Imperial Innovations Group Regulatory News (IVO)

27 Jan 2010 07:00



Imperial Innovations Group plc

Innovations licenses Meningitis B vaccine 

London, 27 January 2010. Imperial Innovations Group plc (AIM: IVO, 'Innovations'), a leading technology commercialisation and investment company, 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% 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 commented on the agreement: 

"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."

-ends-

Enquiries:

Imperial Innovations

Susan Searle, Chief Executive Officer  Tel. 020 7594 6589

Diana Crisp, PR Manager

College Hill  Tel. 020 7457 2020

Sue Charles / Tony Stephenson 

J.P. Morgan Cazenove (NOMAD to Imperial Innovations) 

Steve Baldwin Tel. 020 7588 2828

Notes to Editors

Imperial Innovations - www.imperialinnovations.co.uk 

Innovations creates, builds and invests in pioneering technologies addressing global problems in healthcare, energy and engineering. It combines deep understanding of science and technology with commercial acumen and strong investment expertise.

Innovations supports scientist-entrepreneurs in the commercialisation of their ideas by: 

leading the formation of new companies and providing facilities in the early stages,

providing significant investment and encouraging co-investment to accelerate the transition from R&D to products,  

providing operational expertise, and 

helping to recruit high-calibre industry figures and experienced entrepreneurs as executive management and Board members.

In some situations it is more appropriate to license out some of the diverse range of IP-protected technologies, rather than develop new businesses around them. This will provide Innovations with long-term profitable revenue streams.

Innovations has exclusive access to scientific and technological developments coming out of Imperial College London, one of the world's leading research institutions. It has already achieved significant success with its early investments; for example its £1.5m investment in obesity drug developer Thiakis could return up to £22m, following its sale to Wyeth for £100m in 2008. 

In the year to July 2009, Innovations invested £14.4m in 20 ventures, helping to launch six new companies. With a technology portfolio of more than 80 companies, Innovations' most advanced assets, in addition to Thiakis, include: 

Ceres Power (now listed on AIM): Micro combined heat and power generators for domestic use 

Circassia: Innovative treatments for a wide range of allergies 

Nexeon: Cheaper, greener rechargeable batteries

Respivert: Discovering new treatments for respiratory diseases, including asthma

VeryanMed: Stents inspired by the human vascular system

About Meningitis B

Meningitis involves an inflammation of the membranes covering the brain and the spinal cord as the result of an infection. The infection can be due to a virus or bacteria, but bacterial meningitis is much more serious with approximately 5% of cases resulting in death. The disease mainly affects infants and young children, but is also often found in teenagers and young adults. The disease is frightening because it can strike rapidly, with people becoming seriously ill within hours. The bacterium Neisseria meningitidis is the most common cause of bacterial meningitis. It comes in different forms, causing different strains of the disease. With vaccines against strains A and C, group B now accounts for around 90% of cases in the UK. While there is still no vaccine available for strain B, two vaccine candidates are in clinical trials.

Vaccines against Meningitis B

The two vaccines against meningitis B that are currently in clinical trials, which have been developed by different pharmaceutical companies, both use factor H binding protein as part of the vaccine formulation. The aim is to generate an immune response that will protect against any subsequent infection. 

Meningococcal serogroups vary by geography and over time. Multiple mechanisms contribute to the dynamic nature of meningococcal epidemiology including capsular switching, high carriage rates, and increased global travel. Given the significant diversity of Meningococcal B strains and the rapidly changing disease epidemiology, vaccines that target only factor H binding protein may not be sufficient to provide the broad coverage necessary.

Research at Imperial and Oxford (Nature 458, 890-893) suggest that on injection, the bacterial protein used in the vaccine may get bound up by factor H in the blood and may no longer be able to generate an optimal immune response. The researchers believe that if the new vaccine candidate will not bind factor H it may further enhance the immune response to protect against the disease.