Vical gains on drug technology deals
By Val Brickates Kennedy, MarketWatch
Last Update: 12:49 PM ET Sept. 12, 2005
BOSTON (MarketWatch) -- Shares of Vical Inc. rose sharply Monday following announcement of two gene-therapy technology deals that the company reached.
Vical's stock rallied as much as 18% and stood lately at $4.87, up 65 cents, or 15.4%.
In its first deal, Vical (VICL: news, chart, profile) said that it has granted Merck & Co. (MRK: news, chart, profile) renewable options for the rights to use San Diego-based Vical's gene-therapy delivery technology for the development of oncology drugs.
Merck will also have an option to exclusively license Vical's electroporation-enhanced delivery technology for the development of HIV vaccines. Vical said it will still be able to use its gene technology to develop such vaccines, allowing the two companies to work in the same area of research.
Vical also announced it will collaborate with the National Institutes of Health to further develop elecroporation-enhanced delivery technology for use in gene-based HIV vaccines. Vical said the technology is licensed from Inovio Biomedical Corp.
The Merck deal "allows us to proceed with the evaluation of this novel approach under our [agreement] with the NIH," said Vijay Samant, Vical's chief executive officer, in a statement.
"We are excited by the potential of this approach to increase the effectiveness of DNA vaccines against infectious diseases without compromising safety," Samant added.
Merck's shares lost 27 cents to trade at $29.04. |
