Momtezuma Tuatara
09-01-09, 11:58 AM
(You guessed it. There is a vaccine on the horizon)
http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/55322/
Big Pharma backs CMV vaccine
Bob Grant, 5th January 2009.
Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis has teamed up with an American biotech company to develop the first commercial vaccine for cytomegalovirus (CMV), which kills or disables tens of thousands of infants every year.
(Do you wonder whether they bothered to separate out CMV from Rubella, in the past, or were the two conveniently lumped together as one? After all, after the Rubella shot, we never heard about eye demage etc... did we?)
Because CMV infection does not usually lead to detectable symptoms in otherwise healthy people, only a handful of researchers have endeavored to develop a CMV vaccine. In fact, the virus is one of the top causes of birth defects; a 1999 National Academy of Sciences report estimated that CMV costs the US as much as $4.4 billion per year. (See our 2006 article on CMV vaccine (http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/36883/) development efforts).
(As much as???)
The vaccine candidate, AVX601, was created by scientists at North Carolina-based AlphaVax and has fared well in a phase I clinical trial (http://www.alphavax.com/docs/news/news_25.pdf) on healthy adults. AVX601 is a single-cycle particle vaccine that carries RNA encoding three antigens--phosphoprotein 65, immediate early protein I, and glycoprotein B--from the CMV virus, and the vaccine was shown to raise levels of neutralizing antibodies and antigen-specific T cells in phase I trial subjects.
Now that it has licensed the technology, Novartis will marshal the compound through phase II trials, which are slated to commence sometime this year, according to a statement (http://www.novartis.com/newsroom/media-releases/en/2008/1279693.shtml) from the company.
Janice Kimpel, AlphaVax's vice president of business development, told The Scientist that Novartis plans to develop the vaccine to target adolescent women before they become pregnant and pass CMV on to their unborn children.
According to a statement from Novartis, the company paid $20 million (USD) for the rights to AphaVax's CMV vaccine program. Under the deal, Novartis also has an option to make an equity investment of four millions shares at the end of phase II clinical trials. AlphaVax will get milestones and royalties.
http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/55322/
Big Pharma backs CMV vaccine
Bob Grant, 5th January 2009.
Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis has teamed up with an American biotech company to develop the first commercial vaccine for cytomegalovirus (CMV), which kills or disables tens of thousands of infants every year.
(Do you wonder whether they bothered to separate out CMV from Rubella, in the past, or were the two conveniently lumped together as one? After all, after the Rubella shot, we never heard about eye demage etc... did we?)
Because CMV infection does not usually lead to detectable symptoms in otherwise healthy people, only a handful of researchers have endeavored to develop a CMV vaccine. In fact, the virus is one of the top causes of birth defects; a 1999 National Academy of Sciences report estimated that CMV costs the US as much as $4.4 billion per year. (See our 2006 article on CMV vaccine (http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/36883/) development efforts).
(As much as???)
The vaccine candidate, AVX601, was created by scientists at North Carolina-based AlphaVax and has fared well in a phase I clinical trial (http://www.alphavax.com/docs/news/news_25.pdf) on healthy adults. AVX601 is a single-cycle particle vaccine that carries RNA encoding three antigens--phosphoprotein 65, immediate early protein I, and glycoprotein B--from the CMV virus, and the vaccine was shown to raise levels of neutralizing antibodies and antigen-specific T cells in phase I trial subjects.
Now that it has licensed the technology, Novartis will marshal the compound through phase II trials, which are slated to commence sometime this year, according to a statement (http://www.novartis.com/newsroom/media-releases/en/2008/1279693.shtml) from the company.
Janice Kimpel, AlphaVax's vice president of business development, told The Scientist that Novartis plans to develop the vaccine to target adolescent women before they become pregnant and pass CMV on to their unborn children.
According to a statement from Novartis, the company paid $20 million (USD) for the rights to AphaVax's CMV vaccine program. Under the deal, Novartis also has an option to make an equity investment of four millions shares at the end of phase II clinical trials. AlphaVax will get milestones and royalties.