MedImmune obtains patents from Mount Sinai School of Medicine

By Jennifer Chiou

New York, Dec. 7 - MedImmune, Inc. announced it acquired exclusive worldwide rights to intellectual property owned by Mount Sinai School of Medicine for reverse genetics.

MedImmune, which makes intranasal influenza vaccine FluMist, owns or has exclusive licenses to the Mount Sinai School of Medicine plasmid rescue portfolio, MedImmune Fundamental reverse genetics portfolio, Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation plasmid rescue portfolio and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital dual promoter plasmid rescue portfolio.

"The use of reverse genetics will allow MedImmune to improve the efficiency of producing new influenza vaccine strains on an annual basis, ultimately resulting in more reliable delivery of the vaccine to the public," vice president of research and development for vaccines George W. Kemble said in a news release.

"When used to produce pandemic influenza vaccine seeds, reverse genetics has the added benefit of enabling scientists to remove potentially pathogenic portions of the virus, thereby making the vaccine and its production safer."

Reverse genetics is a method of altering the influenza genome to produce vaccine seeds that are then used to produce the vaccine, according to the release.

Under the agreement, Mount Sinai will receive an upfront fee, milestone payments and royalties on future product sales. Details were not disclosed.

MedImmune said it is nearing completion of its phase 3 clinical trial of CAIV-T (cold adapted influenza vaccine, trivalent) with the standard injectable vaccine.

Based in Gaithersburg, Md., MedImmune is a pharmaceutical company.

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