Sheffield Medical Technologies Inc. announced that it acquired anexclusive option to obtain an exclusive license to an HIV/AIDSvaccine being developed by Jean-Claude Chermann of France.The action, announced Tuesday, was a popular one with investors.Sheffield (AMEX:SHM) stock rose 44 cents Tuesday and another$1.19 Wednesday, closing at $5.75 per share.The agreement, with INSERM, the French National Institute of Healthand Medical Research, calls for Sheffield to pay up to $600,000 overthe next year to sponsor Chermann's preclinical research. Sheffieldalso will contribute to a vaccine laboratory being developed inMarseille, France."Of course, we would expect to commit to a much larger investment totake research through clinical trials," Douglas Eger, chairman and CEOof Sheffield, told BioWorld.Chermann was one of the first scientists to isolate HIV in 1983, at thePasteur Institute in Paris. The technology he is developing as a vaccinewould generate immunity by stimulating antibodies to beta2microglobulin, which is a cellular antigen common in highconcentrations to all known strains of the virus, Sheffield said.Eger said Chermann is a close colleague of Claude Nicolau, who isprincipal investigator for Sheffield's CD4 technologies beingdeveloped to treat HIV. _ Jim Shrine

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