Technology evaluation: MetXia-P450, Oxford Biomedica

Oxford BioMedica is developing gene therapies for treating various forms of cancer. The therapies comprise the transfer of several anticancer genes at a time using a recombinant retrovirus approach based on the company's proprietary LTR Deleted Vector and Accelerated Vector Evolution technologies [238147]. MetXia-P450 is a gene therapy construct containing the cytochrome P450 gene CYP2B6, and is designed to be injected directly into tumors to convert them into 'drug factories'. This is achieved because CYP2B6 converts the inactive produg form cyclophosphamide into the active cytotoxic drug. MetXia-P450 is in phase I/II trials for breast cancer [339582].