Exhibit 99.1
GE Healthcare and Novavax Establish Collaboration
To Develop and Market Pandemic Influenza Solution
| |
• |
|
Collaboration aimed at enabling vaccine production facility commissioning in half the time
of a traditional egg-based facility. |
| |
| |
• |
|
Once established, such a vaccine facility could allow manufacturing of pandemic flu
vaccine to commence within 12 weeks of the strain isolation |
Chalfont St Giles, UK and Rockville, MD, USA: December 10, 2007
GE Healthcare, a unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE), and Novavax Inc. (NASDAQ: NVAX),
today announced a collaboration agreement to develop and market a pandemic influenza vaccine
manufacturing solution for selected international countries. This collaboration leverages GE
Healthcare’s bioprocess solutions and design expertise and Novavax’s virus-like particle (VLP) and
manufacturing platform.
Health planners around the world are looking to increase manufacturing capacity and vaccine
stockpiles to counter the threat of a global avian flu pandemic: the global demand for pandemic
influenza vaccine has been reported as possibly approaching 13 billion doses, with current world
capacity at best 2.4 billion doses.
“This collaboration is a great first example of GE Healthcare realizing its strategy of enabling
affordable and safe vaccine production for countries that need to better prepare for emerging
infectious diseases,” said Peter Ehrenheim, President and CEO, GE Healthcare Life Sciences.
Novavax’s VLP-based H5N1 pandemic flu vaccine is currently in Phase I/IIa clinical trials. The
goal is that any required recombinant vaccine could be produced in cell culture within 12 weeks of
identification of a pandemic strain, without using eggs or live influenza virus — as little as half
the time compared with currently available processes.
Commenting on the collaboration, Dr. Rahul Singhvi, President and CEO of Novavax said, “This
collaboration is a critical milestone in addressing one of the most pressing global healthcare
issues of the 21st century. We believe the combination of these technologies will enable
the creation of a country’s rapid response supply and self-sufficiency in pandemic flu vaccine.”
GE Healthcare’s new ReadyToProcess portfolio of ready-to-use systems and devices is designed to
increase speed, simplicity and safety for all areas of bioprocessing, including the time it takes
to build and validate a facility. With Novavax’s VLP and manufacturing platform, the intention is
that it could enable commissioning of a new facility from scratch in approximately two and a half
years, half the time for a traditional egg-based vaccine production facility, and at a potential
capital reduction of approximately 60 per cent.
About GE Healthcare
GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services that are shaping a new
age of patient care. Our expertise in medical imaging and information technologies, medical
diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, performance improvement, drug discovery, and
biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies is helping clinicians around the world re-imagine new
ways to predict, diagnose, inform, treat and monitor disease, so patients can live their lives to
the fullest.
GE Healthcare’s broad range of products and services enable healthcare providers to better diagnose
and treat cancer, heart disease, neurological diseases and other conditions earlier. Our vision for
the future is to enable a new “early health” model of care focused on earlier diagnosis,
pre-symptomatic disease detection and disease prevention. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, GE
Healthcare is a $17 billion unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE). Worldwide, GE Healthcare
employs more than 46,000 people committed to serving healthcare professionals and their patients in
more than 100 countries. For more information about GE Healthcare, visit our website at
www.gehealthcare.com.
About Novavax Inc
Novavax Inc. is a clinical stage vaccine company committed to leading the global fight against
infectious disease by creating novel, highly potent vaccines that are safer and more effective than
current preventive options. Using the company’s proprietary virus-like particle (VLP) and Novasome®
adjuvant technologies, Novavax is developing vaccines to protect against H5N1 pandemic influenza,
seasonal flu and other viral diseases. Novavax’s particulate vaccines closely match disease-causing
viruses while lacking the genetic material to cause disease, which provides potential for greater
immune protection at lower doses than current vaccines. With an exclusive portable manufacturing
system that allows for rapid mass-production of vaccines, Novavax is uniquely positioned to meet
global public health needs. Additional information about Novavax is available at www.novavax.com
and in the company’s various filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Forward-Looking Statements
Statements herein relating to future financial or business performance, conditions or strategies
and other financial and business matters, including expectations regarding product sales, operating
expenses, and clinical developments are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the
Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. Novavax and GE Healthcare caution that these
forward-looking statements are subject to numerous assumptions, risks and uncertainties, which
change over time. Factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from the results
discussed in the forward-looking statements or historical experience include risks and
uncertainties, including the ability of Novavax and GE Healthcare to successfully market a pandemic
influenza vaccine solution; the ability of Novavax to integrate GE Healthcare’s devices into its
manufacturing process; the terms and conditions of a definitive agreement with one of the selected
countries, if such an agreement is reached; uncertainties relating to clinical trials; risks
relating to the commercialization, if any, of Novavax’s proposed
product candidates; dependence on the efforts of third parties; dependence on intellectual property; competition for clinical
resources and patient enrollment from drug candidates in development by other companies with
greater resources and visibility, and risks that we may lack the financial resources and access to
capital to fund our operations. Further information on the factors and risks that could affect
Novavax’s business, financial conditions and results of operations, is contained in Novavax’s
filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which are available at www.sec.gov. These
forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release, and Novavax assumes no
duty to update forward-looking statements.
# # #
| |
|
|
Contact: |
|
|
|
|
|
GE Healthcare
|
|
Novavax, Inc: |
Conor McKechnie
|
|
Tricia J. Richardson |
International Media Relations
|
|
Investor Relations Manager |
conor.mckechnie@ge.com
|
|
trichardson@novavax.com |
+44 771 751 7028
|
|
+ 1 240-268-2031 |
|
|
|
Arvind Gopalratnam |
|
|
Americas Media Relations |
|
|
arvind.gopalratnam@ge.com |
|
|
+1 414-721-2429 |
|
|
