AnGes buys into Vical vaccine

Tokyo-based AnGes MG will pay up to $100 million for access to Allovectin-7, a cancer immunotherapy being developed by the San Diego-based biopharmaceutical company Vical. AnGes will initially pay $22.6 million, which includes a $6.9 million equity stake in Vical, for rights to market Allovectin-7 in certain Asian countries. Vical retains rights to market the drug in the U.S. The cash influx will fund a Phase III pivotal trial of Allovectin-7 to treat patients with metastatic melanoma. Allovectin-7, a plasma-lipid complex containing the DNA sequences that encode the MHC-1 antigen, is injected directly into tumor lesions to evoke an immune response.