Merial, GenVec extend deal to develop and commercialize foot-and-mouth disease vaccine

GenVec, Inc. (Nasdaq: GNVCD) today announced that it has entered into a second agreement with Merial, the animal health division of sanofi-aventis. In December 2010, GenVec announced that the company will be working with Merial to develop and commercialize GenVec's proprietary vaccine technology for use against foot-and-mouth disease. Under a new agreement and program, Merial has the right to evaluate GenVec technology for applications in other areas of animal health.  Merial has elected to start the program using the GenVec technology to target swine diseases.  

"Our expanded collaboration with Merial is important to GenVec. In keeping with our business strategy, this agreement provides a path by which our technology can be incorporated into new products for commercialization in the animal health arena and, thereby, generate revenues for GenVec through royalties on sales. This agreement further demonstrates the strong interest shown by leading companies in our widely applicable core technology," said Dr. Paul Fischer, GenVec's President and Chief Executive Officer.

"We have been impressed with GenVec's differentiated technology, and are excited to expand the fields in which we collaborate," said Dr. Robert Nordgren, Global Head of Merial's Bio R&D.

"Merial has agreed to work on targeted pathogenic viral diseases in swine which have proven to be difficult targets against which to develop vaccines, and we look forward to working with GenVec in these and other areas,"  said Dr. Teshome Mebatsion, Senior Director Vector Vaccine Research, Merial.