Aventis and NIH Enter Into SARS Vaccine R&D Pact
Aventis has entered into an agreement with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious diseases (NIAID), part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), to research and develop an inactivated virus vaccine against Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). Aventis Pasteur, the human vaccines business of Aventis, has agreed to develop a candidate vaccine using a similar approach to that of the currently licensed inactivated polio vaccine.
The research will take place in company research and development facilities in France that have the necessary level of biological safety with contributions from Aventis Pasteur scientists in the U.S. and Canada.
This is the third significant activity against SARS undertaken by the company. Earlier this year, Aventis Pasteur donated its proprietary Vero Cell culture line to NIAID and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to speed up research. Aventis Pasteur is also participating in the Canadian SARS Research Consortium, a public-private effort to coordinate, promote and support research on SARS, including vaccine development.
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