Vienna (Austria), May 10, 2010– Intercell AG (VSE: ICLL) today announced that it has enteredinto a worldwide Option and Exclusive License Agreement under which Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica has the right to use certain antigens derived from Intercell’s Antigen Identification Program (AIP®) to develop animal vaccines. Under the agreement, Intercell will receive upfront, option and milestone payments as well as royalties on product net sales.
“Having partnered a number of our vaccine candidates derived from our AIP® with leading human vaccine players such as Merck and Novartis, we are very pleased to leverage the value of this successful technology also with a major animal vaccine company like Boehringer Ingelheim Vertmedica. This will allow us to further potentiate the technology and explore its technological and economical power beyond the area of human health” stated Gerd Zettlmeissl, CEO of Intercell.
“We are pleased to partner with Intercell and to gain access to attractive vaccine targets generated by AIP®. We are committed to develop innovative vaccines to meet the urgent needs for the benefit of animal health” stated Joachim Hasenmaier, CEO of Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica.
About Antigen Identification Program - AIP®
The design and development of novel subunit vaccines is highly dependent on the identification and characterization of the appropriate antigens. Intercell has successfully identified and refined a large number of relevant and protective antigens for several bacterial pathogens mostly through its Antigen Identification Program (AIP®).
Selected antibodies, which are derived from infected or healthy exposed individuals and therefore directly mirror the presence, accessibility, and antigenicity of relevant proteins from the particular microorganism in its human host are used in a proprietary screening process. Through AIP®, Intercell’s team discovers antigens that are believed to induce the most protective response from the human immune system, thus providing a viable basis for the development of novel and more powerful prophylactic and therapeutic vaccines, as well as antibody treatments.
AIP® has successfully been applied to identify a large number of novel antigens from several pathogenic organisms including Staphylococcus aureus and epidermidis, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Streptococcus agalactiae and pyogenes, Enterococcus faecalis, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Borrelia spp., ETEC, Shigella, Campylobacter jejuni, non-typable Haemophilus influenzae, and Moraxella catarrhalis.
About Intercell AG
Intercell AG is an innovative biotechnology company that develops novel vaccines for the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases with substantial unmet medical needs. Intercell's vaccine to prevent Japanese Encephalitis is the Company's first product on the market.
The Company's technology platform includes an antigen-discovery system and human anti-infective monoclonal antibody discovery system, adjuvants and a novel patch-based delivery system (Vaccine Patch, Vaccine Enhancement Patch). Based on these technologies, Intercell has strategic partnerships with a number of global pharmaceutical companies, including GSK, Novartis, Merck & Co., Inc., sanofi-aventis, and Pfizer (formerly Wyeth).
The Company's pipeline of investigational products includes a Travelers' Diarrhea Vaccine Patch (Phase III), a Pseudomonas vaccine candidate (Phase II), a vaccine to prevent Pandemic Influenza combining our Vaccine Enhancement Patch with an injected vaccine (Phase II), a vaccine program for S. aureus, which is being developed with Merck & Co., Inc. (Phase II/III), as well as a vaccine candidate for Pneumococcus (Phase I). In addition, further products focused on infectious diseases are in pre-clinical development.
Intercell is listed on the Vienna stock exchange under the symbol "ICLL" (U.S. level one ADR symbol "INRLY").
For more information, please visit: www.intercell.com
