College Hill Life Sciences

Case Studies / Oxford BioMedica

Oxford BioMedica is a UK listed biotech company developing gene-based therapeutics primarily for cancer and neurodegenerative diseases. With two products now in the clinic, and five at the pre-clinical stage, the Company was keen to have its business profile reflect a move from an R&D focus to a more mature, drug development business. Northbank was brought in to embark on a more sustained and considered media relations output.

Objective

	To leverage the profile of Oxford BioMedica as the leading company operating in the field of gene-based medicines
	To proactively educate press in the field of gene therapy and prevent sensationalist reporting
	To raise awareness of Oxford BioMedica among its key financial, scientific and collaborator audiences

PR strategy
Alongside ongoing media relations on the back of newsflow, Northbank identified the launch of a Government Genetics White Paper with additional support for gene therapy as an opportunity around which to gain both immediate media coverage and ongoing media interest.

Methods and activities
Having established the fact that the Government White Paper, announcing significant funding in the field of genetics, would be supportive of gene therapy, Northbank acted quickly to use this opportunity to secure coverage. On the morning of the announcement, Northbank issued an email to all science and political editors on the nationals as well as to wires and key trade press, alerting them to the upcoming White Paper and putting Professor Alan Kingsman, CEO of Oxford BioMedica, forward as a spokesperson, in particular on what the funding would mean for industry and the prospect of bringing new treatments to market. Through monitoring the DTI website for the issue of the White Paper, Northbank was able to make it available to the press, thus becoming a source for key opinion leader comment.

Following the interest created with journalists, Northbank worked with the Science Media Centre, a charitable body set up to provide journalists with background information and spokespeople on science, to organise a media briefing on gene therapy. Northbank contributed ideas for a balanced speaker panel and of course put forward Alan Kingsman as a spokesperson and leading authority in the area. This was facilitated by the fact that Sue Charles sits on the advisory board of the Association of British Science Writes (ABSW) alongside the Science Media Centre, an objective medium for promoting scientific stories to the national science press.

Northbank worked closely with the Science Media Centre to secure the panel members, which included Professor Adrian Thrasher, a principal investigator in gene therapy at Great Ormond Street, and Professor Robin Ali, a research expert in gene therapy approaches for ocular diseases. Northbank also helped prepare Oxford BioMedica for the briefing by suggesting topics for discussion, and preparing Q&As and one page transcripts to be circulated on the day for press. Northbank also ensured that Oxford BioMedica had media packs available on the day of the briefing.

Results
The PR activity around the Government White Paper resulted in several requests for the report and led directly to interviews with Alan Kingsman with the Independent, the Financial Times, BioCentury and Scrip World Pharmaceutical News. As a direct result of these interviews, BioCentury wrote a piece in which Alan Kingsman was quoted and Scrip gave Oxford BioMedica the opportunity to contribute a 300 word article which was published word for word. The Financial Times also published a piece on Oxford BioMedica in the following days on the back of a news announcement.

The gene therapy briefing was attended by over 15 science journalists on nationals and provided an excellent opportunity to raise the profile of the Company and its area of expertise. As well as giving a ten minute talk, the journalists and panel members took part in 30 minutes of interactive Q&A. The briefing resulted in high profile coverage of Oxford BioMedica in the Independent (the lead story on page 2 of the paper, repeated in the tabloid issue), The Times, the Daily Telegraph, the Daily Mail, and Chemistry in Britain. Based on this briefing, Clive Cookson, the science editor of the Financial Times, wrote a feature on gene therapy for the FT biotechnology survey which was published on 11 November, including quotes from Alan Kingsman and Adrian Thrasher.

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