PARIS - Biovector Therapeutics and the Canadian company BioChem Pharma Inc. have embarked on the development of a vaccine against the bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae that incorporates one of Biovector's delivery systems and a protein antigen from BioChem.

The development is being coordinated by BioChem's Vaccine Development Center in Northborough, Mass.

Biovector's CEO, Emile Loria, told BioWorld International that the new vaccine was targeting a market with a $1 billion potential. That is because the S. pneumoniae bacterium is the most frequent cause of meningitis and otitis in children, as well as a major cause of morbidity and mortality in the aged due to their vulnerability to pneumonia. Loria pointed out in particular that it is fatal in one of two infected people over 50.

The project could be highly lucrative for Biovector Therapeutics in particular, Loria said. In addition to an undisclosed cash payment on the signing of the agreement, the company would receive R&D funding and "milestone payments that could be very substantial."

This will be the second vaccine to be developed jointly by Biovector, of Toulouse, France, and BioChem Pharma, of Laval, Quebec, under the terms of the agreement they signed in May 1999 for the development of a series of vaccines administered by a nasal delivery system. The first was an influenza vaccine, which completed an initial Phase I trial in October 1998. As Loria pointed out, it was the successful results of that trial which led to the signing of a worldwide development, production and marketing agreement with SmithKline Beecham, of London, in December 1998. Loria said SB was nearing completion of a second Phase I trial of that vaccine using an optimized device and that results would be announced very shortly.

In contrast to the flu vaccine, development of the new one would not be licensed out to a large company, Loria explained. He stressed that BioChem attached considerable importance to the project, having "selected an antigen that is common to several strains of the bacterium," and was determined to retain control over its clinical development through to Phase II/III.

The nasal spray is one of several novel drug delivery systems developed by Biovector Therapeutics, four of which it has patented for the delivery of various antigens and genes. Biovector claims that its systems, which consist of synthetic particles that have unique biomimetic structures similar to viral structures, enhance and extend the effects of therapeutic agents such as vaccines, as well as providing a more comfortable form of administration. The main pathologies it is targeting are cancer and certain infectious diseases, and last June the National Cancer Institute (NCI) initiated Phase I trials of a B-cell lymphoma vaccine developed jointly by Biovector and Biomira Inc., of Alberta, Canada, which entered a collaboration in September 1998.

Biovector still has ambitions of becoming a quoted company, despite having been forced to cancel a planned initial public offering in February 1999, and Loria told BioWorld International that the company was considering various options for obtaining a stock market listing. One was for the company to launch another IPO itself, while another possibility was a takeover. "All the decisions will be taken by the end of March, and we will be on the market one way or the other by the end of June," he said.