Crucell and GSK to develop malaria vaccine
Seeking third party funding to advance programme into US clinical trial
Dutch biotechnology firm Crucell has agreed with UK drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Biologicals to develop jointly a second-generation vaccine against malaria.
Under the terms of the agreement, Crucell will contribute its recombinant malaria vaccine candidate, Ad35-CS, based on its AdVac technology and PER.C6 manufacturing platform and GSK will contribute its late-stage malaria vaccine candidate RTS,S/AS.
Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.
The deal is an extension to an earlier programme agreed in October 2003 between Crucell, the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and GSK to evaluate Crucell’s malaria vaccine candidate in pre-clinical studies.
Crucell said pre-clinical data from earlier studies indicated greatly enhanced immune responses against the malaria parasite when Crucell’s Adenovirus (AdVac) technology and GSK’s RTS,S/AS technology are used in combination, compared with either component alone.
The companies aim to start human clinical studies and seek third party funding to advance the programme into a Phase I/IIa clinical challenge trial in the US.
Pending the results of the trial, the companies expect to advance the prime boost candidate in further clinical studies with the support of public or non-profit partners.
‘We are very excited about this collaboration with GSK, which brings new impulse to the potential of eradicating malaria as one of the top three killers in the world,’ said Ronald Brus, chief executive of Crucell. ‘I am confident a partnership of this kind will allow us to take a vital step towards our goal of bringing meaningful innovation to global health.’