BioDiem licenses hepatitis vaccine tech from UC

BioDiem (ASX:BDM) has arranged to license a vaccine technology for hepatitis B and D from the University of Canberra.

The deal gives BioDiem an exclusive license to the vaccine technology, which also has potential applications in the development of vaccines for other infectious diseases.

There is no current curative treatment for hepatitis B – which is estimated to affect up to 1.4 million people in the US alone – or hepatitis D – a disease infecting only those already infected with hepatitis B, which has a 20% mortality rate.

Established treatments currently involve ongoing administration of antiviral drugs and – in severe cases – a liver transplant.

BioDiem did not disclose the financial terms of the deal with the university, but stated that they are in-line with industry standards.

BioDiem CEO Julie Phillips said the company has high hopes for the technology. “[We] believe that development towards a high-value orphan indication may allow us to achieve a rapid entry to clinical trials and eventual outlicensing,” she said.

This was the second vaccine technology licensing agreement BioDiem has signed this week, following Monday's formalisation of a deal with the Australian National University covering a technology with an initial target of dengue fever.

BioDiem's core technologies are the proprietary Live Attenuated Influenza Virus (LAIV), as well as the SAVINE (Scrambled Antigen Vaccine) technology acquired in December last year.

Last month, the company commenced a collaboration with French biopharma VIVALIS aimed at developing a new viral vector using LAIV and a VIVALIS cell line. In the same week, BioDiem revealed it had received revenue of around $1.4 million so far this year from LAIV license fees. BioDiem (ASX:BDM) shares were trading unchanged at $0.060 as of around 2:30pm on Tuesday.