Glaxo Acquired Vaccines Player

PHARMACEUTICALS

Signaling big pharma interest in the vaccine field, GlaxoSmithKline has agreed to pay about $300 million to acquire Corixa, a Seattle-based company that develops vaccine adjuvants.

Vaccines are a traditionally slow-growing business that came into the spotlight last year when a British plant operated by Chiron was deemed unfit to manufacture the flu vaccine. The resulting shortage underscored the tenuousness of global vaccine supply.

Although GSK is involved in traditional pediatric vaccines for diseases such as measles, mumps, and tetanus, it is also developing vaccines for new, less well-known indications.

Notably, the company is in late-stage testing of Cervarix, a potentially multi-billion-dollar vaccine that targets infection by the human papilloma virus, a leading cause of cervical cancer.

Last month, Merck &Co. published favorable clinical trial results for its own HPV vaccine, Gardasil. John Savopoulos, head of the infectious disease unit at business information firm Datamonitor, says these products are part of a "new wave" of innovation for the global vaccine industry, which had sales last year of about $8.1 billion.

Savopoulos calls vaccines a "hidden jewel" for drug companies like GSK, Merck, and Sanofi-Aventis. "The business is solid, and entry barriers to would-be competitors are high," he says. Datamonitor expects double-digit growth rates in coming years as governments and international groups step up vaccination coverage.

Cervarix, which is on track to be launched next year, owes its effectiveness in part to MPL, or monophosphoryl lipid A, an adjuvant supplied by Corixa. When combined with vaccines, MPL stimulates the body's immune system to produce greater vaccine protection.

MPL is also used in tuberculosis, malaria, herpes, breast cancer, and prostate cancer vaccines being developed by GSK. By acquiring Corixa, GSK will eliminate payment of royalties on the adjuvant and will gain control of the Hamilton, Mont., plant that produces it.