Vivaldi Biosciences acquires clinical stage influenza vaccine assets

Privately-held US biotech firm Vivaldi Biosciences has acquired from Baxter Healthcare, Swiss unit of Baxter International (NYSE:BAX), R&D assets, including intellectual property, clinical data, know-how and materials, for live attenuated influenza vaccines (LAIVs) in which the gene for influenza non-structural protein 1 (NS1) has been fully deleted.

These assets previously were owned by AVIR Green Hills Biotechnology (Vienna, Austria). Financial terms of the deal were not revealed.

NS1 is a multifunctional virulence factor of influenza. The NS1 gene is highly conserved in influenza type A, B and C viruses. LAIVs with fully deleted NS1 (known as delta-NS1 LAIVs) have been evaluated in 160 volunteer recipients in four clinical trials conducted at the Medical University of Vienna by AVIR Green Hills Biotechnology. In a Phase I clinical study of a delta-NS1 LAIV for highly pathogenic avian influenza A(H5N1; “bird flu”), two Phase I studies of delta-NS1 LAIVs for seasonal H1N1 influenza strains, and a Phase I/II study of a trivalent delta-NS1 LAIV for seasonal influenza, the candidate vaccines were well-tolerated and generated positive immunogenicity data in a dose-dependent manner. The vaccines evaluated in the four clinical studies were produced using Vero cell substrate technologies.