New York Scientists Take French Partner
Virogenetics, a newly opened vaccine research lab in Troy, N.Y., is an international marriage of scientific convenience - a partnership between a French vaccine manufacturer and a team of New York scientists from the state Health Department's Wadsworth Center for Laboratory and Research in Albany. Several years ago the New Yorkers, led by state research scientist Enzo Paoletti, developed a method, using recombinant DNA technology and the cowpox virus, that might eventually be used as a genetic carrier for immunizations against a number of diseases. With the technology in one hand and a U.S. patent in the other, the Health Department's nonprofit corporation, Health Research Inc., began courting vaccine manufacturers to bankroll R&D. Enter a most willing suitor, Institut Merieux, a worldwide leader in vaccine production with $400 million in sales last year.
The Lyon, France, company, which was founded in 1897 by a ...
