BioVeris completes NRC vaccine agreement

Under the agreement with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC), BioVeris has acquired worldwide, exclusive rights to commercialize products for possible use in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease caused by GBS, a leading cause of sepsis, pneumonia, and meningitis among newborns.

The company received similar worldwide rights, with the exclusion of Canada, to NRC’s GBM vaccine technologies for the prevention of meningococcal B meningitis and sepsis. Under the license agreement, BioVeris is required to pay a royalty on product sales, including a minimum $10,000 annual royalty that commences immediately.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has stated that, “further work on GBS vaccine development is warranted” as “intrapartum chemoprophylaxis is not a permanent or comprehensive strategy for GBS disease prevention.” The future market for worldwide sales of a GBS vaccine has been estimated by industry analysts to exceed $1 billion annually.

Currently, there is no effective vaccine available against disease caused by meningococcal serogroup B, which is responsible for one-third of meningococcal disease in the US and up to 70% in Europe and Canada. The availability of an effective vaccine that would prevent meningococcal serogroup B, for use by various population groups, is expected to be in high demand for both mass immunization and catch-up vaccination programs.