Sanofi Pasteur and Immune Design announce herpes vaccine collaboration

Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines division of French drug major Sanofi (Euronext: SAN), and Immune Design, a clinical-stage immunotherapy company, have entered into a broad collaboration for the development of a herpes simplex virus (HSV) immune therapy.

The companies will each contribute product candidates to the collaboration: Sanofi Pasteur will contribute HSV-529, a clinical-stage replication-defective HSV vaccine product candidate, and Immune Design will contribute G103, its preclinical trivalent vaccine product candidate. The collaboration will explore the potential of various combinations of agents, including Immune Design's GLAASTM platform, with the goal to select the best potential immune therapy for patients.

John Shiver, senior vice president for R&D, Sanofi Pasteur, said: "We intend to develop the best in class HSV therapeutic vaccine by pooling assets of Sanofi Pasteur and of Immune Design. Given the challenges of vaccine development, collaborations are important to help ensure that the medical need will eventually be met."