Valneva SE (“Valneva”), a leading pure play vaccines biotech company, announced today that it has signed a new research license agreement with Merial and a commercial license agreement with an undisclosed European company to develop veterinary vaccines using Valneva’s EB66® vaccine cell line platform.
The first agreement allows Merial to evaluate the production of additional vaccine candidates using the EB66® cell line platform, as a replacement for egg-based vaccine production. This new agreement strengthens the collaboration between the two companies, which have been partnering for about ten years, to generate EB66® cellbased veterinary vaccines.
In May 2014, Merial received marketing approval by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for its live EB66®-based Muscovy Duck Parvovirus Vaccine (MDPV), the first ever marketing authorization granted in Europe for a vaccine produced using the EB66® cell line.
Thomas Lingelbach, President and Chief Executive Officer and Franck Grimaud, President and Chief Business Officer of Valneva, commented “We are extremely pleased to further extend our long-term collaboration with Merial, a worldwide leader in animal health. It comes after a first milestone in 2014, when Merial’s veterinary viral vaccine Parvoduk, which has been produced thanks to our EB66® technology, has been granted marketing authorization in the European Union.”
In addition to the research license agreement announced today with Merial, Valneva is also proud to announce that the company has signed a new commercial license agreement with another European veterinary vaccine manufacturer, to develop viral vaccines on its EB66® vaccine cell line platform. This new license agreement is further evidence of the efficiency of Valneva’s cutting edge technology.
The commercial license will give Valneva’s new partner the rights to conduct field trials with its selected vaccine candidates using the EB66® platform and to commercialize the vaccines once they have received marketing approval. Valneva is looking forward to reinforcing this new collaboration in the future.