Schering-Plough announces collaboration with World Health Organization

Schering-Plough CorporationSchering-Plough Corporation (NYSE: SGP) has announced a license agreement between Nobilon, Schering-Plough's human vaccine business unit, and the World Health Organization (WHO) to provide access to pandemic influenza vaccine manufacturing technology to developing countries.

Fred Hassan, chairman and CEO, said, "This project demonstrates Schering-Plough's strong commitment to innovation and to providing access to medicines. The avian influenza virus is already affecting several developing countries, making pandemic influenza vaccine preparedness a global health priority. Our collaboration with the WHO is most important because it is aimed at allowing many developing countries to gain access to proven influenza vaccine manufacturing platforms."

Under the agreement, which was signed recently at WHO headquarters in Geneva, Nobilon has granted WHO a non-exclusive license to develop, register, manufacture, use and sell seasonal and pandemic live, attenuated, influenza vaccines (LAIV), produced on embryonated chicken eggs. WHO will be permitted to grant a sub-license to vaccine manufacturers in developing countries working within the framework of the WHO Global Vaccine Action Plan. Vaccine manufacturers to whom a sub-license will be granted will be able to provide vaccines to the public sector of developing countries royalty-free.

Egg-based LAIV technology is specifically considered attractive for this purpose because the manufacturing technology process is easier to transfer, capital investment is lower and yields are higher, as compared to inactivated influenza vaccines.

The WHO Global Vaccine Action Plan seeks to expand influenza vaccine manufacturing capacity in developing countries and enhance the global supply for pandemic vaccines.

About Live Attenuated Influenza Vaccine (LAIV)
Nobilon acquired in 2004 the majority of rights to develop, commercialize and manufacture the Live Attenuated Influenza Vaccines (LAIV), both egg- and cell culture-based, from Australian company BioDiem, which had acquired these rights from the Institute of Experimental Medicine in St. Petersburg, Russian Federation. The LAIV may offer several improvements over current vaccines such as single-dose intranasal spray delivery, improved convenience and earlier and broader protection, which is of particular interest in a pandemic situation. Nobilon is developing a cell culture-based LAIV for seasonal influenza and is currently preparing for the 'first-in-human' study with LAIV for seasonal influenza.

About the World Health Organization (WHO)
The World Health Organization was founded in 1948. WHO is a public international organization consisting of 193 Member States, and a specialized agency of the United Nations. WHO is the directing and coordinating authority on international health work, and promotes technical cooperation for health, carries out programs to control and eradicate disease and strives to improve the quality of human life.

About Nobilon
Nobilon International BV, a part of Schering-Plough Corporation, was founded in 2003 and was acquired through the Organon BioSciences acquisition in 2007. It has production and R&D facilities in Boxmeer and Oss, the Netherlands. The biotechnology company is dedicated to develop, produce and market human vaccines, building on existing expertise within Schering-Plough. Nobilon focuses on respiratory, traveler's and sexually transmitted infections. One of its core expertises is large-scale cell culture production of viruses, including influenza. For more information, go to the website www.nobilon.com.

About Schering-Plough
Schering-Plough is an innovation-driven, science-centered global health care company. Through its own biopharmaceutical research and collaborations with partners, Schering-Plough creates therapies that help save and improve lives around the world. The company applies its research-and-development platform to human prescription, animal health and consumer health care products. Schering-Plough's vision is to Earn Trust, Every Day with the doctors, patients, customers and other stakeholders served by its colleagues around the world. The company is based in Kenilworth, N.J., and its website is www.schering-plough.com.

Most Popular Now

AstraZeneca enters license agreement with KYM Bios…

AstraZeneca and KYM Biosciences Inc.* have entered into a global exclusive licence agreement for CMG901, a potential first-in-class antibody drug conjugate (ADC) targetin...

Pfizer receives positive FDA Advisory Committee vo…

Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) voted that avail...

First nasal monoclonal antibody treatment for COVI…

A pilot trial by investigators from Brigham and Women's Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, tested the nasal administration of the ...

US FDA Advisory Committee votes to support effecti…

GSK plc (LSE/NYSE: GSK) announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) voted that the avail...

"Semantic similarity" leads to novel dru…

The words that researchers use to describe their results can be harnessed to discover potential new treatments for Parkinson's disease, according to a new study published...

Tumour cells' response to chemotherapy is driven b…

Cancer cells have an innate randomness in their ability to respond to chemotherapy, which is another tool in their arsenal of resisting treatment, new research led by the...

Engineered bacteria find tumors, then alert the au…

Combining discoveries in cancer immunology with sophisticated genetic engineering, Columbia University researchers have created a sort of "bacterial suicide squad" that ...

Nanosatellite shows the way to RNA medicine of the…

The RNA molecule is commonly recognized as messenger between DNA and protein, but it can also be folded into intricate molecular machines. An example of a naturally occur...

Gene and cell therapies to combat pancreatic cance…

Pancreatic cancer is an incurable form of cancer, and gene therapies are currently in clinical testing to treat this deadly disease. A comprehensive review of the gene an...

Digital twin opens way to effective treatment of i…

Inflammatory diseases like rheumatoid arthritis have complex disease mechanisms that can differ from patient to patient with the same diagnosis. This means that currently...

Pfizer's ZAVZPRET™ (zavegepant) migraine nasal spr…

Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) today announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved ZAVZPRET™ (zavegepant), the first and only calcitonin gene-related peptid...

AI conjures proteins that speed up chemical reacti…

For the first time, scientists have used machine learning to create brand-new enzymes, which are proteins that accelerate chemical reactions. This is an important step in...