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The Directors of Henderson Morley plc (“Henderson Morley” or “the Company”) the drug discovery company, are pleased to announce the signature of a material transfer and collaborative research agreement with the Australian Centre for Vaccine Development (“ACVD”), part of the Queensland Institute of Medical Research.
The collaborative research agreement is to undertake the development of a vaccine targeted at preventing Cytomegalovirus (CMV) disease the most important preventable infectious disease of unborn children in the developed world. The collaboration will use a combination of technologies from Henderson Morley and ACVD. Each party shall bear its own development costs, and any new Intellectual Property arising out of this collaboration shall vest jointly in Henderson Morley and ACVD.
ACVD has a world class reputation for quality research and is at the forefront in the discovery of candidate vaccine antigens as well as vaccine production and the testing of potential vaccines and drugs at the cellular, animal model and clinical levels.
Henderson Morley is developing PREPS and L-particles vaccine candidates based upon non replicating herpes viruses that are DNA free.
The collaborative project will be using a CMV polyepitope antigen* developed by the team at ACVD, incorporated into the PREPS and L-particles delivery vector, to produce a new vaccine candidate targeted at numerous strains of CMV.
Director of ACVD, Assoc Professor Rajiv Khanna, a global authority on the development of a preventative vaccine against CMV, will be leading the collaboration at ACVD. “I am very excited to be working on this important vaccine program using PREPS and L-particles as a delivery vector for the antigens developed by QIMR. Earlier studies, using a different viral vector were very successful, and PREPS and L-particles offer advantages over this. I am therefore optimistic for a successful outcome from this collaboration” quoted Professor Khanna.
Executive Chairman of Henderson Morley, Andrew Knight, stated “We are very pleased to be working with Professor Khanna and his team. He and his team have an exceptional International reputation. The opportunity this collaboration presents is highly significant both for the development of a successful vaccine against CMV disease and for the Company.”
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