Sanofi Pasteur enters partnership with U.S. Naval Medical Research Center

LYON, France Many people who have traveled in the developing world know the feeling of eating a meal and immediately having to head to the nearest restroom, but travelers’ diarrhea can be deadly as well, causing nearly 400,000 deaths among children in developing countries every year, according to the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines division of French drug maker Sanofi-Aventis, announced Monday that it had entered a partnership with the U.S. Naval Medical Research Center to develop a vaccine for enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli, also known as ETEC, the main cause of travelers’ diarrhea among travelers and military personnel.

The vaccine uses an adhesin vaccine technology developed by the NMRC, packaging the adhesin with a toxoid vaccine component co-developed by the NMRC and the University of Colorado.