Poolbeg Pharma PLC (AIM:POLB) has signed an option agreement to licence a vaccine for an infectious disease called melioidosis.
Poolbeg has signed the agreement for MelioVac with University College Dublin and its inventor, associate professor Siobhán McClean, through NovaUCD, the university's knowledge transfer office.
It allows the group to carry on its due diligence on the preclinical asset, which is the recipient of a Wellcome Trust award to aid its development, as well as five other potential vaccine candidates discovered by McClean and her team.
Also known as Whitmore's disease, melioidosis is found in the soil and surface groundwater of many tropical and subtropical regions, causing pneumonia and severe sepsis with multiple organ abscesses. There are currently no approved vaccines for it.
Poolbeg chief executive, Jeremy Skillington, said: "Melioidosis offers Poolbeg an opportunity to expand our portfolio of infectious disease assets, as promised at IPO.
“This is a disease which presents a dangerous and underappreciated threat to human health which currently has no approved vaccine and a very high mortality rate.
“If we can take MelioVac through clinical development to phase II ready, it has the potential to generate significant returns for investors in the short-term while contributing to the global response to the threat of infectious diseases with an unmet medical need.”