AsianScientist (Mar. 8, 2017) – Affinivax, Inc. and Astellas Pharma Inc. have entered into an exclusive worldwide license agreement to develop and commercialize a vaccine targeting Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus). The partnership will utilize Affinivax’s proprietary vaccine technology platform–Multiple Antigen Presenting System (MAPS)–to advance a novel vaccine targeted to prevent and reduce the spread of pneumococcal disease.
Pneumococcus is a bacterium frequently found in the upper respiratory tract of healthy children and adults, and can cause serious infections ranging from pneumonia, meningitis, and sepsis, representing a major global health problem. The World Health Organization estimates that more than 1.6 million people, including more than 800,000 children under five years old, die every year from pneumococcal infections, with most of these deaths occurring in low-resource countries.
“Astellas expects to provide a new option to prevent pneumococcal disease with high unmet medical needs by developing innovative MAPS vaccine as part of our commitment to serve patients interests worldwide,” said Dr. Kenji Yasukawa, Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer of Astellas.
Astellas will lead and fully fund the development program and will obtain worldwide rights to commercialize the MAPS vaccine for pneumococcal disease. Affinivax will receive an initial upfront payment of US$10 million from Astellas and will be eligible to receive a range of development milestones and commercial milestones. In addition, Affinivax will receive tiered royalties on any future product sales.
The MAPS vaccine platform is designed to enable the high affinity binding of protective polysaccharides and proteins in a single vaccine, offering the potential to provide broader protection against invasive disease than currently available vaccines, as well as the potential to reduce nasopharyngeal colonization (the first step in disease transmission). To date, Affinivax has advanced its novel vaccine targeting pneumococcus through nonclinical proof-of-concept studies.
There is no impact of this transaction on Astellas’ financial results for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2017.
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Source: Astellas; Photo: Shutterstock.
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