Animal vaccine agreement

NEEDHAM, Mass.—Looking to grab a piece of the expanding market for animal medicines, AVANT Immunotherapeutics announced the signing of a collaborative R&D agreement with veterinarian drug industry leader Pfizer to develop animal vaccines. The collaboration will rely on AVANT's proprietary vaccine platform and will focus on prophylactic and therapeutic treatments for respiratory and enteric diseases.

"We are very pleased to extend our collaboration with Pfizer to leverage the value of AVANT's vaccine technology in a significant market opportunity outside AVANT's own focus on human health care," said Dr. Una S. Ryan, AVANT president and CEO.

Given the increase in the global incidence of pathogens such as bovine spongiform encephalopathy and bird flu, world interest in veterinary medicines has increased, and according to an October 2004 report, the market for veterinary vaccines alone will reach $3 billion by 2008.