Aventis and Crucell announced that they have entered into a strategic agreement to further develop and commercialize novel influenza vaccine products based on Crucell's proprietary PER.C6 cell line technology. The agreement covers both pandemic and epidemic influenza vaccines, which up to now have been part of Crucell's in-house product development programme.

Under the terms of the agreement, Aventis Pasteur, the vaccines business of Aventis, receives an exclusive license to research, develop, manufacture and market cell-based influenza vaccines using Crucell's unique PER.C6 cell line technology. Crucell will receive milestone payments, annual payments, and research and development funding totaling € 30 million (USD 38 million), and high single-up to double-digit royalties on future PER.C6-based influenza vaccine sales. Crucell retains the commercialization rights for Japan, which accounts for 15per cent of the global influenza vaccine market that, in 2002 totaled €1.2 billion (USD 1.5 billion). For Japan, Aventis Pasteur will supply finished vaccine products to Crucell, and Crucell will pay a royalty on sales to Aventis Pasteur.

In 2002, Aventis Pasteur's consolidated influenza vaccine product sales totaled € 460million (USD 579 million); representing a 38per cent global market share.

"PER.C6 technology shows potential to deliver superior performance, which should allow for production of large quantities of influenza vaccine each year," said Michel DeWilde, executive vice-president, research and development for Aventis Pasteur. "Unlike other cell-based technologies, PER.C6 will make large scale production economically competitive. It addresses limitations presented by other cell culture technologies that would require enormous increases in physical production capacity over the current egg-based production of influenza vaccines."

"We believe that combining Crucell's PER.C6 cell line technology with Aventis Pasteur's market leadership and research and development expertise in vaccines will lead to a new generation of cell-based influenza vaccines capable of significantly augmenting and potentially replacing current egg-based methods," commented Dinko Valerio, president and CEO of Crucell. "This is our first strategic agreement for developing and marketing one of Crucell's in-house vaccine programmes. It allows Crucell to retain a considerable piece of the large and growing influenza vaccine market, and will also speed the global commercialization of a PER.C6-based product."

Influenza, commonly called "the flu," is a highly contagious infection of the respiratory tract that spreads from person-to-person through infectious respiratory secretion droplets caused by coughing or sneezing. Influenza outbreaks occur almost every year and their severity varies considerably. Each year approximately 10 to 20per cent of the world's population contracts influenza. An estimated 250,000 to 500,000 people die annually from influenza-associated complications. Occasionally a major genetic shift in the influenza virus results in a deadly new virus strain to which the human population does not have immunity, and a global pandemic outbreak occurs.