(Yicai Global) July 26 -- Chinese biotech company Nuance Pharma is discontinuing the regional commercialization of a vaccine for the respiratory syncytial virus, which is a common infection of the respiratory tract, after its Danish partner Bavarian Nordic announced that clinical trials of the jab have not been successful.

Bavarian Nordic’s respiratory syncytial virus vaccine candidate, MVA-BN RSV, failed to noticeably reduce the incidence of lower respiratory tract diseases in the third and final stage of clinical trials, meaning it will not be developed into a jab, the Hellerup-based company said on July 22.

The termination of the trials means that Nuance Pharma, which inked an exclusive licensing agreement with Bavarian Nordic in March last year to develop and commercialize the MVA-BN RSV vaccine in China, South Korea and a number of Southeast Asian nations, will also be forced to end its preparations to bring it to market.

Nuance Pharma has not mentioned the losses it will incur from the deal falling through, but the Shanghai-based company said last March that it will make an upfront payment of USD21.5 million to Bavarian Nordic and pay future milestone payments of as much as USD212.5 million.

Bavarian Nordic has said that it expects losses of DKK195 million (USD29 million) as it will not receive any milestone payments.

It was only this year that the world’s first RSV jabs, developed by the UK’s GSK and the US’ Pfizer, hit the market, and more are in development but not all companies are successful. The US’ Johnson & Johnson said in March that it has stopped development of its adenovirus vector vaccine for RSV, JNJ-64400141. Both London-based GSK and the US’ Vaxart have previously been unsuccessful in developing adenovirus vector jabs.

Editor: Kim Taylor