Hepatitis vaccine collaboration signed.

2004 FEB 11 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Chiron Corporation (CHIR) announced a new collaboration agreement with CSL Limited, an Australian-based pharmaceutical company, to develop a therapeutic hepatitis C vaccine.

Under the terms of the joint development agreement, Chiron will provide its novel hepatitis C virus (HCV) antigens, and CSL will contribute its proprietary Iscomatrix adjuvant technology.

"While there remains much development work ahead, the phase I clinical trial, completed in collaboration with CSL, showed that our vaccine has a good safety profile and generates the type of immune responses required for a potential treatment for HCV," said John Lambert, president, Chiron Vaccines. "In the next year, we will build on this foundation, and indeed the foundation Chiron scientists laid with the identification of the hepatitis C virus in 1987, by testing the vaccine in chronically infected patients."

"This new agreement further validates CSL's proprietary Iscomatrix adjuvant technology, and we are proud to use it to collaborate closely with our colleagues at Chiron Vaccines on developing a potential product for treating hepatitis C," said Brian McNamee, CEO of CSL Limited. "Hepatitis C infection remains a major health issue, and there is a clear need for improved therapy."

In 1987, Chiron scientists Michael Houghton, PhD; Qui-Lim Choo, PhD; and George Kuo, PhD, cloned and first identified HCV as the cause of transfusion-related non-A, non-B ...