Yesterday Immune Design reported that it had concluded a licensing deal with MedImmune for $212 M giving the latter rights to use Immune Design's glucopyranosyl lipid A (or GLA-adjuvant) in vaccine preparations against RSV, Epstein-Barr virus and cytomegalovirus. This is Immune Design's first licensing deal and it comes with a partner that has had real success in the past with its vaccine Synagis versus RSV.
"The money is important, but what's more important is that someone very interested in developing new vacccines recognizes the necessity of putting our adjuvant in their vaccine," said Bruce Carter, executive chairman of Immune Design.
Novel adjuvants, like GLA, can be expected to be increasingly used with the newest rounds of vaccines being developed for the market to boost immune response. GLA is supposed to bos the effectiveness of vaccines in a cheaper, more reproducible, and more scalable fashion than previous generations of adjuvants. See Fierce Biotech and Xconomy.
Posted by Bruce Lehr October 28th 2010.
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