Aeterna Zentaris Inc., a specialty biopharmaceutical company, has granted to German life sciences entrepreneurs with a proven track-record of funding the development and commercialisation of biotechnology (collectively, the Optionee), an option to license the company's live recombinant oral allogenic tumour vaccine technology, including AEZS-120, the most advanced product candidate for prostate cancer which is ready to enter a phase 1 clinical trial.

This option is granted to the Optionee worldwide, for a period of twelve months, in exchange for an upfront fee.

Pursuant to the option agreement, the Optionee has the right to obtain a worldwide exclusive license to develop, use and sell products relating to the technology and AEZS-120, in exchange for milestone payments and royalties on net sales of any product developed from the technology and an equity interest in the company formed to develop the technology. At the present time, Aeterna Zentaris holds worldwide rights to the technology, including AEZS-120.

David A. Dodd, chairman and chief executive officer of Aeterna Zentaris, commented, “This agreement is part of our strategy of leveraging some of our promising early-stage drug candidates in order to generate potential long-term value without having to invest in their development. Our live recombinant oral allogenic cancer vaccine is a novel approach to treating cancer and could prove to be a beneficial option for the millions of people suffering from different types of cancer.”

AEZS-120 is a live recombinant oral allogenic cancer vaccine candidate based on Salmonella typhi Ty21a as a carrier strain. Salmonella typhi Ty21a is an approved oral typhoid vaccine which has been safely applied in more than 250 million doses. The principle of AEZS-120 is based on the recombinant expression of prostate specific antigen fused to the B subunit of cholera toxin and a secretion signal in the presence of the Escherichia coli type I hemolysin secretion system.

The proprietary system allows the secretion of the antigen, together with an immunological adjuvant which has been demonstrated to be required for optimal induction of CD8 T-cell responses by recombinant Salmonella based bacterial vaccines. The proof-of-concept was demonstrated for the mouse homologue of AEZS-120 in a mouse tumor-challenge model. In general, by varying the antigen and/or the carrier, this proprietary platform technology should be suitable for virtually any therapeutic or prophylactic vaccine indication with a favorable cost of goods expectation in large scale.