Shares of the UK's Oxford Biomedica surged in overnight trading after the biotech reported that its collaboration to produce drugs in genetically modified chickens had achieved success in producing a potentially effective protein in the whites of an egg. Biomedica has been working with Viragen and the Roslin Institute to make antibodies and proteins in agricultural products like milk and eggs. The biotech also said that a preclinical test of its experimental treatment Innurex showed that it was able to produce some nerve repair in spinal cord damage.
"We have long believed that this joint effort would develop an avian system capable of efficiently and economically producing human biopharmaceuticals, and with this major milestone achievement, I am even more convinced that we are developing an elite manufacturing platform that should emerge as a method of choice for many products," said the project's scientific leader, Roslin Senior Scientist Dr. Helen Sang.
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