Oxford Biomedica - Novartis extends commercial supply agreement

Oxford Biomedica (OXB) has announced the expansion of its commercial supply agreement with Novartis by five years. While expected, this removes any uncertainty around the future of the partnership and is a validation of OXB’s investment in new manufacturing facilities. Novartis is now committed to paying OXB a minimum of $75m (for vector batches) in manufacturing revenue over the five-year extension. Additionally, OXB will be paid a mid-single digit £m facility reservation fee. As part of this, OXB will dedicate some of its new 7,800m2 manufacturing facility (OxBox) to Novartis while also ensuring that at least two of its GMP facilities are capable of commercial supply, essentially ensuring a dual-sourced supply if the need arose. We value OXB at £692m vs £673m previously.