Sheffield Medical Technologies Inc. deal

The Houston company acquired an exclusive option to obtain a worldwide license to an HIV/AIDS vaccine being developed by the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM).

The technology may be used as a vaccine to generate immunity to the HIV virus by stimulating antibodies to beta2 microglobulin (B2m), which is a cellular antigen that is common in high concentrations to all known strains of the virus. INSERM has identified the site on B2m to which the antibody attaches (the epitope), and produced synthetic peptides with the same structure as the epitope. The vaccine will be delivered by attaching the synthetic peptide to an attenuated or inactivated form of the polio virus. ...