Epimmune Inc. announced that it has entered into an agreement with Belgian-based biopharmaceutical company Innogenetics NV, its new partner in vaccine programs focused on Hepatitis B virus (HBV), Hepatitis C virus (HCV) and Human Papillomavirus (HPV), to extend the term and modify certain other provisions of their collaboration.
Innogenetics acquired the worldwide rights to the programs, including a license to the Epimmune technology, from Genencor International, Inc., which has indicated its desire to focus its research and development resources on targeted biotherapeutics. Innogenetics plans to develop and commercialize current vaccine candidates as well as future products based on the technology.
Epimmune and Innogenetics have agreed to extend the term of the collaboration by more than a year, through September 2005, which is intended to enable Innogenetics to complete development efforts and generate all clinical vaccine candidates. Innogenetics also agreed to an increase in the reimbursement rate payable to Epimmune for its services on the programs.
Innogenetics will now be responsible for payment of development milestones as they are achieved and royalty payments on sales of any products that may be developed, both in accordance with the terms of the original license agreement with Genencor.
Separately, Epimmune announced that Genencor has entered into a standstill agreement, providing that it will not sell any Epimmune common stock it owns for a period of twelve months and thereafter, for a further twelve-month period, it will be subject to certain trading and volume restrictions.
"We are excited to have the opportunity to work on these important therapeutic vaccines with a company like Innogenetics that has established expertise in immunology and therapeutic vaccines," said Dr. Emile Loria, president and chief executive officer of Epimmune. "It also further validates the Epimmune multi-epitope vaccine technology approach. By extending the collaboration term at the outset, Innogenetics is clearly showing its commitment to become a leading player in this field."
Dr. Philippe Archinard, chief executive officer of Innogenetics said, "One of our Company's main objectives is to focus on the development of therapeutic vaccines and broaden our vaccine portfolio in the field of infectious diseases. Innogenetics has evaluated a number of vaccine technologies to complement its own expertise. We are convinced that Epimmune's multi-epitope vaccine technology, acquired through Genencor, represents a perfect fit. This provides us with an optimal toolbox to achieve our ambitions. We look forward to collaborating with Epimmune for the development of these promising vaccines."
Epimmune originally entered into the collaboration with Genencor in July 2001 pursuant to which it exclusively licensed to Genencor its PADRE and epitope technologies for vaccines to treat or prevent HBV, HCV and HPV. In connection with the initial collaboration, Epimmune received an upfront license fee and Genencor made a ten percent equity investment in Epimmune common stock. Under the agreement, Epimmune may receive a total of approximately US $60 million in payments, including amounts already paid by Genencor and future amounts payable by Innogenetics. In February 2004, the Company announced that it had earned a milestone payment on the program as a result of the filing of an Investigational New Drug application (IND) for a vaccine to treat HBV.
Epimmune Inc., based in San Diego, is focused on the development of pharmaceutical products using multiple epitopes to specifically activate the body's immune system. Epitopes, critical signaling molecules, stimulate the T cell arm of the immune system to respond to specific regions of cancer cells or infectious agents.
Innogenetics is a Belgian-based international biopharmaceutical company building parallel businesses in the areas of specialty diagnostics and therapeutic vaccines. In its Diagnostics Division, Innogenetics develops a large number of specialty products covering three areas: infectious diseases (hepatitis C, hepatitis B, and HIV), genetic testing (HLA tissue typing and cystic fibrosis), and neurodegeneration (Alzheimer's disease).