AlphaVax, Inc. And Wyeth Enhance Partnership

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C., Jan. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- AlphaVax, a North Carolina-based vaccine company, announced today significant enhancements to its existing license agreement with Wyeth , one of the largest pharmaceutical companies globally and one of the four largest vaccine companies worldwide.

The original agreement, executed in 1998, provided Wyeth with access to certain core alphavirus vector technologies controlled by AlphaVax to develop vaccines for selected infectious diseases.

The new license refocuses the target disease fields and provides Wyeth with exclusive access to all relevant AlphaVax technologies for application to these target fields.

The exclusive nature of this new agreement will allow closer collaboration between the parties and significantly increases the financial terms of the original license.

The new agreement also includes an equity investment in AlphaVax by Wyeth. Under the provisions of the new agreement, the parties have agreed to keep financial terms confidential.

"It is clear that vaccines are an increasingly important public health priority in a wide variety of diseases and biological threats, and this reality is driving significant new growth and investment," said Peter Young, AlphaVax president and CEO. "Our Wyeth relationship has played an important part in our development since the inception of our company, and this new agreement is a very gratifying confirmation of not only our technology's considerable promise but the progress AlphaVax has made as well."

About AlphaVax

AlphaVax, Inc. is a clinical-stage company focused on developing new vaccine products for infectious diseases, biodefense and cancer.

AlphaVax uses a novel alphavirus vector technology originally developed by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases. The company began operations in 1997 and has attracted more than $80 million in corporate partner and grant funding, which it has used to leverage its development progress and build a broad product pipeline.

In addition to partnered programs, important disease targets for AlphaVax include pandemic influenza, cytomegalovirus, HIV and breast cancer, as well as a number of biodefense vaccine targets. Currently, AlphaVax's vaccine technology is completing a Phase I clinical trial in HIV that is funded by the National Institutes of Health. Additional clinical trials in several other disease and biodefense targets are expected to commence in 2006.

AlphaVax is located in Research Triangle Park, N.C. and employs 65 staff in a state-of-the-art, 30,000-square-foot research and development facility. The company also manages a GMP manufacturing operation in a leased vaccine production facility in Lenoir, N.C.

AlphaVax, Inc.

CONTACT: Bolyn Hubby, Ph.D. of AlphaVax, +1-919-595-0341

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