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Intercell receives milestone payment triggered by initiation of further clinical trial for Flu vaccine with IC31

Further clinical trial for a seasonal flu vaccine containing Intercell's adjuvant IC31 being initiated

16 Jun 2008 - Intercell AG announced progress in its collaboration with Novartis to develop an improved Influenza vaccine. Novartis now has initiated its in-house development program with clinical trials designed to demonstrate safety and immunogenicity of a seasonal Influenza vaccine adjuvanted with IC31®. This triggers a milestone payment of EUR 2 m to Intercell. As part of the agreement between Novartis and Intercell, signed in July 2007, Novartis has an exclusive license for development of Intercells IC31® adjuvant in novel influenza vaccines.
 
As announced in February 2008 Intercell completed an initial Phase I clinical trial of the companys adjuvant IC31® in combination with the seasonal, trivalent influenza vaccine Agrippal® from Novartis. The IC31® adjuvanted vaccine showed an excellent safety and tolerability profile, which was comparable to the nonadjuvanted standard vaccine. Furthermore in all study groups vaccination with the test vaccine led to the induction of virus specific Tcells and protective levels of antibody responses against the three included influenza strains.
 
Gerd Zettlmeissl, CEO of Intercell, commented: Intercells IC31® has shown excellent preclinical data and an encouraging profile in first trials in humans and we are confident that an influenza vaccine formulated with IC31® now further developed by Novartis has potential to become a next generation vaccine.