Abivax Partners With Finlay Institute To Commercialize Vaccines In Emerging Markets

French biopharmaceutical company, Abivax, has signed an agreement with vaccine maker, The Finlay Institute in Cuba, which will allow Abivax to commercialize vaccines against three major infectious diseases in the Asian and Latin American markets.  

Under the terms of the agreement, Abivax will gain full distribution rights for three vaccines that have been developed by and are being currently marketed by The Finlay Institute in Cuba.

The three vaccines covered by the deal are:

• Typhoid vaccine, vax‐TyVi, for typhoid fever (enteric fever), which mostly affects South Asian and South American countries and causes hundreds of thousands of deaths and cases of diarrhea every year.
• Meningococcal vaccine, VA‐MENGOC‐BC, which targets groups B & C Meningococcus. This vaccine protects against meningococcal diseases, such as meningitis and meningococcemia, which are leading causes of death and illness in many countries.
• Leptospirosis vaccine, vax‐SPIRAL, which targets Leptospirosis, an infection affecting millions of people every year in many countries.

Abivax will gain the commercialization rights for these vaccines in several countries in Asia, including India, Indonesia, and the Philippines, as well as in Latin America, including Brazil, Mexico, and Uruguay. All three vaccines will be produced by The Finlay Institute.

The regulatory filings for these vaccines in each market will be carried out by Abivax along with its local partners. Abivax plans to select partners who have a strong relationship with the local authorities and will be best able to meet that particular market’s needs.

The company expects that its sales from this agreement will begin in 2015 and will be considerable given that the typhoid vaccine market in India alone is worth over $600 million per year.

Abivax anticipates that this deal will enable it to better commercialize its own products that are currently in development, such as ABX203, a therapeutic vaccine candidate for chronic hepatitis B, as well as ABX464, a novel small molecule against HIV.

Prof. Hartmut Ehrlich, M.D., CEO of Abivax, said, "Today's agreement with The Finlay Institute is a further step in Abivax' strategy to become a global leader in the anti-virals and vaccines and thus protect a large number of people from these serious and potentially life threatening infectious diseases. We intend to leverage this deal by creating a strong distribution network in Asia and Latin America that will not only drive the sales of these competitive vaccine products but also products, such as ABX203, which we currently have under development."