Vical secures $2.5 million funding from AnGes for Phase III melanoma trial

Vical, a US-based biotechnology company, has received a $2.5 million installment payment from AnGes, a Japanese biopharmaceutical company, for its ongoing Allovectin-7 Phase III metastatic melanoma trial.

Through a series of cash payments and equity investments under a previously announced collaborative agreement, Vical has now received the full $22.6 million committed by AnGes prior to trial completion. The trial is expected to complete enrollment of the planned 375 subjects by year-end 2009.

Vical is conducting the Aimm Phase III pivotal trial targeting enrollment of approximately 375 patients with stage III or IV metastatic melanoma. In exchange for funding the trial, AnGes received exclusive marketing rights in Japan and other key Asian countries, and also will receive certain royalties for sales in the US and European countries.

AnGes is obligated to pay Vical royalties on product sales in the specified Asian countries, plus certain sales-based milestone payments if defined sales levels are achieved.

Vical is obligated to pay AnGes tiered royalties based on defined sales levels in the US, and fixed royalties on rest-of-world sales. Each company will be responsible for obtaining regulatory approvals in any countries where it plans to market Allovectin-7.

Vijay Samant, president and CEO of Vical, said: "We remain on track with patient enrollment and we expect data in 2010. Assuming the results are positive, Allovectin-7 could become the first new front-line therapy for metastatic melanoma in nearly two decades."

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