UPDATE:Pfizer to acquire vaccine maker PowderMed

Global pharmaceutical behemoth Pfizer says it has entered into an agreement to acquire PowderMed, a privately-held UK firm specializing in the emerging science of DNA-based vaccines.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but it is believed to have cost Pfizer $400.0 million, to acquire the vaccine company, which made a loss of L10.0 million ($18.6 million) for 2005. PowderMed is a spin-off of US biotechnology group Chiron, for which Novartis paid around $3.0 billion last year to acquire the 56% it did not already own (Marketletter April 10, 2005).

The US giant explains that PowderMed has developed a unique and proprietary technology to deliver DNA directly to the cells of the body's immune system and is advancing a promising pipeline of proprietary vaccine candidates for influenza and chronic viral diseases.