Sanofi buys into Acambis' West Nile vaccine program

Sanofi Pasteur is buying into Acambis' [1] program for a novel West Nile vaccine. Acambis snares $10 million up front with $70 million in development and sales milestones. There's more money that can be tapped for development costs as well as from royalties. ChimeriVax-West Nile is in a Phase II trial right now and showed signs of efficacy in an earlier dose-ranging Phase II trial. Any successful vaccine would be employed against an endemic disease that has killed 92 people so far this year in the U.S. and is a particular threat for people over the age of 50.

"Having entered into this unique collaboration with one of the world's leading vaccine companies, we intend to be the first to bring a West Nile virus vaccine to market," said Acambis CEO Ian Garland. "Acambis will conduct the vaccine development, further validating our competence and capabilities in clinical development and vaccine manufacture. This contract is an important step in executing on our financing strategy for the company."

- check out the release [2] on the deal
- read the report [3] from Silicon Fen Business Report for more

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