Okairos AG, a biotechnology business that Merck & Co. (MRK) sold to venture capital funds in 2007, is seeking to produce the first preventive vaccine for hepatitis C, challenging makers of treatments for the disease. Okairos has begun a mid-stage study, funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, of a gene-based vaccine designed to stimulate the body’s immune system to prevent hepatitis C from taking hold, Chief Operating Officer Tom Woiwode said in a phone interview from the company’s Basel, Switzerland, headquarters.
