Corixa, Lorantis Announce Collaboration to Develop Hepatitis B Vaccine

Corixa, a developer of immunotherapeutics, and Lorantis, a Cambridge, U.K.-based immunotherapy company, have announced a joint collaboration in which the companies will continue the development of a therapeutic hepatitis B vaccine, containing Corixa's RC-529 adjuvant and Lorantis' CV-1831, a hepatitis B core antigen that was previously owned by Apovia.

This collaboration builds on the initial R&D conducted by Corixa and Apovia for the development of a therapeutic vaccine for the treatment of hepatitis B. Lorantis has acquired all of Apovia's interest in the hepatitis B vaccine technology and under the terms of the new agreement, Lorantis will assume many of Apovia's development responsibilities.

The collaboration is managed by a joint management team where Corixa will take the lead for the regulatory applications and management of all clinical trials. Lorantis will lead the completion of preclinical studies and supply the hepatitis B core antigen. The companies will share equally in all costs and potential revenues associated with the development of the vaccine. Following proof-of-principle clinical trials, the companies intend to partner the vaccine to a late-stage development and commercialization organization.