AstraZeneca Acquires Omniose to Strengthen Bacterial Vaccine Technology
By Dr. Zubair Khalid, DVM, MS, PhD ·
AstraZeneca has acquired Omniose, a biotechnology company focused on vaccine bioconjugation. The deal brings in technology and expertise that could support AstraZeneca’s efforts to develop vaccines against bacterial infections. Omniose was previously a partner of AstraZeneca.
The acquisition gives AstraZeneca access to Omniose’s bioconjugation platform. Bioconjugation is a method used to attach bacterial polysaccharides to carrier proteins, which can improve the immune system’s response to a vaccine. The technology is designed to help create vaccines that protect people from bacterial threats.
The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
Context
Bacterial infections remain a major cause of illness and death worldwide. Traditional vaccine approaches can be limited by the difficulty of generating strong immune responses against certain bacterial surface molecules. Bioconjugation technology offers a way to overcome that challenge by chemically linking bacterial sugars to proteins that the immune system recognizes more readily. Several licensed vaccines already use this principle. AstraZeneca’s purchase of Omniose signals continued investment in this area of vaccine development, which has applications in human medicine and could also inform work in animal health.
Source: original report