Intercell Receives Milestone Payment From Merck & Co. Inc

Milestone Payment Triggered By Initiation Of Phase II Clinical Trial of Investigational Vaccine to Prevent S. aureus Infection

18-Dec-2007

Intercell AG announced progress in its collaboration with Merck & Co., Inc. to develop a vaccine to prevent Staphylococcus aureus, (S. aureus), infection. Merck has initiated a Phase II clinical trial designed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of a single dose of the candidate vaccine in patients undergoing elective surgery. The start of this Phase II trial triggers a milestone payment of USD 4 million to Intercell.

Gerd Zettlmeissel, CEO of Intercell, commented We are extremely pleased that Merck has started Phase II studies, using a S. aureus vaccine discovered using our proprietary Antigen Identification Platform (AIP®) technology. This serves as further validation of the ability of our AIP® to deliver novel bacterial vaccine candidates.

The S. aureus vaccine candidate is based on a conserved protein antigen discovered by Intercell and licensed to Merck & Co., Inc. in 2004 on an exclusive world wide basis. Merck is responsible for clinical development, manufacturing and marketing. Intercell is eligible to receive milestone payments and royalties on future net sales. In Phase I clinical trials the S. aureus candidate vaccine was shown to be immunogenic, safe and generally well tolerated.

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