Corixa and Apovia in agreement

Corixa, from Seattle, US and Apovia from Martinsreid, Germany, have announced a research, development and commercialisation agreement for Corixa's synthetic adjuvant, RC-529.

The multiyear agreement grants Apovia commercial rights to RC-529 for use in an undisclosed therapeutic vaccine. Both companies will equally share research, development and commercialisation costs, as well as any potential product revenue.

'RC-529 adjuvant is a synthetic adjuvant that has been shown to stimulate immune responses to multiple vaccine antigen formulations both in animal models and in man,' said Dr Steven Gillis, chairman and ceo at Corixa. 'We look forward to continuing the development of our adjuvant portfolio in a variety of clinical indications and in particular to working with Apovia on the development of therapeutic vaccines.'

'Partnership opportunities such as this represent an important part of Apovia's future growth strategy and we are excited to work with Corixa,' said Martin Steiner, ceo at Apovia. 'After evaluating many different adjuvant concepts, we believe that the performance profile of Corixa's RC-529 adjuvant is ideally suited for our vaccine platform and look forward to testing the combination in the clinic in the near future,' commented George B. Thornton, executive vice president of research and development at Apovia.

Corixa's RC-529 Adjuvant is the lead adjuvant compound from Corixa's AGP chemical library. As a totally synthetic molecule, it can be formulated for a variety of applications including intranasal and pulmonary vaccines, and is capable of producing both mucosal and systemic immunity. RC-529 is currently under evaluation with a number of vaccines.