PRNewswire - Wednesday December 13, 2000

Vijay B. Samant, Vical's President and Chief Executive Officer, said he was pleased by Dr. Scolnick's comments. "This novel vaccine approach may enable the development of vaccines for diseases where previous methods have failed," Samant said. "We are particularly excited by the prospects for Merck's investigational HIV vaccine program since it may offer new hope for both treating and preventing this terrible disease."

Merck's investigational HIV vaccine program includes development of vaccines based on Vical's naked DNA vaccine technology to prevent and treat HIV infections. Merck is testing naked DNA vaccines for HIV in two human trials, one for uninfected volunteers and one for volunteers already infected with HIV and receiving highly active anti-retroviral therapy. The human testing began in December 1999. Merck also holds licenses to develop preventive and therapeutic vaccines for several other infectious disease vaccine targets.

Vaccines are generally recognized as the most cost-effective approach for infectious disease health care. However, the technical limitations of conventional vaccine approaches have constrained the development of effective vaccines for many diseases. Vical's naked DNA vaccine technology may overcome two deficiencies of traditional preventive vaccine approaches, which are the inability to counteract the random changes in the strains of various infectious agents and the need for safe formulations that boost an antibody response or that cause sufficient killer T-cell responses, known as adjuvants. Potential vaccine products based on the Vical technology should be simpler to manufacture than vaccines that are made using cumbersome and labor-intensive techniques involving difficult tissue culture procedures and live viruses.

Vical Incorporated, The Naked DNA Company(TM), is focused on the development of pharmaceutical product candidates based on its patented gene delivery technology. A number of therapeutic and vaccine product candidates are currently under development for the prevention or treatment of cancer, infectious diseases and metabolic disorders by Vical and its collaborative partners, including Merck & Co., Pfizer Inc., Human Genome Sciences, Aventis Pasteur, Aventis Pharma, Centocor Inc., Merial and Boston Scientific Corporation. Allovectin-7(R), which uses a lipid-DNA complex to help the immune system recognize and attack cancer cells, is in Phase II and Phase III testing in certain patients with metastatic melanoma and in Phase II testing in patients with head and neck cancer.

Leuvectin(TM), which uses a lipid-DNA complex to stimulate an immune response against cancer cells, is in Phase II testing in patients with kidney cancer and prostate cancer. Vaxid, a naked DNA vaccine to prevent relapse of B-cell lymphoma, is in Phase I/II testing. In collaboration with the National Cancer Institute, a naked DNA vaccine to treat metastatic melanoma is in Phase I/II testing.

This press release contains forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements, including whether any product candidates will be shown to be safe and efficacious in clinical trials, the timing of clinical trials, whether Vical will seek or gain approval to market any product candidates, and additional risks set forth in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Actual results may differ materially from those projected. These forward-looking statements represent the company's judgment as of the date of this release. The company disclaims, however, any intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements. For news releases and other information about the company, visit the Vical web site at www.vical.com.

SOURCE: Vical Incorporated

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