Norwegian vaccine company, Vaccibod,y and Phibro Animal Health Corporation, a global animal health and mineral nutrition company, have signed a global exclusive licence agreement which grants Phibro and its affiliates the right to develop, market and sell novel vaccines for the poultry market using the Vaccibody platform technology.

Under the agreement, Phibro and its affiliates have an option to exclusively commercialise new indications for poultry vaccines. Phibro will conduct and finance the development of the poultry vaccines, and Vaccibody is entitled to certain milestone payments upon successful completion of proof of concept for each indication and royalties upon commencement of commercial sales.

The global poultry vaccine market accounts for over US$1 billion annually with vaccines dedicated to fighting diseases in broilers, layers and breeders playing a critical role in animal welfare as well as protecting the industry from major economic losses.

Ole Henrik Brekke, Vaccibody's CEO, said: "We are very pleased to enter into collaboration where Vaccibody's potent and innovative technology will benefit from Phibro's demonstrated global capabilities in developing poultry vaccines and bringing them to market. We expect the collaboration to foster novel and highly effective vaccines for the poultry industry.

"This agreement is the first step in carrying out the company's strategy of entering into partnerships to exploit the broad applicability of our platform technology. Simultaneously, it allows Vaccibody to focus its resources on its own internal cancer vaccine development programme."

Larry Miller, President, Animal Health, of Phibro, commented: "We are very excited about working with Vaccibody to apply its technology to further enhance Phibro's strong portfolio of poultry vaccines. This agreement marks another milestone in Phibro Vaccines' focus on bringing real innovation to help solve the very challenging disease issues faced by our global customers."

Vaccibody is a vaccine company dedicated to the discovery and development of novel prophylactic and therapeutic vaccines which target cancer and infectious diseases, for human and veterinary use. Vaccibody's lead program is focused on advancing a therapeutic DNA vaccine against HPV induced cancers currently undergoing preclinical development for a first-in-man study against cervical cancer.

Phibro Animal Health Corporation is a diversified global developer, manufacturer and marketer of a broad range of animal health and mineral nutrition products for use in the production of poultry, swine, cattle, dairy and aquaculture.