We now know the name of Epixis' mystery buyer in a deal announced last month. VBI Vaccines has completed its acquisition of France's Epixis for an undisclosed sum, giving the company rights to Epixis' platform technology for a new generation of virus-like particle (VLP) vaccines. VBI, which has its headquarters in Cambridge, MA, says the acquisition complements its thermostable vaccine development platform.
VBI and Epixis first started working together in 2010, when the two companies inked a research collaboration focused on cytomegalovirus. Baxter says the acquisition was triggered by "significant research advances in the past year" resulting from that deal. VBI also plans to advance Epixis' preclinical hepatitis C vaccine candidate. "Our proof of concept and preclinical findings have been extremely promising in both CMV and Hepatitis C and we believe clearly demonstrate the value of the eVLP platform," noted former Epixis CEO Charlotte Dalba, who is now a senior consultant with VBI.
"This acquisition enables VBI to strategically build upon our pipeline of innovative vaccine delivery technologies and advance the development of an extremely promising VLP platform," added VBI CEO Jeff Baxter.
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