering factors including its commercial and 
technological feasibility status of regulatory approval  
and the ability to measure costs reliably development 
expenditure which has been capitalised and has a ﬁnite 
useful life is amortised from the commencement of the 
commercial production of the product on a straightline 
basis over the period of its expected beneﬁt no such 
costs have been capitalised to date other development 
expenditures are recognised as an expense as incurred
employee beneﬁt costs
employee beneﬁt costs notably holiday pay and 
contributions to the group’s deﬁned contribution pension 
plan are charged to the income statement on an accruals 
basis the assets of the pension scheme are held 
separately from those of the group in independently 
administered funds the group does not offer any other 
postretirement beneﬁts
share based payments
the group’s share option scheme and long term 
incentive plans allow group employees to acquire shares 
of the company subject to certain criteria the fair  
value of options granted is recognised as an expense  
of employment in the income statement with a 
corresponding increase in equity the fair value is 
measured at the date of grant and spread over the period 
during which the employees become unconditionally 
entitled to the options the fair value of options granted 
under the share option scheme is measured using the 
blackscholes model the fair value of options granted 
under the ltip scheme which includes performance 
criteria is measured using a monte carlo model taking 
into account the conditions under which the options 
were granted at each ﬁnancial year end the group 
revises its estimate of the number of options that are 
expected to become exercisable based on forfeiture such 
that at the end of the vesting period the cumulative 
charge reﬂects the actual options that have vested with 
no charge for those options which were forfeit prior to 
vesting when share options are exercised the proceeds 
received are credited to equity
leases
leases are classiﬁed as ﬁnance leases whenever the terms 
of the lease transfer substantially all the risks and rewards 
of ownership to the lessee no leases have been classiﬁed 
as ﬁnance leases all other leases are classiﬁed as 
operating leases costs in respect of operating leases  
are charged to the statement of comprehensive income 
on a straight line basis over the lease term
grants
income from government and other grants is recognised 
over the period necessary to match them with the related 
costs which they are intended to compensate on a 
systematic basis this grant income is included as other 
operating income within the statement of comprehensive 
income and the related costs are included within 
research and development costs and administrative 
expenses the difference between grant income receivable 
and income recognised is included in deferred income
exceptional items
exceptional items represent signiﬁcant items of income 
and expense which due to their nature or the expected 
infrequency of the events giving rise to them are 
presented separately on the face of the statement of 
comprehensive income to give a better understanding  
to shareholders of the elements of ﬁnancial performance 
in the period so as to facilitate comparison with prior 
periods and to better assess trends in ﬁnancial 
performance 
finance income and costs
finance income and costs comprise interest income  
and interest payable during the year calculated using the 
effective interest rate method and fair value adjustments oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 58
notes to the consolidated ﬁnancial statements 
for the year ended 31 december 2012
taxation 
current tax including uk corporation tax and foreign tax 
is provided at amounts expected to be paid or recovered 
using the tax rates and laws that have been enacted  
or substantially enacted by the balance sheet date
deferred tax is recognised in respect of all temporary 
differences identiﬁed at the balance sheet date temporary 
differences are differences between the carrying amount 
of the group’s assets and liabilities and their tax base 
deferred tax liabilities may be offset against deferred tax 
assets within the same taxable entity or qualifying local 
tax group any remaining deferred tax asset is recognised 
only when on the basis of all available evidence it can  
be regarded as probable that there will be suitable taxable 
proﬁts within the same jurisdiction in the foreseeable 
future against which the deductible temporary difference 
can be utilised
deferred tax is measured at the average tax rates that  
are expected to apply in the periods in which the asset  
is realised or liability settled based on tax rates and laws  
that have been enacted or substantially enacted by the 
balance sheet date measurement of deferred tax liabilities 
and assets reﬂects the tax consequence expected to  
fall from the manner in which the asset or liability is 
recovered or settled
intangible assets
initial recognition
intellectual property and inprocess research and 
development acquired through business combinations 
are recognised as intangible assets at fair value other 
acquired intangible assets are initially recognised at cost 
amortisation
where the intangible asset has a ﬁnite life amortisation is 
charged on a straight line basis over the remaining useful 
economic life from the time they become available for 
use where the useful life of the intangible asset cannot be 
determined the asset is carried at cost but tested annually 
for impairment intangible assets are amortised over  
the length of the patent life current lives range from  
5 to 19 years
impairment
the carrying value of nonﬁnancial assets with indeﬁnite 
lives is reviewed annually for impairment or earlier if an 
indication of impairment occurs and provision made 
where appropriate charges or credits for impairment are 
passed through the statement of comprehensive income
for the purposes of assessing impairments assets are 
grouped at the lowest levels for which there are separately 
identiﬁable cash ﬂows or cashgenerating units impairment 
losses are recognised for the amount by which each 
asset’s carrying amount exceeds its recoverable amount 
the recoverable amount is the higher of an asset’s fair 
value less costs to sell and value in use where the asset  
is no longer being developed by the company sales  
value less cost to sell is used as the recoverable amount 
value in use is calculated using estimated discounted 
future cash ﬂows key assumptions in the discounted  
cash ﬂow calculations are
—  the product is developed by a collaborative partner 
who funds all future development costs and markets 
the product
—  the group receives an initial licence fee milestone 
payments and royalties on sales
—  the cash ﬂow projections include estimates for selling 
price royalty rates population growth disease 
incidence and market penetration 
—  the resulting cash receipts are discounted at an 
appropriate discount rate
—  the cash ﬂow projections are a longterm view  
based on the expected patent life due to the length  
of the development cycle for innovative medicines 
this period is signiﬁcantly longer than 5 years 
the key assumptions are management estimates  
based where possible on available information for similar 
products due to the novelty and early stage of development 
of the group’s products it is not possible to benchmark 
these assumptions against past experience 
impairment and amortisation charges are included within 
research and development costs in the statement of 
comprehensive income 
intellectual property rights comprise third party patent 
rights that have been purchased by the group no  
inhouse research and development or patent costs  
are included in intangible assets oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 59
property plant and equipment
property plant and equipment are carried at cost 
together with any incidental expenses of acquisition  
less depreciation cost includes the original purchase 
price of the asset and any costs attributable to bringing 
the asset to its working condition for its intended use
depreciation is calculated so as to write off the cost  
of property plant and equipment less their estimated 
residual values on a straight line basis over the expected 
useful economic lives of the assets concerned 
depreciation of an asset begins when it is available  
for use the principal annual rates used for this  
purpose are
freehold property 10
short leasehold improvements 20
or the remaining lease  
term if shorter
office equipment and computers 20–33
manufacturing and laboratory equipment 10–20
the assets’ residual values and useful lives are reviewed 
annually
the manufacturing plant is reviewed annually for 
impairment triggers and where necessary a full 
impairment review is performed
financial assets investments
investments are carried at cost less any provision made 
for impairment options over the company’s shares have 
been awarded to employees of subsidiary companies  
in accordance with uitf44 the company treats the  
value of these awards as a capital contribution to the 
subsidiaries resulting in an increase in the cost of 
investment investments in subsidiary undertakings 
including shares and loans are carried at cost less any 
impairment provision such investments are subject to 
review and any impairment is charged to the statement 
of comprehensive income at each year end the directors 
review the carrying value of the company’s investment in 
subsidiaries where there is a material and sustained 
shortfall in the market capitalisation or a signiﬁcant and 
sustained change in the business resulting in a decrease 
in market capitalisation the directors consider this to  
be a trigger of an impairment review as set out in ias 36 
and the carrying value of the company’s investments  
in subsidiaries is adjusted the directors consider that 
reference to the market capitalisation of the group is an 
appropriate external measure of the value of the group 
for this purpose
trade receivables
trade receivables are recognised initially at fair value  
and subsequently measured at amortised cost using the 
effective interest method less provision for impairment  
a provision for impairment of trade receivables is 
established when there is objective evidence that  
the group will not be able to collect all amounts due 
according to the original terms of the receivables
financial assets available for sale investments
bank deposits with original maturities between three 
months and twelve months are included in current assets 
and are classiﬁed as available for sale ﬁnancial assets  
after initial recognition available for sale investments  
are measured at their fair value
cash and cash equivalents
cash and cash equivalents include cash in hand bank 
deposits repayable on demand and other short term 
highly liquid investments with original maturities of  
three months or less 
trade payables
trade payables are recognised initially at fair value and 
subsequently measured at amortised cost using the 
effective interest method trade payables are classiﬁed  
as current liabilities if payment is due within one year or 
less if not they are presented as noncurrent liabilities 
deferred income
deferred income is the excess of cash received under 
license transactions funded research and development 
and fees for services provided to third parties and grants 
over the amounts recognised as revenue 
provisions
provisions for dilapidation costs onerous lease costs and 
other potential liabilities are recognised when the group 
has a present legal or constructive obligation as a result of 
past events it is probable that an outﬂow of resources will 
be required to settle the obligation and the amount has 
been reliably estimated provisions are not recognised for 
future operating losses provisions are measured at the 
present value of the expenditure expected to be required 
to settle the obligation using a pretax rate that reﬂects 
current market assessments of the time value of money 
and the risks speciﬁc to the obligations the increase in 
the provision due to the passage of time is recognised  
as interest expense
share capital
ordinary shares are classiﬁed as equity costs of share 
issues are charged to the share premium account
merger reserve
a merger reserve is used where more than 90 of the 
shares in a subsidiary are acquired and the consideration 
includes the issue of new shares by the company thereby 
attracting merger relief under s612 and s613 of the 
companies act 2006
translation reserve
the translation reserve comprises all foreign exchange 
differences arising from the translation of the ﬁnancial 
statements of foreign operations that are not integral  
to the operations of the group oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 60
notes to the consolidated ﬁnancial statements 
for the year ended 31 december 2012
2 critical accounting judgements and estimates 
in applying the group’s accounting policies management 
is required to make judgements and assumptions 
concerning the future in a number of areas actual  
results may be different from those estimated using  
these judgements and assumptions the key sources of 
estimation uncertainty and critical accounting judgements 
that have a signiﬁcant risk of causing a material adjustment 
to the carrying amounts of assets and liabilities within  
the next ﬁnancial year are discussed below
revenue recognition
in 2009 the group received an upfront nonrefundable 
payment of us260 million £166 million from sanoﬁ 
under the ocular product collaboration this is being 
recognised as revenue on a straight line basis over the 
expected duration of the initial stage of the collaboration 
for each of the four products during 2012 the recognition 
period has been varied to recognise that i sanoﬁ has 
exercised its options over stargen™ and ushstat
®
  
and will take over these studies before june 2013 ii  
the retinostat
®
 study will complete during 2013 and iii  
the utilisation of encorstat
®
 funding on the other three 
products as at december 2012 revenue of £159 million 
has been recognised under this collaboration of which 
£34 million was recognised in 2012 the remaining  
£07 million is expected to be recognised as income in  
the next 12 months and is classiﬁed as current deferred 
income with £nil classiﬁed as noncurrent
if the revenue recognition periods had been three months 
longer the amount of revenue recognised in 2012 would 
have been reduced by £06 million 2011 £06 million  
and the amount of deferred income carried forward  
at 31 december 2012 increased by £06 million  
2011 £06 million 
over the term of the ocular product collaboration with 
sanoﬁ oxford biomedica may recover up to us240 
million in research and development funding and 
recognise this as revenue project costs in excess of 
us240 million will be borne by oxford biomedica  
the amount of research and development funding  
that is recognised as revenue is based on an estimate  
of the amount of project costs expected to be borne  
by the group by the end of the collaboration up to  
31 december 2012 £133 million 2011 £114 million  
had been recognised as revenue and £06 million  
2011 £04 million had been classiﬁed as current  
deferred income if the estimated total project expenditure  
had been 5 higher the amount of revenue recognised  
up to 31 december 2012 would have been £06 million  
2011 £06 million lower and the amount of deferred 
income higher by the same amounts 
intangible asset impairment
the group has signiﬁcant intangible assets arising from 
purchases of intellectual property rights and inprocess 
rd amortisation is charged over the assets’ patent  
life on a straight line basis from the date that the asset 
becomes available for use when there is an indicator  
of a signiﬁcant and permanent reduction in the value  
of intangible assets an impairment review is carried out  
the impairment analysis is principally based on estimated 
discounted future cash ﬂows actual outcomes could vary 
signiﬁcantly from such estimates of discounted future 
cash ﬂows due to the sensitivity of the assessment to the 
assumptions used the determination of the assumptions 
is subjective and requires the exercise of considerable 
judgement any changes in key assumptions about the 
group’s business and prospects or changes in market 
conditions affecting the group or its development partners 
could materially affect whether an impairment exists  
this risk is now concentrated on purchased patent rights 
which have been sublicensed to collaborative partners  
at 31 december 2012 the book value of intangible assets 
was £29 million of which £19 million related to primeboost 
technology in respect of intellectual property rights  
and inprocess rd relating to hi8
®
mel following a 
marketing initiative that did not result in securing a partner 
an impairment charge of £31 million was recognised  
in 2011 writing the hi8
®
mel asset down to £nil 
3 financial risk management 
the group does not have any committed borrowing 
facilities current operations are ﬁnanced from its own 
cash resources cash balances are mainly held on short 
and medium term deposits with ﬁnancial institutions with 
a credit rating of at least a in line with the group’s policy 
to minimise the risk of loss the main risks associated with 
the group’s ﬁnancial instruments relate to interest rate  
risk and foreign currency risk the group’s policy in relation 
to interest rate risk is to monitor short and medium term 
interest rates and to place cash on deposit for periods that 
optimise the amount of interest earned while maintaining 
access to sufficient funds to meet day to day cash 
requirements in relation to foreign currency risk the 
group’s policy is to hold the majority of its funds in 
sterling no other hedging of foreign currency cash  
ﬂows is undertaken 
financial risk factors
the group’s relatively simple structure principally 
operating in the united kingdom and the lack of debt 
ﬁnancing reduces the range of ﬁnancial risks to which  
it is exposed monitoring of ﬁnancial risk is part of the 
board’s ongoing risk management the effectiveness of 
which is reviewed annually the group’s agreed policies 
are implemented by the chief financial officer who 
submits reports at each board meeting the group does 
not use ﬁnancial derivatives and it is the group’s policy 
not to undertake any trading in ﬁnancial instruments oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 61
a foreign exchange risk
at the current time the group’s revenues are mostly 
receivable in united states dollars and certain of its 
expenditures are payable in euros and united states 
dollars the majority of operating costs are denominated 
in sterling in 2012 the level of us dollardenominated 
receipts was to some extent matched by usdollar 
denominated payments such that a 10 difference in  
the £ exchange rate would have had an impact of 
approximately £66000 over the year in the future if this 
degree of matching was not present it could present a 
possible source of foreign exchange risk the company 
had a slightly greater exposure to the £€ exchange rate 
due to the need to fund expenditure denominated in 
euros had the pound been 10 weaker in relation to  
the euro the increased cost in 2012 would have been 
approximately £178000 
b interest rate risk
the group does not have any committed borrowing 
facilities current operations are ﬁnanced from its own 
cash resources the group’s policy is to maximise interest 
receivable on deposits subject to maintaining access  
to sufficient liquid funds to meet day to day operational 
requirements and preserving the security of invested 
funds with the current low level of bank interest rates 
interest receivable on bank deposits in 2012 was just 
£141000 2011 £144000 
if interest rates had been 100 basis points higherlower in 
2012 the impact on net loss would have been a decrease
increase of £73000 2011 £111000 due to changes in the 
amount of interest receivable
c credit risks
the group’s policy is to place funds with ﬁnancial 
institutions rated at least a and to distribute deposits 
between several banks 
currently the majority of the group’s revenue and a 
signiﬁcant proportion of the group’s trade and other 
receivables derive from a single trading relationship 
although the counterparty is a proﬁtable wellcapitalised 
multinational organisation there is a theoretical credit  
risk associated with this concentration of revenue 
d cash ﬂow and liquidity risk
at present the group’s operations are funded from  
its cash and shortterm investments the maturity proﬁle 
of investments is structured to ensure that sufficient  
liquid funds are available to meet planned operating 
requirements to date the group’s funding has been 
provided mainly by the issue of shares and from 
commercial collaborations most recently the parent 
company raised £116 million before costs from a placing 
and open offer which closed on 26 july 2012 future 
working capital is expected to be provided by commercial 
collaborations such collaborations typically provide 
funding from milestonebased payments which are 
signiﬁcant in size but infrequent there can be no 
certainty that this source of funding will be sufficient  
and that additional funding from other sources including 
the issue of further shares will not be required in 
planning the group’s activities and its ﬁnancial resources 
the directors take account of the probability of receiving 
income from commercial collaborations and of the likely 
availability of other sources of funding the company’s 
spending plans are set to achieve a balance between 
adding value to the key development programmes while 
seeking to maximise the operating window provided by 
current funds the directors’ current ﬁnancial projections 
provide a reasonable basis from which they have 
concluded that the group’s ﬁnancial resources are 
sufficient for the foreseeable future and that there  
is presently no material cash ﬂow or liquidity risk
e pricing risk
currently the group’s revenue derives from collaboration 
milestones and reimbursement of funded research and 
development which should not be sensitive to pricing 
risk the ocular research and development collaboration 
with sanoﬁ is subject to an overall cap of us24 million 
which means that if the relevant costs escalate from the 
levels currently anticipated the group would suffer future 
losses equal to the amount of cost escalation 
f capital management
the group manages its cash cash equivalents and 
available for sale investments in order to ensure it has 
working capital to meet its day to day needs this is 
achieved through frequent reforecasting of the cash  
ﬂow position so as to provide the board with a clear  
view on when further cash injections may be required  
as discussed in the ﬁnancial review the cash balance and  
the cash burn are part of the group’s key performance 
indicators further information on cash ﬂow and liquidity 
risk is given in section d above the group is not  
subject to any regulation requiring any speciﬁc capital 
management
derivative ﬁnancial instruments and hedging
there were no derivatives at 31 december 2012  
or 31 december 2011 and hedge accounting has  
not been used
fair value estimates
the fair value of short term deposits with a maturity  
of one year or less is assumed to be the book value oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 62
notes to the consolidated ﬁnancial statements 
for the year ended 31 december 2012
4 segmental analysis
segmental reporting
the chief operating decisionmaker has been identiﬁed as the senior management group smg comprising the 
executive directors and other senior managers the smg considers that the business comprises a single activity which 
is biotechnology research and development the smg reviews the group’s proﬁt or loss and its cash ﬂows assets and 
liabilities on a wholecompany consolidated basis in order to assess performance and allocate resources therefore  
the segment ﬁnancial information is the same as that set out in the consolidated statement of comprehensive income 
the consolidated balance sheet the consolidated statement of cash ﬂows and the consolidated statement of changes  
in equity
the group’s revenue derives wholly from assets located in the united kingdom analysed by location of customers 
revenue derives predominantly from the european union no revenue is derived from the united kingdom
          2012 2011 
revenue by customer location       £’000 £’000
europe       7376 7379
rest of world       380 339
total revenue       7756 7718
revenue attributable to the ocular collaboration with sanoﬁ was £7259000 2011 £7316000
5 employees and directors
the average number of persons including executive directors employed by the group during the year was
          2012 2011 
by activity       number number
office and management       10 10
research and development       73 76
total        83 86
          2012 2011 
employee beneﬁt costs       £’000 £’000
wages and salaries       4446 4436
social security costs       561 519
postemployment beneﬁts note 29       342 329
termination beneﬁts       398 47
share based payments note 25       340 431
total employee beneﬁt costs       6087 5762
          2012 2011 
key management compensation       £’000 £’000
wages and salaries       1812 2037
social security costs       208 227
postemployment beneﬁts        152 150
termination beneﬁts       266 –
share based payments       230 326
total        2668 2740
the key management ﬁgures above include executive and nonexecutive directors as well as the rest of the senior 
management group  further information about the remuneration of individual directors is provided in the audited part 
of the directors’ remuneration report on pages 41 to 46 which forms part of these ﬁnancial statements
the company had no employees during the year 2011 none oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 63
6 exceptional items 
exceptional items represent signiﬁcant items of income or expense which due to their nature or the expected 
infrequency of the events giving rise to them are presented separately on the face of the statement of comprehensive 
income to give a better understanding to shareholders of the elements of ﬁnancial performance in the year so as  
to facilitate comparison with prior periods and to better assess trends in ﬁnancial performance
          2012 2011 
group       £’000 £’000
exceptional research and development costs       – 3136
in 2011 at the conclusion of a divestment process which did not secure a partner for hi8
®
mel the residual carrying 
value of £3136000 was impaired
7  finance income and costs
          2012 2011 
group       £’000 £’000
finance income
bank interest receivable       141 144
total ﬁnance income       141 144
finance costs
unwinding of discount in provisions note 19       3 8
total ﬁnance costs       3 8
net ﬁnance income       138 136
8 expenses by nature
 group company
        2012 2011 2012 2011 
      notes  £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
excluding exceptional items
employee beneﬁt costs    5  6087 5762 – –
depreciation of property plant and equipment   13  601 336 – –
amortisation   12  370 450 – –
impairment of investment    14  – – 10840 15725
research and development     14015 14710 – –
operating lease payments      523 1123 – –
net lossgain on foreign exchange     74 21 – –
exceptional items
impairment of intangible assets     – 3136 – –
during the year the group including its subsidiaries obtained services from the group’s auditor and its associates  
as detailed below
  group
          2012 2011 
services provided by the group’s auditors       £’000 £’000
fees payable for the audit of the parent company and consolidated ﬁnancial statements   23 44
fees payable for other services
 the audit of the company’s subsidiaries       68 38
 additional fees related to the prior year audit       10 –
 tax advisory services       85 23
 tax compliance services       15 11
 services relating to completed company ﬁnance transactions     229 –
total        430 116 oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 64
notes to the consolidated ﬁnancial statements 
for the year ended 31 december 2012
9 taxation 
the group is entitled to claim tax credits in the united kingdom for certain research and development expenditure  
the amount included in the statement of comprehensive income for the year ended 31 december 2012 comprises  
the credit receivable by the group for the year less overseas tax paid in the year the united kingdom corporation  
tax research and development credit is paid in arrears once tax returns have been ﬁled and agreed the tax credit 
recognised in the ﬁnancial statements but not yet received is included in current tax assets in the balance sheet  
the amounts for 2012 have not yet been agreed with the relevant tax authorities 
  group
          2012 2011 
          £’000 £’000
current tax 
united kingdom corporation tax research and development credit     1497 1641
overseas taxation       1 58
          1496 1583
adjustments in respect of prior periods
united kingdom corporation tax research and development credit     120 87
overseas taxation       3 1
taxation credit       1619 1671
the company has no tax liability nor is it entitled to tax credits 2011 £nil
the tax credit for the year is lower 2011 lower than the standard rate of corporation tax in the uk the differences are 
explained below
 group company
        2012 2011 2012 2011 
        £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
loss on ordinary activities before tax     10349 14302 11100 15861
loss on ordinary activities before tax multiplied  
by the standard rate of corporation tax in the uk of 245 2011 265  2536 3790 2720 4203
effects of
tax depreciation and other timing differences     66 979 – –
expenses not deductible for tax purposes  
includes impairment of investments in subsidiaries    93 45 2656 4167
rd relief mark–up on expenses     1977 1949 – –
difference in rate relating to rd tax credits     1743 1766 – –
tax deduction for share options less than share option accounting charge  101 174 – –
overseas tax     – 5 – –
tax losses carried forward to future periods     1026 1207 64 36
overseas tax difference in rate     12 20 – –
adjustments in respect of prior periods     123 88 – –
current tax credit for the year     1619 1671 – –
at 31 december 2012 the group had tax losses to be carried forward of approximately £909 million  
2011 £873 million of the group tax losses £909 million 2011 £873 million arose in the united kingdom 
there is no deferred tax recognised see note 21
10 basic loss and diluted loss per ordinary share
the basic loss per share has been calculated by dividing the loss for the year by the weighted average number  
of shares in issue during the year ended 31 december 2012 1146473109 2011 935012543 
as the group is lossmaking there were no potentially dilutive options in either year there is therefore  
no difference between the basic loss per ordinary share and the diluted loss per ordinary share  oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 65
11 loss for the ﬁnancial year
as permitted by section 408 of the companies act 2006 the company’s statement of comprehensive income has  
not been included in these ﬁnancial statements the company’s loss for the year was £11100000 2011 £15861000 
the loss includes a charge of £10840000 2011 £15725000 for impairment of investments in subsidiaries 
12 intangible assets
          intellectual 
         inprocess  property 
         rd  rights  total 
group      £’000 £’000 £’000
cost
at 1 january 2012      10400 5298 15698
additions       – 195 195
at 31 december 2012      10400 5493 15893
accumulated amortisation and impairment
at 1 january 2012      10400 2192 12592
amortisation charge for the year      – 370 370
at 31 december 2012      10400 2562 12962
net book amount at 31 december 2012      – 2931 2931
cost
at 1 january 2011      10400 5289 15689
additions       – 9 9
at 31 december 2011      10400 5298 15698
accumulated amortisation and impairment
at 1 january 2011      7238 1768 9006
amortisation charge for the year      114 336 450
impairment provided in the year      3048 88 3136
at 31 december 2011      10400 2192 12592
net book amount at 31 december 2011      – 3106 3106
for intangible assets regarded as having a ﬁnite useful life amortisation commences when products underpinned  
by the intellectual property rights become available for use amortisation is calculated on a straight line basis over  
the remaining patent life of the asset 
an intangible asset is regarded as having an indeﬁnite useful life when based on an analysis of all of the relevant 
factors there is no foreseeable limit to the period over which the asset is expected to generate net cash inﬂows  
for the entity there are currently no assets with indeﬁnite useful lives
inprocess rd relates to the product hi8
®
mel acquired as part of the acquisition of oxxon therapeutics limited  
in 2007 during 2011 a process to divest hi8
®
mel was concluded without securing a partner the asset was fully 
impaired in 2011 with a charge of £3136000 
the company had no intangibles at 31 december 2012 or 31 december 2011 oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 66
notes to the consolidated ﬁnancial statements 
for the year ended 31 december 2012
13 property plant and equipment
        short office manufacturing 
        leasehold equipment and 
       freehold improve and laboratory 
       property ments computers equipment total 
group    £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
cost
at 1 january 2012    3115 3011 606 3316 10048
additions at cost    15 17 30 254 316
disposals    – 424 45 – 469
at 31 december 2012     3130 2604 591 3570 9895
accumulated depreciation
at 1 january 2012    45 2810 388 2592 5835
charge for the year    213 63 98 227 601
disposals    – 424 19 – 443
at 31 december 2012    258 2449 467 2819 5993
net book amount at 31 december 2012    2872 155 124 751 3902
        short office manufacturing 
        leasehold equipment and 
       freehold improve and laboratory 
       property ments computers equipment total 
       £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
cost
at 1 january 2011    – 2966 441 2913 6320
exchange adjustments    – 1 – – 1
additions at cost    3115 44 214 596 3969
disposals    – – 49 193 242
at 31 december 2011     3115 3011 606 3316 10048
accumulated depreciation
at 1 january 2011    – 2716 351 2673 5740
exchange adjustments    – 1 – – 1
charge for the year    45 93 86 112 336
disposals    – – 49 193 242
at 31 december 2011     45 2810 388 2592 5835
net book amount at 31 december 2011    3070 201 218 724 4213
the company had no property plant and equipment at 31 december 2012 or 31 december 2011 oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 67
14 investment in subsidiaries
          2012 2011 
fixed asset investments company       £’000 £’000
shares in group undertakings
at 1 january and 31 december       17 158 17158
loans to group undertakings
at 1 january       128856 110423
loan advanced in the year       9031 18433
subsidiary debt settled by issue of parent shares       195 –
at 31 december       138082 128856
total investments in shares and loans to group undertakings      155240 146014
impairment 
at 1 january        117 201 101476
impairment charge in the year       10840 15725
at 31 december       128041 117 201
net book amount at 31 december       27 199 28813
capital contribution in respect of  
employee share schemes see note 26
at 1 january       4302 3871
additions in the year       340 431
at 31 december       4642 4302
total investments       31841 33115
the group had no investments at 31 december 2012 2011 nil 
interests in subsidiary undertakings
      proportion of nominal 
      value of issued shares 
    country of description of held by the group 
name of undertaking incorporation  shares held and company nature of business
oxford biomedica uk limited great britain 1p ordinary shares 100 gene therapy  
       research and  
       development
biomedica inc united states of america 0001 100 gene therapy  
     common stock  research and  
       development
oxxon therapeutics limited  great britain 1p ordinary shares 100 dormant
all of the above subsidiaries have been consolidated in these ﬁnancial statements
at each year end the directors review the carrying value of the company’s investment in subsidiaries where there  
is a material and sustained shortfall in the market capitalisation or a signiﬁcant and sustained change in the business 
resulting in a decrease in market capitalisation the directors consider this to be a trigger of an impairment review  
as set out in ias 36 and the carrying value of the company’s investments in subsidiaries is adjusted the directors 
consider that reference to the market capitalisation of the group is an appropriate external measure of the value  
of the group for this purpose following an impairment review at 31 december 2012 a £108m impairment charge  
was recognised cumulative impairment of £1280m has been recognised to 31 december 2012
during 2012 the employees of biomedica inc were made redundant and the office lease reached the end of its term 
the intention is to make the company dormant in 2013 oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 68
notes to the consolidated ﬁnancial statements 
for the year ended 31 december 2012
15 trade and other receivables
 group company
        2012 2011 2012 2011 
        £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
current
trade receivables     315 154 – –
accrued income     400 33 – –
other receivables     184 256 – –
other tax receivable     140 858 – –
prepayments     666 1499 11 1
total trade and other receivables     1705 2800 11 1
the fair value of trade and other receivables are the current book values
included in the group’s trade receivable balance are debtors with a carrying amount of £204000 2011 £nil which are 
past due at the reporting date the group does not hold any collateral over these balances no provision for impairment 
of receivables has been recognised as £131000 has been received after the year end in relation to these debts the 
directors do not believe there has been a signiﬁcant change in credit quality and consider the remaining amounts  
to be recoverable in full
ageing of past due but not impaired trade receivables
         2012  2011 
         £’000  £’000
0–30 days      40  –
30–60 days      –  –
60 days      164  –
         204  –
accrued income of £400000 2011 £33000 relates to rd funding receivable from sanoﬁ
the carrying amounts of the group’s trade and other receivables are denominated in the following currencies
         2012  2011 
         £’000  £’000
sterling      968  1841
us dollar      737  959
         1705  2800
the company’s receivables are all denominated in sterling
the maximum exposure to credit risk at the reporting date is the fair value of each class of receivable above  
the group does not hold any collateral as security
16 cash and cash equivalents
 group company
        2012 2011 2012 2011 
        £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
cash at bank and in hand     8956 6835 743 –
in addition to the cash and cash equivalents described above the group held sterling bank deposits of £5105000 
2011 £7500000 with a maturity of between three and twelve months classiﬁed as available for sale investments 
none of these deposits are past due or impaired 
the company held no available for sale investments in 2012 or 2011 oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 69
17  trade and other payables – current
 group company
        2012 2011 2012 2011 
        £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
trade payables     881 1200 – –
other taxation and social security     157 161 – –
accruals     1664 1865 23 46
total trade and other payables     2702 3226 23 46
18 deferred income
          2012 2011 
group       £’000 £’000
current        1568 4386
noncurrent       – 170
total deferred income       1568 4556
on 28 april 2009 the company entered into a collaborative programme with sanoﬁ to develop gene therapy  
products to treat ocular diseases an initial nonrefundable sum of us26 million £16641000 was received  
prior to 2012 this was being recognised as revenue on a straight line basis over 42 to 51 months being the expected 
duration of the initial stage of the collaboration for each of the four products in 2012 the period has been varied to 
recognise that i sanoﬁ has exercised its options over stargen™ and ushstat
®
 and will take over these studies before 
june 2013 ii the retinostat
®
 study will complete during 2013 and iii the utilisation of encorstat
®
 funding on the other 
three products revenue to date of £15854000 has been recognised under this collaboration of which £3414000  
was recognised in 2012 2011 £4665000 the remaining £787000 2011 £4031000 is expected to be recognised  
as revenue in the next 12 months and is classiﬁed as current deferred income with £nil 2011 £170000 classiﬁed  
as noncurrent
over the term of the ocular gene therapy collaboration oxford biomedica may recover from sanoﬁ up to us24 million 
in research and development funding project costs in excess of us24 million will be borne by oxford biomedica  
to date £13319000 21091000 has been recognised as revenue of which £1932000 was recognised in 2012 
£621000 2011 £355000 has been classiﬁed as current deferred income
the company had no deferred income in 2012 or 2011
19 provisions
          onerous 
         dilapidations lease total 
group        £’000 £’000  £’000
at 1 january 2012      501 41 542
exchange adjustments      – – –
utilised in the year      – 41 41
unwinding of discount      3 – 3
change of discount rate – adjustment to recognised property plant and equipment  6 – 6
at 31 december 2012       510 – 510
at 1 january 2011      457 124 581
exchange adjustments      – 2 2
utilised in the year      – 82 82
unwinding of discount      7 1 8
change of discount rate – adjustment to recognised property plant and equipment  37 – 37
at 31 december 2011       501 41 542 oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 70
notes to the consolidated ﬁnancial statements 
for the year ended 31 december 2012
          2012 2011 
          £’000 £’000
current       – 41
noncurrent       510 501
total provisions       510 542
the dilapidations provision relates to anticipated costs of restoring the leasehold property in oxford uk to its original 
condition at the end of the present leases in 2016 discounted using the rate per the bank of england nominal yield 
curve the equivalent rate was used in 2011 the provision will be utilised at the end of the leases if they are not 
renewed 
the onerous lease provision related to the estimated rental shortfall in respect of a redundant property in san diego 
usa which was sublet for the remainder of the lease term until june 2012 discounted using the rate per the bank  
of england nominal yield curve the equivalent rate was used in 2011 the provision was fully utilised in 2012
the company had no provisions at 31 december 2012 or 31 december 2011
20 financial instruments
the group’s and company’s ﬁnancial instruments comprise investments in subsidiaries cash and cash equivalents 
together with available for sale investments trade and other receivables and trade and other payables additional 
disclosures are set out in the corporate governance statement and in note 3 relating to risk management
the group had the following ﬁnancial instruments at 31 december each year
 assets liabilities
        2012 2011 2012 2011 
        £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
cash and cash equivalents note 16     8956 6835 – –
available for sale investments     5105 7500 – –
trade receivables and other receivables note 15    499 410 – –
trade and other payables excluding tax note 17    – – 2545 3065
        14560 14745 2545 3065
all the available for sale investments held at 31 december 2012 and 31 december 2011 were denominated in sterling 
the weighted average interest rates and average deposit terms for ﬁxed rate deposits are shown below floating rate 
instant access deposits earned interest at prevailing bank rates 
 2012 2011
      year end deposits yr average year end deposits yr average
      weighted weighted weighted weighted weighted weighted  
      average rate average term average rate average rate average term average rate
sterling   164 93 days 170 148 225 days 075
euro    065 262 days 115 125 31 days 055
us dollars   065 262 days 065 065 31 days 066
in accordance with ias 39 ‘financial instruments recognition and measurement’ the group has reviewed all contracts 
for embedded derivatives that are required to be separately accounted for if they do not meet certain requirements  
set out in the standard there were no such derivatives identiﬁed at 31 december 2012 or 31 december 2011 oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 71
fair value
the directors consider that the fair values of the group’s ﬁnancial instruments do not differ signiﬁcantly from  
their book values 
the carrying amounts of the group’s cash and cash equivalents are denominated in the following currencies
          2012 2011 
          £’000 £’000
sterling       6133 6692
euro        – 4
us dollar       2823 139
          8956 6835
21 deferred taxation
neither the company nor the group had any recognised deferred tax assets or liabilities at 31 december 2012  
2011 £nil in light of the group’s continuing losses recovery of the deferred tax asset is not sufficiently certain  
and therefore no asset has been recognised
during the year as a result of the change in the uk corporation tax rate from 24 to 23 that was substantively enacted 
on 3 july 2012 and that will be effective from 1 april 2013 the relevant unrecognised deferred tax balances have been 
remeasured deferred tax expected to reverse in the year to 31 december 2013 has been measured using the effective 
rate that will apply in the uk for the period 23
further changes to the uk corporation tax system were announced in the autumn statement 2012 this includes a 
further reduction to the main rate to reduce the rate to 21 from 1 april 2014 this change had not been substantively 
enacted at the balance sheet date and therefore is not included in these ﬁnancial statements the overall effect of this 
further change if it applied to the deferred tax balance at the balance sheet date would be to reduce the unrecognised 
deferred tax asset by an additional £19m
       tax   share 
group    depreciation provisions tax losses options total 
deferred tax liabilitiesassets – not recognised    £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
at 1 january 2012    696 343 21828 60 22927
origination and reversal of temporary differences   45 219 916 22 1112
at 31 december 2012    741 124 20912 38 21815
at 1 january 2011    295 338 22439 125 22607
origination and reversal of temporary differences   991 5 611 65 320
at 31 december 2011    696 343 21828 60 22927
22 calledup share capital
group and company        2012 2011 
issued and fully paid       £’000 £’000
ordinary shares of 1p each
at 1 january – 944875557 2011 544875557 shares      9449 5449
allotted for cash in placing and open offer – 463362652 2011 400000000 shares   4634 4000
allotted for cash to licensors of patent rights – 7910796 2011 nil shares    79 –
at 31 december – 1416149005 2011 944875557 shares     14162 9449
on 26 july 2012 the company issued 463362652 new ordinary shares of 1p each in a placing and open offer at 25p 
per share raising £116 million before costs costs of this share issue including commission payable on completion 
were £15m 
on 14 november 2012 to two licensors of patent rights subscribed for 7910796 new ordinary shares of 1p each under 
an agreement signed in 2008 the shares were offered at 247p per share oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 72
notes to the consolidated ﬁnancial statements 
for the year ended 31 december 2012
23 share premium account
          2012 2011 
group and company       £’000 £’000
at 1 january        124755 110387
premium on shares issued for cash in placing and open offer     6950 16000
premium on shares issued to licensors of patent rights      116 –
costs associated with the issue of shares        1517 1632
at 31 december       130304 124755
24 options over shares of oxford biomedica plc
the company has outstanding share options that were issued under the following schemes
—  the oxford biomedica 1996 no1 share option scheme closed october 2006
—  the oxford biomedica 2007 share option scheme approved february 2007
—  the long term incentive plan ltip for executive directors and senior executives approved february 2007
eligible employees are awarded either share options or long term incentive plan ltip awards at the discretion of the 
remuneration committee executive directors and other senior managers are awarded options under the ltip and  
not under the 2007 scheme 
options granted under the 1996 and 2007 schemes have ﬁxed exercise prices based on the market price at the date  
of grant they are not subject to market condition performance criteria and the lives of the options are seven years 
1996 scheme and ten years 2007 scheme after which the options expire options granted prior to 2012 cannot 
normally be exercised before the third anniversary of the date of grant options granted under the 2007 scheme during 
2012 vest in tranches of 25 from the ﬁrst to fourth anniversaries of the grant dates
options granted under the ltip to directors and other senior managers are subject to market condition performance 
criteria and will vest only if at the third anniversary of the grant the performance criteria have been met failure  
to meet the minimum performance criteria by the third anniversary results in all the granted options lapsing the 
performance criteria are described in the directors’ remuneration report ltip awards made to date are exercisable  
at par on the third anniversary of the date of grant 
the total number of options over ordinary shares of 1p each that had been granted and had not been exercised  
or lapsed at 31 december 2012 was as follows 
options granted to employees under the oxford biomedica 1996 no 1 share option scheme
 2012 2011 
 number number exercise price date from which 
 of shares of shares  per share exercisable expiry date
 – 1853999 2025p to 4325p 010408 to 151208 010412 to 151212
 623693 966904 2825p to 310p 210309 to 060909 210313 to 060913
 623693 2820903
options granted to employees under the oxford biomedica 2007 share option scheme
 2012 2011 
 number number exercise price date from which 
 of shares of shares  per share exercisable expiry date
 722017 972411 220p to 4925p 080310 to 141210 080317 to 141217
 1025221 1422107 575p to 225p 130311 to 131011 130318 to 131018
 1587554 2160236 610p to 1125p 250312 to 081012 250319 to 081019
 1693408 2566803 950p to 969p 010413 to 130913 010420 to 130920
 2625381 3759097 540p to 582p 150314 to 041014 150321 to 041021
 5322945 – 228p to 310p 080513 to 211213 080522 to 211222
 12976526 10880654 oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 73
options granted under the oxford biomedica long term incentive plan
 2012 2011 
 number number exercise price date from which 
 of shares of shares  per share exercisable expiry date
 1150000 1150000 1p 131011 131018
 – 5524000 1p 250312 250319
 5568000 5568000 1p 150613 150620
 6537 000 6537000 1p 130414 to 070914 130421 to 070921
 25590000 – 1p 300615 300622
 38845000 18779000
 52445219 32480557
options granted to uk employees could give rise to a national insurance ni liability on exercise for options granted 
up to october 2006 under the 1996 scheme the company obtained undertakings from the holders of the relevant 
options to pay any ni on exercise so there is no ni liability in respect of these options in respect of options including 
ltip awards granted from february 2007 there are no such employee undertakings so a ni liability could arise on the 
exercise of the options a provision of £2000 2011 £4000 is included in accruals for the potential ni liability accrued 
to 31 december on relevant options that were above water based on the yearend share price of 23p 2011 35p  
per share 
25 share based payments
options other than ltip awards have been valued using a blackscholes option pricing model for each  
relevant option grant individual valuation assumptions were assessed based upon conditions at the date of grant  
the assumptions in the calculation of fair values in 2012 were as follows 
    share options share options share options share options 
    granted 250309 granted 010410 granted 150311 granted 080512 
share options to 081009 to 130910 to 041011 to 211212
share price at grant date 608p to 1175p  910p to 950p  476p to 538p  23p to 38p
exercise price 610p to 1125p 950p to 969p 540p to 582p 228p to 310p
vesting period years 300 300 300 25 tranches
total number of shares under option 2726789 2923421 3759097 5322945
expected volatility weighted average 752 760 747 761
expected life years weighted average 577 576 598 550
risk free rate weighted average 271 241 179 182
expected rate of forfeit before vesting  
weighted average 264 167 162 125
fair value per option 394p to 793p 600p to 628p 299p to 347p 131p to 285p
      ltip awards  
    ltip award ltip award 130411 ltip award 
ltip awards 250309 150610 and 070911 300612
share price at grant date 608p 1025p 560p to 561p 234p
exercise price 100p 100p 100p 100p
vesting period years 30 30 300 300
total number of shares under option 7296000 6106000 6537000 25590000
expected volatility weighted average 600 891 838 525
expected life years 30 30 300 300
risk free rate weighted average 211 155 173 038
expected rate of forfeit before vesting  
weighted average 243 88 00 00
expectation of meeting performance criteria  
weighted average 74 83 84 10
fair value per option 390p 740p 393p to 405p  063p  oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 74
notes to the consolidated ﬁnancial statements 
for the year ended 31 december 2012
excluding the ltip awards which are exercisable at par subject to satisfaction of the performance conditions  
the weighted average exercise price for options granted during the year was 307p 2011 55p no options were 
exercised in 2012 or 2011 the total charge for the year relating to employee share based payment plans was £340000 
2011 £431000 all of which related to equitysettled share based payment transactions the movements in options  
in the year to 31 december 2012 and an analysis of options outstanding at the year end are shown below
 2012 2011
        weighted  weighted 
        average  average 
        exercise  exercise 
share options excluding ltip    number price number price
outstanding at 1 january    13701557 151p 16840509 259p
granted    5826902 307p 3759097 55p
expired    1853999 292p 6134941 393p
forfeited    4074241 403p 763108 97p
exercised    – – – –
outstanding at 31 december    13600219 91p 13701557 151p
exercisable at 31 december    3958485 195p 5215421 270p
exercisable and where market price exceeds exercise price at 31 december – na – na
         2012  2011 
ltip awards options exercisable at par value 1p     number  number
outstanding at 1 january    18779000 18756088
granted    25590000 6537000
expired    5524000 5077088
forfeited    – 1437000
outstanding at 31 december    38845000 18779000
exercisable at 31 december    1150000 1150000
 2012 2011
        weighted   weighted  
      weighted  average weighted  average 
      average  remaining average  remaining 
      exercise number life years exercise number life years 
range of exercise prices   price of shares contractual price of shares contractual
ltip
exercisable at par   10p 38845000 89 10p 18779000 135
options
under 10p   49p 10461617 86 69p 7393832 890
10p to 20p   106p 1562446 66 106p 2160522 758
20p to 30p   262p 604669 41 260p 2403463 173
30p to 40p   336p 468616 41 335p 780115 330
40p to 50p   482p 502871 42 463p 963625 355
       52445219   32480557  oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 75
26 accumulated losses
 group company
        2012 2011 2012 2011 
        £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
at 1 january      130061 117861 119035 103174
loss for the year     8730 12631 11100 15861
share based payments note 25     340 431 – –
at 31 december      138451 130061 130135 119035
neither the company nor its subsidiary undertakings had reserves available for distribution at 31 december 2012  
or 31 december 2011
27  other reserves
         translation merger 
         reserve  reserve total 
group      £’000 £’000 £’000
at 1 january 2012      682 14310 13628
exchange adjustments      – – –
at 31 december 2012      682 14310 13628
at 1 january 2011      680 14310 13630
exchange adjustments      2 – 2
at 31 december 2011      682 14310 13628
the group merger reserve at 31 december 2012 and 2011 comprised £711000 arising from consolidation of  
oxford biomedica uk limited using the merger method of accounting in 1996 and £13599000 from the application  
of merger relief to the purchase of oxxon therapeutics limited in 2007
           share 
          merger scheme 
          reserve reserve 
company       £’000 £’000
at 1 january 2012       13599 4302
credit in relation to employee share schemes       – 340
at 31 december 2012       13599 4642
at 1 january 2011       13599 3871
credit in relation to employee share schemes       – 431
at 31 december 2011       13599 4302
options over the company’s shares have been awarded to employees of subsidiary companies in accordance  
with ifrs 2 ‘sharebased payment’ the expense in respect of these awards is recognised in the subsidiaries’ ﬁnancial 
statements see note 25 in accordance with ifric 11 the company has treated the awards as a capital contribution  
to the subsidiaries resulting in an increase in the cost of investment of £340000 2011 £431000 see note 14  
and a corresponding credit to reserves  oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 76
notes to the consolidated ﬁnancial statements 
for the year ended 31 december 2012
28 cash ﬂows from operating activities
 reconciliation of loss before tax to net cash used in operations
 group company
        2012 2011 2012 2011 
        £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
continuing operations
loss before tax     10349 14302 11100 15861
adjustment for
depreciation     601 336 – –
amortisation of intangible assets     370 450 – –
loss on disposal of property plant and equipment    26 – – –
charge for impairment     – 3136 10840 15725
finance income     141 144 – –
finance expense     3 8 – –
charge in relation to employee share schemes     340 431 – –
changes in working capital
decreaseincrease in trade and other receivables    1224 1229 10 14
decrease in trade and other payables     524 539 23 17
decrease in deferred income     2988 4846 – –
decrease in provisions     32 82 – –
net cash used in operations     11470 14323 293 139
29 pension commitments
the group operates a deﬁned contribution pension scheme for its directors and employees the assets of the scheme 
are held in independently administered funds the pension cost charge of £342000 2011 £329000 represents 
amounts payable by the group to the scheme contributions of £8000 2011 £40000 included in accruals were 
payable to the scheme at the yearend 
30 operating lease commitments – minimum lease payments
the future aggregate minimum lease payments under noncancellable operating leases are as follows 
           2012 2011 
group       £’000 £’000
not later than one year       583 953
later than one year and not later than ﬁve years       1298 2031
total lease commitments       1881 2984
total future minimum sublease payments receivable      – 255
the group leases equipment under noncancellable operating lease agreements the group also leases its laboratories 
and offices under noncancellable operating lease agreements the leases have various terms escalation clauses and 
renewal rights in 2011 the ﬁgures for property leases included a redundant building in san diego usa which had been 
sublet a provision of £nil 2011 £41000 had been made for the expected rental shortfall under this lease as the lease 
ended in 2012 see note 19
the company had no operating lease commitments during the year 2011 none oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 77
31 contingent liabilities and capital commitments
the group had commitments of £148000 for capital expenditure for leasehold improvements plant and equipment 
not provided in the ﬁnancial statements at 31 december 2012 2011 £112000
32 related party transactions
identity of related parties
the group consists of a parent oxford biomedica plc two whollyowned trading subsidiaries oxford biomedica uk 
limited the principal trading company and biomedica inc and one subsidiary oxxon therapeutics limited which 
was acquired and became dormant in 2007 when its assets and trade were transferred to oxford biomedica uk 
limited biomedica inc provides services in the usa to oxford biomedica uk limited under a transfer pricing 
agreement 
the parent company is responsible for ﬁnancing and setting group strategy oxford biomedica uk limited carries out 
the group strategy employs all the uk staff including the directors and owns and manages all of the group’s 
intellectual property the proceeds of the issue of shares by the parent are passed from oxford biomedica plc to oxford 
biomedica uk limited as a loan and oxford biomedica uk limited manages group funds and makes payments 
including the expenses of the parent company 
           2012 2011 
company transactions with subsidiaries       £’000 £’000
purchases
parent company expenses paid by subsidiary       969 1501
  
transactions involving parent company shares
subsidiary royalty liability settled by issue of parent company shares     195 –
  
cash management
cash loaned by parent to subsidiary       10000 19934
the loan from oxford biomedica plc to oxford biomedica uk limited is unsecured and interest free the loan is not 
due for repayment within 12 months of the year end the year end balance on the loan was 
           2012 2011 
company year end balance of loan       £’000 £’000
loan to subsidiary       138082 128856
in addition to the transactions above options over the company’s shares have been awarded to employees of 
subsidiary companies in accordance with ifric 11 the company has treated the awards as a capital contribution  
to the subsidiaries resulting in a cumulative increase in the cost of investment of £4642000 2011 £4302000
there were no transactions 2011 none with oxxon therapeutics limited
transactions with directors and connected persons
in addition to his fees as a director up to the date of his resignation dr alan kingsman former group chairman  
was paid a consultancy fee of £77083 in 2011 
martin diggle a nonexecutive director of the company is a founder of vulpes investment management which  
is a shareholder of the company in the july 2012 placing and open offer vulpes subscribed for 200000000 shares  
at a cost of 25p per share further details of the shareholding at 31 december 2012 can be found in the corporate 
governance section on page 44
there were no outstanding balances in respect of transactions with directors and connected persons at 31 december 
2012 2011 none 
key person remuneration can be seen in the directors’ remuneration report on pages 41 to 46 oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 78
lentivector
®
 platform
oxford biomedica’s lentivector
®
 platform technology is
an advanced lentiviral vector based gene delivery system
which is designed to overcome the safety and delivery
problems associated with earlier generations of vector
systems the technology can stably deliver genes into
cells with up to 100 efficiency and can integrate genes
into nondividing cells including neurons in the brain and
retinal cells in the eye in such cell types studies suggest
that gene expression could be maintained indeﬁnitely
the lentivector
®
 platform technology also has a larger
capacity than most other vector systems and can
accommodate multiple therapeutic genes
prosavin
®
 parkinson’s disease
prosavin
®
 is a genebased treatment for parkinson’s 
disease a progressive movement disorder caused by  
the degeneration of dopamine producing nerve cells  
in the brain prosavin
®
 uses the company’s lentivector
®
 
platform technology to deliver the genes for three 
enzymes that are required for the synthesis of dopamine 
the product is administered locally to the region  
of the brain called the striatum converting cells into  
a replacement dopamine factory within the brain  
thus replacing the patient’s own lost source of 
the neurotransmitter
retinostat
®
 “wet” agerelated macular degeneration
retinostat
®
 is a genebased treatment for neovascular 
“wet” agerelated macular degeneration amd and 
diabetic retinopathy dr retinostat
®
 aims to preserve 
and improve the vision of patients through anti
angiogenesis blocking the formation of new blood 
vessels the product uses the company’s lentivector
®
 
platform technology to deliver two antiangiogenic 
genes endostatin and angiostatin directly to the retina
stargen
™
 stargardt disease
stargen™ is a genebased therapy for the treatment  
of stargardt disease the disease is caused by a mutation 
of the abcr gene which leads to the degeneration of 
photoreceptors in the retina and vision loss stargen™ 
uses the company’s lentivector
®
 platform technology  
to deliver a corrected version of the abcr gene a single 
administration of the product directly to the retina could 
provide longterm or potentially permanent correction
ushstat
®
 usher syndrome type 1b
ushstat
®
 is a genebased therapy for the treatment of 
usher syndrome 1b the disease is caused by a mutation 
of the gene encoding myosin viia my07a which leads 
to progressive retinitis pigmentosa combined with a 
congenital hearing defect ushstat
®
 intends to address 
vision loss due to retinitis pigmentosa by using the 
company’s lentivector
®
 platform technology to deliver  
a corrected version of the myo7a gene a single 
administration of the product could provide longterm  
or potentially permanent correction
encorstat
®
 corneal graft rejection
encorstat
®
 is a genebased treatment for the prevention 
of corneal graft rejection corneal grafting arises from  
a need to remove and replace pathology arising in the 
cornea causing ‘clouding’ although one of the most 
successfully transplanted tissues a signiﬁcant number  
of grafts are rejected due to vascularisation encorstat
®
 
uses the company’s lentivector
®
 platform technology  
to deliver endostatin and angiostatin ex vivo to donor 
corneas prior to transplant in order to block 
vascularisation and to prevent graft rejection
glaucomagt chronic glaucoma
glaucomagt is a gene based treatment for the treatment 
of chronic glaucoma chronic glaucoma results from a 
partial blockage within trabecular meshwork of the eye 
the tissue mainly responsible for draining the internal ﬂuid 
of the eye aqueous humour as the aqueous humour 
builds up it causes increased intraocular pressure which 
can damage the optic nerve and lead to premature 
patches of vision loss or in some lentivector
®
 platform 
technology expressing a cox2 gene and a pgf2

Summary:
 oxford biomedica plc  annual report and accounts 2012 09
gene therapy at a glance
what is gene therapy 
gene therapy is a technique 
which arms the body with its 
own biological ammunition 
to ﬁght disease 
deoxyribonucleic acid dna  
is a complex chemical that carries 
genetic information genes are 
speciﬁc units of dna which encode 
instructions on how to make 
proteins the building blocks which 
cells in the body require to function 
properly  examples of proteins 
include enzymes hormones  
and antibodies
there are several gene therapy 
approaches in development such as
—  inserting a healthy copy of a 
gene to address a mutated gene 
that causes disease
—  inactivating or “knocking out”  
a mutated gene that is 
functioning improperly  
gene silencing
—  introducing a new gene or 
genes into speciﬁc cells within 
the body to help ﬁght a disease
one of the most common forms  
of gene therapy involves inserting 
healthy genes into speciﬁc cells
within a patient who has inherited  
a faulty copy of the gene for 
example stargen
™
 inserts the 
healthy abcr gene into the retina  
of patients with stargardt disease 
and similarly ushstat
®
 delivers  
a healthy myo7a gene to treat 
patients with usher syndrome  
type 1b
 
how does it work 
in order to deliver the functional 
gene into the target cells such as  
the eye for example the gene needs  
to be carried by a “vector” which can 
enter the cell without causing any 
damage viruses have spent millions 
of years living in human cells and 
have adapted to be able to grow and 
replicate ie make more of themselves 
very well using a type of virus called 
a lentivirus our scientists have hijacked 
the virus’ ability to get into target 
cells in order to deliver a signiﬁcant 
amount of genetic information safely 
and very efficiently
using a lentivirus called equine 
infectious anaemia virus eiav we 
strip out the virus’ ability to replicate 
and then insert the desired genetic 
payload into this vector once 
administered directly to the target 
tissue in the patient the shell of  
the virus knows what to do
1   it provides the mechanism for 
entry into the target cell across  
the cell surface membrane
2   it takes the dna genes into the 
nucleus the control centre which 
contains the cell’s own dna
 —   lentiviruses are speciﬁcally 
adapted to perform this task 
efficiently in nondividing cells 
such as retinal cells in the eye 
or neurons in the brain
3   the vector inserts the genetic 
payload into the cell’s dna sequence
4   the viral shell is naturally 
degraded away
5    the newlyinserted genes is  
then able to make a new protein 
product to target disease or produce 
a molecule that inactivates a 
mutated gene
 
future development 
in november 2012 the european 
commission approved its ﬁrst  
gene therapy product glybera
®
  
to treat patients with lipoprotein 
lipase deﬁciency 
only two other gene therapy 
products are approved for use 
gendicine
™
 in china for cancer  
and neovasculgen in russia for 
peripheral arterial disease gene 
therapy offers a longlasting 
treatment from a single administration 
and although still very much in 
development scientiﬁc breakthroughs 
continue to move this technology 
towards mainstream medicine
gene therapy has the potential to create medicines and treatments  
that could improve life for millions of people worldwide