Sanofi Pasteur, Navy Combat Diarrhea

Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines division of Sanofi-Aventis, will partner with the U.S. Naval Medical Research Center to develop a new bacterial vaccine against enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC), a bacterium that causes nearly 400,000 childhood deaths in the developing world and is well-known as the cause of traveler's diarrhea. Under the terms of the four-year research pact, NMRC has licensed two ETEC adhesion vaccine technologies to Sanofi Pasteur, including one with a toxoid vaccine component codeveloped by NMRC and the University of Colorado, Denver. Wayne Pisano, Sanofi Pasteur's CEO, says the agreement will provide the basis for launching clinical trials. "We believe that this vaccine has the potential to curtail the number and severity of food-borne illnesses due to ETEC," Pisano says.