USC Marshall School of Business Announces Six Nominees for European BioBusiness Leadership Award 2005

October 4, 2005 -- Los Angeles -- The University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business is considering six candidates to receive its inaugural European BioBusiness Leadership Award 2005.

To be presented at a special ceremony during the World Life Science Week Gala Reception at the Royal Courts of Justice, London on the evening of October 11, the award recognizes leaders (individuals, organizations and/or corporations) that best exemplify the spirit of innovation, enterprise and entrepreneurship in areas of biobusiness (healthcare, biomedical, agricultural, food, environmental and emerging technology areas in the life sciences and biotechnology).

The six nominees for this year's European BioBusiness Leadership Award are (in alphabetical order):

Acambis plc - a leading biotechnology company that is discovering, developing and manufacturing novel vaccines to prevent and treat infectious diseases including smallpox, Japanese encephalitis, dengue fever, the West Nile virus, clostridium difficile and influenza.

Ardana Bioscience Limited - a pharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing and marketing innovative products in key therapy areas of reproductive health, specifically encompassing reproductive endocrinology, urology, sexual dysfunction, gynecology and obstetrics.

Cambridge Antibody Technology - a leading global company concentrating on the discovery and development of human monoclonal antibody therapeutics for the management of inflammatory disorders including rheumatic and psoriatic arthritis.

Oxford Biomedica - dedicated to research and development of safe and effective gene-based medicines for the treatment of unmet medical needs with a focus on the areas of oncology and neurotherapy. In oncology, the pipeline includes an immunotherapy and a gene therapy in multiple Phase II trials, and a preclinical targeted antibody therapy. In neurotherapy, the company's lead product is a gene therapy for Parkinson's disease.

PowderMed Limited - a private immunotherapeutic company based in Oxford, UK, that is focused on the clinical development and manufacture of therapeutic and prophylactic DNA-based vaccines for viral diseases such as influenza (prophylactic and pandemic products), as well as a treatment of chronic viral diseases and cancer, namely genital herpes, hepatitis B, genital warts, HIV/AIDS and cancer.

Prof. Axel Ullrich - a world leader in gene-based translation of scientific insight into medical application. Among other achievements, he is credited with having developed Humulin™, the first gene-based biotech product brought into clinical use (a form of human insulin used for the treatment of diabetes) as well as Herceptin™, the world's first target-directed therapy for the management of metastatic breast cancer. Prof. Ullrich has played a key role in promoting the development of biotechnology in Europe, North America, and Australasia.

The European BioBusiness Award is one of a series of regional and global BioBusiness Leadership Awards sponsored by the USC Marshall Global BioBusiness Initiative (www.marshall.usc.edu/biobusiness). Directed by Dr. Gurinder Shahi, the Global BioBusiness Initiative serves as an international resource dedicated to facilitating interdisciplinary leadership in the biobusiness arena.

"We have observed a very interesting shift in our nomination patterns from the first Asia-Pacific BioBusiness Leadership Award 2005 early this year to our most recent award nominations," said Dr. Shahi. "We selected 10 individual entrepreneurs and change leaders for the Asia-Pacific award, then we nominated five individual entrepreneurs and one leading not-for-profit institution for the North American BioBusiness Leadership Award, and now, only one individual along with five companies is competing for the European BioBusiness Leadership Award. 'What, if anything, does this shift in nominee patterns say about each region,?' one might ask."

For further details regarding the awards and the selection process, please take a look at the website www.marshall.usc.edu/biobusiness .

About USC Marshall School of Business
USC's Marshall School of Business provides the foundation for a process of lifetime learning and business practice. Both U.S. News & World Report and BusinessWeek rank Marshall's programs among the top 30. For more than 80 years, Marshall has provided world-class research and scholarship, preparing students for the future of business. Marshall, with its many research centers and the Leventhal School of Accounting, focuses on a core set of skills and on strengthening its position as a global center of business education and research at the graduate, undergraduate and executive levels.