Imperial Innovations Group plc has entered into a licence agreement with Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics, a division of Novartis.

Under the terms of the agreement, Novartis has been granted a worldwide, exclusive licence to the intellectual property (IP) for a novel vaccine candidate against Meningitis B. Innovations has received an upfront payment and is entitled to ongoing IP licence fees, success based milestones and royalties on product sales. Further financial terms are not disclosed.

The new vaccine candidate is based on the work of Professor Christoph Tang’s research group at Imperial College London and collaborator Professor Susan Lea at Oxford University. The candidate is currently in the preclinical stage of development. Under the agreement, Novartis will fund a £1m research and development programme over two years at Imperial College London, Oxford University and the Health Protection Agency, aimed at further validation of the candidate in preclinical models.

Vaccines are already commercially available against the Meningitis A and C strains. However, the Meningitis B strain of the bacterium is not addressed by current vaccines and presents a significant disease burden – it accounts for around 90 per cent of cases of the disease in the UK, with around 150 deaths annually. This novel vaccine candidate has the potential to produce an enhanced immune response, which may confer greater protection against the disease than existing candidates currently in development.

Professor Tang said, "Meningitis B can be a devastating disease and there is an urgent need to create an effective vaccine against it. Results of our work to date gives us a clearer understanding of how meningococcal bacteria shield themselves from the immune system and has provided a route to tailor new vaccines to fight this important human pathogen."

Susan Searle, CEO of Imperial Innovations, said, “Novartis is a recognised leader in the vaccine field and we are delighted to have reached this deal with Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics. It recognises the potential of this vaccine candidate and provides the finance to move the research towards clinical development. If successful, such a product could provide a significant royalty stream to Imperial Innovations: it underlines our strategy of not only forming companies but also of partnering research with industry leaders to develop assets that address important markets.”