CRXL news,
PRESS RELEASE: Crucell's PER.C6(R)-Based Vaccine Protects Monkeys from Ebola
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tue Jun 01 08:16:32 2004 EST
Crucell's PER.C6(R)-Based Vaccine Protects Monkeys from Ebola
LEIDEN, Netherlands, June 1, 2004 (PRIMEZONE) -- Dutch biotechnology company
Crucell N.V. (Euronext:CRXL) (Nasdaq:CRXL) has announced that a single dose of
its vaccine has completely protected monkeys against Ebola in recently
performed studies. The monkey experiments were performed over the last six
months by the Vaccine Research Center (VRC) of the National Institute of
Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the US National Institutes of
Health, in collaboration with the US Army Medical Research Institute of
Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID). Crucell and NIAID produced a vaccine against
Ebola, using Crucell's PER.C6(R) cell line as a production platform, confirming
the encouraging results of a previous NIAID/USAMRIID trial of a prototype
adenoviral vaccine reported in Nature in August 2003 (Ref: Nature
424(6949):681-84 (2003)). Crucell has a Cooperative Research and Development
Agreement (CRADA) with the VRC to develop PER.C6(R)- and adenovirus
vector-based vaccines against Ebola, Marburg and Lassa as well as a contract to
produce such vaccines for clinical studies in humans. The vaccine is composed
of replication-deficient Adenovirus 5, expressing Ebola antigens. It uses
Crucell's production technology, also licensed exclusively to Merck for HIV.
Ebola is one of the most lethal viral diseases, with a mortality rate ranging
from 50%-80%, with a recent outbreak in the Republic of the Congo claiming more
than 120 lives before being brought under control. In May, new cases were
reported in the Sudan and a Russian scientist died after contracting the
disease in the laboratory. Ebola is a Class A bioterror agent and as such is
covered by the BioShield Act 2004, passed by the US Senate on May 19, 2004, and
set to appropriate US$ 5.6 billion for the development of countermeasures
against chemical and biological weapons.
"We don't think we can go into safety studies in humans without having shown
efficacy in macaque monkeys," said Jaap Goudsmit, Crucell's Chief Scientific
Officer. "For Ebola, the macaque model is the most stringent available, and
since efficacy of an Ebola vaccine heavily relies on this model, these data
pave the way for clinical safety studies. This result confirms the strength of
both Crucell's vector and cell substrate technologies, and we are proud to help
the global community fight such a serious threat as Ebola,"
News 
Market Data 
Discover 
AI
