Date: 2012-07-09
Type of information: Product acquisition
Compound: live Salmonella-based typhoid vaccine Typhella™ and its genetic technology spi-VEC™
Company: Prokarium (UK) Emergent BioSolutions (USA)
Therapeutic area: Infectious diseases
Type agreement: product acquisition
Action mechanism:
Disease:
Details: *On July 9, 2012, Prokarium Ltd, a spin-out company of Cobra Biologics, the international clinical and commercial manufacturer of biologics and pharmaceuticals, has completed a key technology acquisition from Emergent BioSolutions, a biopharmaceutical company based in Maryland, USA. The technology includes Emergent’s live Salmonella-based typhoid vaccine Typhella™ and its genetic technology spi-VEC™. Prokarium will combine Typhella™ and spi-VEC™ with its proprietary genetic and formulation technologies to form Vaxonella®, a versatile oral vaccine delivery platform.
Emergent has successfully conducted several phase 1 and 2 clinical trials, which have shown Typhella™ to be safe and immunogenic as a typhoid vaccine. The combination with Prokarium’s plasmid stabilisation technology ORT-VAC™, will enable the delivery of recombinant protein vaccines without needles or adjuvants. Prokarium plans to offer this Vaxonella™ platform to the biotech community on a licensing basis.
Prokarium will focus on the development of a dual oral vaccine against typhoid and ETEC (enterotoxigenic E. coli – a major cause of diarrhoea) for travellers and developing country markets. Currently there is no dedicated vaccine against ETEC, considered responsible for 300,000 – 500,000 deaths per year, mostly of young children.
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