North American Vaccine Inc. has signed an agreement with a Danishvaccine house to develop vaccines for various childhood illnesses.

Statens Seruminstitut (SSI) of Denmark will provide its diphtheriaand tetanus toxoids as carriers for the conjugate vaccines that thecompany (AMEX:NVX) is developing, and will conduct clinical trials ofcertain vaccines. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Clinical sites are not yet decided, but testing likely will start in thefirst half of the year, said Daniel Abdun-Nabi, senior vice presidentof legal affairs for NVX. The Beltsville, Md., company is developingvaccines for strains of meningitis bacteria, for hemophilusinfluenza, and for group B streptococcus.

SSI, a government-owned agency, is "one of the most respectedvaccine houses in the world," and has tested vaccines for the WorldHealth Organization, Abdun-Nabi said.

Amvax Inc., an NVX subsidiary, will be exclusive distributor in NorthAmerica and the United Kingdom of SSI's diphtheria and tetanus vac-cines, and for SSI's enhanced inactivated polio vaccine. NVX expectsto start marketing the vaccines in 1993.

SSI will be the exclusive distributor in its territory for the newconjugate vaccines. The companies are negotiating other vaccineagreements.

NVX closed Tuesday at $12.63, down $1.63. -- Roberta Friedman,Ph.D.

(c) 1997 American Health Consultants. All rights reserved.