AstraZeneca is buying its first vaccine company in a $1.1 billion deal that will expand the vaccine and immunotherapy business it built during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Britain’s biggest drugmaker has agreed to take over Seattle-based company Icosavax, which is developing a potential vaccine for two common respiratory diseases.
The US firm’s main product targets two diseases – respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and human metapneumovirus (hMPV) – that cause severe illness and hospitalization in adults over 60 and people with chronic conditions such as cardiovascular, kidney and respiratory diseases. RSV and hMPV can also be serious in young children.
In intermediate studies known as phase II trials, the vaccine showed strong immune responses against RSV and hMPV one month after vaccination. It is now entering late-stage, phase III trials involving thousands of volunteers.
This is a combination protein VLP (virus-like particle) vaccine that is given as a shot in the arm and will require regular boosters.
AstraZeneca says that because VLP vaccines mimic how naturally occurring viruses appear to the body’s immune system, they can offer advantages over other vaccines, including a stronger immune response, greater breadth of protection, longer durability that requires fewer boosters and, compared to current RSV vaccine from GSK, less side effects. GSK and Pfizer launched RSV vaccines this year.
Massachusetts-based Moderna is awaiting regulatory approval in the US and the EU for its RSV vaccine, which is based on the mRNA technology it used for its Covid-19 jab. It is testing a combination and hopes to have a triple vaccine against flu, Covid and RSV ready by 2026.
Iskra Reic, the executive vice president of AstraZeneca’s vaccines and immunotherapy division, said: “This virus-like particle vaccine technology has the potential to transform prevention against serious infectious diseases, including RSV and hMPV.” She said it could be used to develop other combination vaccines against respiratory viruses.
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“This aligns with our strategy to deliver a portfolio of therapies to address high unmet needs in infectious diseases, and our ambition to protect the most vulnerable patients who are at high risk of serious outcomes,” she added.
AstraZeneca said the deal built on its RSV expertise. It has developed an antibody treatment that protects babies against the respiratory disease, and is selling it in partnership with France’s Sanofi. The shot, called Beyfortus, has been approved in the EU and the US.
