IPA.V appears to have entered into agreement with Johnson & Johnson's subsidiary to develop the Coronavirus vaccine. The market is asleep due to cryptically worded news release. Connecting the dots...
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ImmunoPrecise Announces Agreement with Janssen
VICTORIA and CAMBRIDGE, MA, April 14, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - IMMUNOPRECISE ANTIBODIES LTD. (the "Company" or "IPA") (TSX VENTURE: IPA) (OTC QB: IPATF), a global leader in therapeutic antibody discovery and development, announced that it, through its subsidiary Talem Therapeutics, has entered into a research license agreement (the "Agreement") with Janssen Research & Development, LLC ("Janssen"), providing Janssen exclusive access to a panel of novel, monoclonal antibodies against an undisclosed target. Pursuant to the Agreement, Janssen holds an option to acquire all commercial rights to the antibodies. The financial details of the transaction have not been disclosed.
"This Agreement validates Talem's business concept in early antibody discovery and development," said Ilse Roodink, Chairwoman of Talem's Scientific Advisory Committee and Scientific Director at IPA Europe. "It is a significant milestone to see this exclusive agreement through Talem finalized with Janssen, a company so well positioned to further develop and maximize the potential of these lead candidates for clinical applications."
"Talem continues to build a therapeutic program pipeline for commercial partnering, thus optimizing shareholder value creation based on IPA's infrastructure across Europe and North America," added Jennifer Bath, President and CEO of IPA.
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The U.S. Just Signed A $450 Million Coronavirus Vaccine Contract With Johnson & Johnson
The Trump administration is spending nearly half a billion dollars on one company in the race to find a coronavirus vaccine.
That’s according to a $456 million order with Johnson & Johnson’s Pharmaceuticals arm Janssen, which specified a “new vaccine asset for 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19),” Forbes found. It’s the largest reported amount spent on a vaccine project to date, even though the pharma giant hasn’t yet started any clinical trials as other firms have.
The deal was signed with the Health and Human Services Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) on March 27, 2020. It followed another order, made as part of the same contract with Janssen, for $150 million on March 20, 2020, for a “new antiviral” for COVID-19.
A spokesperson from Johnson & Johnson didn’t provide any more details on the specific order, but confirmed the $456 million award related to a collaboration with ASPR’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), as announced in February. That work was built on previous contracts for developing countermeasures for other influenzas. The value of the coronavirus-specific work hadn’t previously been revealed and is the largest known contract for a coronavirus vaccine to date.
It forms part of a deal between the U.S. government and Johnson & Johnson to co-invest $1 billion into vaccine research, development and clinical testing. The company says it now expects human clinical studies for its vaccine candidate to go ahead, at the latest, by September 2020. It anticipates the first batches of vaccine to be available for emergency use in early 2021.