Transgene To Help Develop AIDS Vaccine, Shares Up
PARIS (Reuters) - French biotech firm Transgene said on Monday it was helping develop a new AIDS vaccine with France's AIDS Research Agency and its Institute for Health and Medical Research, sending Transgene stock soaring.
Its shares, listed on France's second market for high-growth stocks, leapt as much as 25.2 percent. By 0901 GMT they were up 23.32 percent at 7.88 euros, beating the DJ Stoxx European healthcare index, which Transgene has outperformed by 48 percent this year.
"The agreement once again validates Transgene's technology for building and producing vaccines and recombinant vectors and affirms the company's leadership in this area," analysts at CIC Securities said in a research note.
Strasbourg-based Transgene said it had reached a deal with the two French bodies to make pre-clinical lots of a new AIDS vaccine. Under the terms of the short-term service agreement, it will receive payment from the research agency, but did not disclose an amount.
CIC analysts said, however, they did not expect the financial amounts to be significant, given the signatories to the deal and the precocity of the vaccine's development.
MeSH Headings: Viral Vaccines : AIDS Vaccines
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