Oxford BioMedica plc, of Oxford, UK, responded to recent falls in its shares price, blaming misconceptions by the market and saying its knows of "no valid reason" for the drop.

CEO Alan Kingsman said the fall "does not reflect the fundamental strength" of the company. It is continuing to make good progress, and is financially sound with net cash of £44 million (US$90.93) on Sept. 30, he said.

The share price has drifted down from 50 pence in mid-September to 29 pence last week. It recovered slightly when the statement was released but fell again Monday morning to 33 pence.

There are two misconceptions about the cancer gene therapy TroVax," the company said. First, it is not true that in the Phase III TRIST trial in renal cancer that the product is being evaluated against standard care, but rather in addition to standard care. Second, it is not the case that TroVax has failed in an ovarian cancer trial.

The product has not been tested in that indication, and all studies completed to date have met their endpoints, the company said in a statement. TroVax was partnered by Paris-based Sanofi-Aventis in March.

The company had good news in announcing that it and partner Sigma-Aldrich, of St. Louis, received a key ruling in their patent infringement lawsuit against Open Biosystems Inc., of Huntsville, Ala. During the pending suit, the district judge adopted the plaintiff's definitions of all disputed claim terms.