Nutri Pharma to make voluntary offer for vaccine developer Bionor Immuno
Nutri Pharma of Norway is to make a voluntary exchange offer for all outstanding shares in Bionor Immuno. Provided conditions are met, the offer should be concluded by 31 March.
Nutri Pharma of Norway is to make a voluntary exchange offer for all outstanding shares in Bionor Immuno. Provided conditions are met, the offer should be concluded by 31 March.
The proposed acquisition will combine two strong r&d traditions into one integrated bio-technology company, putting together Nutri Pharma's network and commercialisation experience with Bionor's technology and r&d pipeline in vaccines for viral infections.
Douglas Watson, chairman of Bionor, said: "The proposed transaction with Nutri Pharma will significantly strengthen our ability to fund their development and, equally important, create a company with both commercial and product development capabilities, as well as a better balanced and diversified r&d portfolio."
Bionor Immuno was spun out from Bionor in 2000 based on diagnostic research carried out on the HIV-virus since 1985. The proprietary patent protected peptide-based technology resulted in the first HIV vaccine candidate (Vacc-4x) entering Phase I clinical trials in 1999. The Phase IIb study will be completed in July this year, with results expected in the fourth quarter.
A re-vaccination study, with patients from the 2001 Phase IIa trial, is ongoing with results expected in June 2010.
The company says the technology represents a unique approach to vaccination as it effectively targets the core of the virus, i.e. the structure containing the genetic information, and is capable of triggering a cell-mediated immune response effective against rapidly mutating and tolerance inducing viruses. The company claims there are no known competing products.