In a strategic move aimed at swelling its pipeline of experimental vaccines in one fell swoop, Novartis has agreed to pay Intercell €270 million for an equity stake as well as an upfront fee to license more than 10 early and pre-clinical development programs. The programs include new therapies for bacterial and viral diseases as well as influenza. And Novartis obtains options on future vaccine candidates that Intercell comes up with. In the pact, Novartis will take over development and commercialization of any new product that gets past Phase II.
Among the various Intercell projects eligible to Novartis are the IC43 vaccine candidate for use in patients with hospital-acquired Pseudomonas infections, which is now in Phase II trials and will expand the range of nosocomial vaccines in the Novartis pipeline, and the pre-clinical vaccine IC47 against pneumonia infections in the elderly and infants.
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