CSL Biotherapies and its parent company, CSL Limited (ASX:CSL), one of the world's leading manufacturers of influenza vaccine, have reached an agreement with Merck & Co., Inc. on rights to market and distribute Afluria® in the United States under an exclusive, six-year agreement effective September 3, 2009. Afluria, a CSL product, is a non-adjuvanted trivalent seasonal influenza vaccine sold in two different formulations: thimerosal-free, pre-filled syringes, and in multi-dose vials.
Merck will have the exclusive right to sell and distribute Afluria in the United States beginning with the 2010/11 seasonal influenza season. The manufacture, filling and packaging of Afluria will continue and will not change with this agreement; CSL Ltd. will retain the Afluria license.
“We are pleased to have reached this important agreement with Merck,” said Paul R. Perreault, President of CSL Biotherapies U.S. “CSL is committed to providing influenza vaccine to the United States and we are now able to leverage Merck’s extensive field network in meeting that commitment and in making Afluria available to many more people in the U.S. next flu season. This is yet another milestone in our companies’ shared history of close collaboration and true innovation in the area of vaccine development and distribution.”
For the past several years, CSL and Merck have partnered together successfully in bringing Gardasil® to market in Australia and in other areas of the southern hemisphere. Merck markets Gardasil, a cervical cancer vaccine, and delivers royalties to CSL, which holds a key intellectual property patent on that product. The CSL Group, which includes CSL Biotherapies, has a combined heritage of outstanding contribution to medicine and human health with more than 90 years experience in the development and manufacture of vaccines and plasma protein biotherapies.
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