Pelias arrives on the biotech scene

Pelias, a new biotech company focused on the development of vaccines and antibody-based therapies for the prevention and treatment of noscomial (hospital-acquired) infections, has begun operations at the Campus Vienna Biocenter in Vienna, Austria.

Forged through a partnership between Intercell, a biotechnology company centred on the design and development of vaccines for prevention and treatment of infectious diseases, also based in the Campus Vienna Biocenter, and Parteurop, a French development company, the start up is financed primarily through Intercell and Kapital & Wert, a Vienna-based investment firm.

Pelias' lead product is a vaccine licensed from Chiron against Pseudomonas infection, which has already achieved a clinical proof of concept in a Phase IIa clinical trial. The company has also licensed numerous products from Intercell, and is using Intercell's Antigen Identification Program as part of its Enterococcus and Klebsiella projects to identify novel protective antigens.

'An advanced product, enabling technologies, an excellent team and strong financial support offered a unique opportunity to address this area of high unmet medical need,' states Gerd Zettlmeissl, ceo of Intercell, who went on to emphasise that Intercell will retain its focus on its own advanced products and development pipeline.