Oxford BioMedica, a gene-based biopharmaceutical company, has made a strategic decision to close the US trial of its TroVax product on patients with progressive hormone refractory prostate cancer (HRPC) because recruitment has been much slower than originally anticipated.

This is largely because competition for suitable patients with HRPC has been high following a change in the prostate cancer treatment landscape in the US, with new products available and other clinical trials targeting the same indication.

The firm said that whilst early data from the study are encouraging, the board has decided to focus on investigator-led Phase II studies, currently in the UK.

The data that had been collected indicated a trend towards increased time to disease progression in patients who received TroVax plus chemotherapy drug docetaxel versus those who received docetaxel alone.

The company said these data "validate the observation that Oxford BioMedica's pre-treatment biomarker can identify patients most likely to benefit from treatment with TroVax".

Looking ahead, the company expects two further investigator-led Phase II studies of TroVax in mesothelioma and ovarian cancer to be initiated in the UK by academic collaborators in the fourth quarter of 2012.

John Dawson, Chief Executive Officer of Oxford BioMedica, said: "Whilst changes to the treatment landscape in the US have challenged recruitment into our prostate cancer trial, early data support the use of our biomarker which is an important step in the ongoing clinical development of TroVax. We are focused on our Phase II programme with academic collaborators in the UK which will further support the potential for TroVax in the treatment of multiple cancer indications."

The share price fell 5.45% to 2.60p by late morning.

NR

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