Celldex signs licensing and development agreement with Vaccine Technologies

Under the licensing agreement, Celldex has granted a worldwide fee- and royalty-bearing exclusive license to Vaccine Technologies (VTI) to develop and commercialize Celldex’s CholeraGarde and enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) vaccine programs. Financial details of the agreement with VTI were not disclosed, but include upfront license fees, milestone payments and royalties on net sales of licensed products during the term of the agreement.

VTI plans to continue the clinical development of the CholeraGarde and ETEC programs in conjunction with Celldex’s current partners, The International Vaccine Institute (IVI) and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), an institute of the National Institutes of Health, respectively.

The IVI is presently conducting a Phase II clinical trial of CholeraGarde in Bangladesh, with plans to sponsor additional Phase II studies in India and Thailand beginning in the first half of 2009, followed by Phase III field studies. IVI has purchased clinical materials produced at Celldex’s Fall River, Massachusetts manufacturing facility for these trials.

The NIAID is presently conducting a Phase I study of the ETEC investigational single-dose, oral vaccine designed to offer combined protection against both ETEC and cholera at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.

Anthony Marucci, president and CEO of Celldex, said: We are pleased to have found a partner with the capabilities to maximize the potential of these important programs to succeed. This partnership allows us to monetize the potential of these assets while we focus Celldex’s resources on our precision targeted immunotherapy platform and the clinical and preclinical programs that are emerging from this novel approach to immunotherapy.