Intercell AG, a biotech company which is listed on the Vienna Stock Exchange, said it has received a second milestone payment of $1 million from Merck & Co. Inc for the start of a Phase I clinical trial for a vaccine against Staphylococcus aureus infections.
“It clearly is a good thing and has potential,” said Chris Redhead, an analyst at Code Securities Ltd. “But still it’s a long way to go as it is now only phase one. Vaccine trials are usually quite big and they take long time. But overall receiving money from Merck for progress is always good.”
The shares of Intercell last rose 4.1 percent to €8.85.
Intercell said it is also eligible to receive additional milestone payments based on project progress as well as royalties based on future net sales, according to a statement. Merck is responsible for the development of a potential vaccine and owns the worldwide exclusive rights to the product candidate.
The Austrian company first received a milestone payment of $1 million from Merck & Co., Inc. in early November for progress development. The vaccine candidate was licensed from Intercell under a collaboration and license option agreement signed in May 2004. The two companies didn’t disclose the target of Staphylococcus aureus until now.
Staphylococcus aureus is one of the major causes of hospital acquired infections, said the company. Staphylococcus aureus infections result in an annual burden of more than $20 billion in the developed world and in the US alone, about two million patients annually contract an infection while receiving health care in hospitals, according to Intercell.
“Staphylococcus is very common and it could be potentially a very big market,” said Redhead.
Intercell, an Austrian biotechnology company, is a spin-off of Campus Vienna Biocenter and has more than 140 employees. It raised more than €100 million through three fundraisings, before its flotation on the Vienna Stock Exchange in February this year.
Gerd Zettlmeissl, the CEO of Intercell told Science|Business last week that in 2006 the company will focus on building the marketing force for its vaccine product for Japanese encephalitis, which has already entered phase III clinical trials and it will also prepare the Phase II trial for its second lead product, a therapeutic vaccine against hepatitis C. Also five products focused on infectious diseases in the pre-clinical phase, including a Pneumonia vaccine, a Group A Streptococcus vaccine and a traveller’s diarrhoea vaccine are ready for further development.
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