CSL inks $313m deal to bring ‘next-generation’ flu, COVID vaccines to Australia

Biotech giant CSL will accelerate investment in messenger-RNA technologies through a $313 million licensing deal with US medicines maker Arcturus Therapeutics, which is developing mRNA vaccines to fight influenza and COVID.

CSL told investors on Wednesday that its vaccine arm, CSL Seqirus, had inked a deal with Arcturus that would give the CSL the exclusive licence to the company’s technology in the fields of influenza, COVID-19 and other respiratory diseases, and non-exclusive rights to other products for “multi-pathogen pandemic preparedness”.

Arcturus is based in San Diego and is working on a range of late-stage products for “self-amplifying” messenger-RNA vaccines, which are also called next-generation mRNA products.

These type of products differ from the mRNA vaccines currently on the market for COVID-19 and typically require lower doses because they are designed so the strand of messenger-RNA, which delivers instructions to the body on how to fight disease, replicates itself once inside the cell.

Researchers are also hoping these vaccines won’t have to be stored and transported at very low temperatures, and are aiming for products that can be stored at between 2 and 8 degrees Celsius.

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Arcturus has a range of late-stage vaccine candidates in development, including a COVID shot that has recently completed a phase 3 trial.

CSL has also been working in the self-amplifying mRNA space, developing an influenza vaccine using this approach.

The company will pay Arcturus $US200 million ($313 million) upfront for access to its technology, with more payments on the table, depending on hitting commercial milestones.