Panmure Liberum has maintained its 'buy' rating on Oxford BioMedica PLC (LSE:OXB), the cell and gene therapy manufacturer, after its shares fell 15% following trial pauses by two of its customers.
Novartis and Bristol Myers Squibb, both OXB customers, voluntarily paused enrolment in their autoimmune CAR-T programmes following safety issues.
Novartis reported three patient deaths across eight clinical trials of rap-cel after three cases of the rare, potentially life-threatening immune effector cell-associated hemophagocytic syndrome were detected.
Bristol Myers Squibb paused its programme with zola-cel after what it described as transient and reversible inflammatory events.
Panmure Liberum said the scale of OXB's share price decline looked overdone, given the company's already depressed valuation and the breadth of its pipeline.
The broker said autoimmune indications made up only 13% of OXB's 48 programmes as of April 2025, suggesting the impact would be limited.
OXB does not disclose detailed programme-level information, but Panmure Liberum said it was likely the company manufactures viral vector for both paused programmes.
The broker said any near-term impact should fall within the flexibility already built into current guidance, while flagging longer-term uncertainty over the regulatory response.
Panmure Liberum maintained its target price of 690p, versus a share price of 447p at Tuesday's close.
Interim results are due on 22 September.
