Neovacs and Stellar Biotech sign joint venture agreement to create Neostell

French autoimmune diseases specialist Neovacs (Alternative Paris: ALNEV) says it has finalized the terms of its partnership with the US Stellar Biotechnologies (Nasdaq: SBOT) to determine the creation of the production company Neostell under a form of a joint venture, based in the Paris area and owned 70% by Neovacs and 30% by Stellar Biotechnologies.

Under the terms of this joint venture agreement, Neovacs and Stellar Biotechnologies have agreed to combine their skills, to manufacture and sell all types of conjugated vaccines to third party customers worldwide, as well as produce all of Neovacs' Kinoids, including IFNα-Kinoid.

Investments for this production unit will start after the results of the Phase IIb study of IFNα-Kinoid in lupus conducted by Neovacs and currently ongoing. Beyond the interest of 30% held by Stellar Biotechnologies, Neovacs has received 5 million euros ($5.7 million) for this project from the public funding program "PIAVE" set up by Bpifrance.