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news.Vical, a developer of biopharmaceutical products based on its DNA delivery technologies, has received a $1 million milestone payment from Merck & Co based on Merck's planned initiation of a Phase I clinical trial of an investigational plasmid DNA cancer vaccine.
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The candidate vaccine is based on Vical’s DNA gene delivery technology and encodes human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT). hTERT is the subject of separate licensing agreement.
Vijay Samant, president and CEO of Vical, said: “The breadth of applications for Vical’s gene delivery technology continues to grow, and now encompasses vaccine candidates against infectious diseases and cancer, cancer immunotherapies, and gene-based angiogenesis for cardiovascular diseases.
“We are pleased that our long-standing partner Merck is expanding to a second clinical-stage evaluation of our technology in the cancer area.”