Oxford BioMedica lost almost a quarter of its value during trading on the London Stock Exchange this morning after it revealed that talks that could have led to a potential takeover of the company had ended.

The firm was riding high last month after confirming that it had been approached by a third party and was holding merger discussions [[19/01/05a]]. However, a statement released this morning said: “The Board of Oxford BioMedica announces that the discussions that followed this unsolicited approach have terminated.”

The UK company, which specialises in gene therapy, recorded losses of £6.8 million pounds in the first half of last year, but said in September that it had cash reserves of some £26.2 million, which were sufficient to fund the business through to 2007 even in the absence of any other revenue sources [[01/09/04g]].