Pfizer, Inc. announced that it has acquired a controlling interest in Redvax GmbH, a spin-off from Redbiotec AG, a privately held Swiss biopharmaceutical company, based in Zurich-Schlieren.
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This transaction provides access to a preclinical human cytomegalovirus (CMV) vaccine candidate, as well as intellectual property and a technology platform related to a second, undisclosed vaccine program.
The CMV vaccine program will complement Pfizer's robust research portfolio of high-quality and life-saving investigational vaccines and place Pfizer among the leaders in CMV research and development. CMV is a herpes virus, infecting 50-90% of the adult population, with a majority remaining asymptomatic.
A large segment of young adults, especially women of childbearing age who remain CMV negative, are at high risk of CMV infection during pregnancy and of passing the infection on to the unborn child (congenital infection). There are potentially serious and lifelong consequences for babies born with the disease.
One out of every five children born with CMV infection may experience hearing loss and severe neurologic disorders. More children have disabilities due to congenital CMV than other well-known infections and syndromes, including Down syndrome, fetal alcohol syndrome, spina bifida, and pediatric HIV/AIDS.4
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate that, in the U.S., approximately 5,000 children each year develop lasting health problems caused by CMV such as hearing or vision loss, and mental disability.
The Institute of Medicine (IOM) has ranked the development of a CMV vaccine as a highest priority because of the lives it would save and the disabilities it would prevent.5 The estimated costs associated with CMV disease for the U.S. health care system amounts to at least $1.86 billion annually. CMV expenses can run more than $300,000 per child. ■
A hyperactive weather pattern will bring an expansive low pressure system across mainland U.S., resulting in widespread impactful weather to progress from west to east across the country through the next few days.