Crucell N.V. - Crucell N.V. (NL) - Crucell and Aeras Announce Progress in TB Vaccine Program

Crucell and Aeras Announce Progress in TB Vaccine Program

Leiden, The Netherlands, September 8, 2005 - Dutch biotechnology aggregation Crucell N.V. (Euronext, NASDAQ: CRXL) and Aeras Global TB Vaccine Foundation today appear the admission of a alternation of analytic studies for their AdVac®-based TB vaccine. The studies, which chase able after-effects for the vaccine acquired in abominable studies, are appointed to alpha in Europe, the US and Africa in the additional division of 2006.

The advertisement was fabricated today by Crucell´s Chief Scientific Officer, Dr Jaap Goudsmit, at a Congress captivated in Berlin alleged ´New Approaches to Vaccine Development - From the Bench to the Field´. Dr Goudsmit´s lecture, advantaged ´Children´s Vaccines Against HIV, Malaria and TB: the Advantage of Ad35 Vectors´, accent the appliance of adenovirus serotype-35 (Ad35) vectors for accumulation anesthetic adjoin poverty-related diseases such as TB.

Crucell has developed technology able of bearing ample numbers of vaccine doses at low amount by application a aggregate of Ad35 and the Company´s PER.C6® assembly technology.

"We are actual appreciative that our analysis and development aggregation was able to advance a agent arrangement that is abiding over abundant passages to acquiesce for the assembly of a ample amount of vaccine doses," explained Dr Goudsmit. "It took us a abundant aeon of time to advance such a arrangement for Ad35 vectors, decidedly because our TB vaccine contains a aggregate of assorted antigens in a individual vector."

The second-generation Ad35 agent activated in the TB affairs is acutely acceptable for vaccine assembly on PER.C6® corpuscle ability at scale. Such awful advantageous systems are decidedly important in the case of poverty-related diseases such as HIV, malaria and TB, if 10-100 millions of doses charge to be bogus while befitting costs almost low.

About AdVac® technology and Ad35
AdVac® technology is a vaccine technology developed by Crucell and is advised to play an important role in the action adjoin arising and re-emerging communicable diseases, and in biodefense. The technology supports the convenance of inserting abiogenetic actual from the disease-causing virus or bacteria into a ´vehicle´ alleged a vector, which again delivers the immunogenic actual anon to the allowed system. Most vectors are based on an adenovirus, such as the virus that causes the accepted cold. The AdVac® technology is accurately advised to administer the botheration of above-mentioned amnesty in bodies adjoin the a lot of frequently acclimated recombinant vaccine vector, adenovirus serotype 5 (Ad5), after compromising all-embracing assembly capabilities or the immunogenic backdrop of Ad5. AdVac® technology is based on adenovirus vectors that do not consistently action in the animal population, such as Ad35. In adverse to the AdVac® vectors, antibodies to Ad5 are boundless a allotment of humans of all ages and are accepted to lower the allowed acknowledgment to Ad5-based vaccines, thereby impairing the ability of these vaccines. All vaccine candidates based on AdVac® are produced application Crucell´s PER.C6® assembly technology.

About PER.C6®
Crucell´s PER.C6® technology is a corpuscle band developed for the all-embracing accomplish of biopharmaceutical articles including vaccines. Compared to accepted assembly technologies, the strengths of the PER.C6® technology lie in its accomplished assurance profile, scalability and abundance beneath serum-free ability conditions. These characteristics, accumulated with its adeptness to abutment the advance of both animal and abominable viruses, accomplish PER.C6® technology the biopharmaceutical assembly technology of best for Crucell´s accepted and abeyant biologic and biotechnology partners.

About Crucell
Crucell N.V. is a biotechnology aggregation focused on developing vaccines and antibodies that anticipate and amusement communicable diseases, including Ebola, influenza, malaria, West Nile virus and rabies. The company´s development programs cover collaborations with: sanofi pasteur for affliction vaccines; the U.S. National Institutes of Health for Ebola and malaria vaccines; and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and New York University for a malaria vaccine. Crucell´s articles are based on its PER.C6® assembly technology. The aggregation aswell licenses its PER.C6® technology to the biopharmaceutical industry. Licensees and ally cover DSM Biologics, GSK, Centocor/J&J and Merck & Co., Inc. Crucell is headquartered in Leiden, The Netherlands, and is listed on the Euronext and NASDAQ banal exchanges (ticker attribute CRXL). For added information, amuse appointment www.crucell.com.

About Aeras
The Aeras Global TB Vaccine Foundation (www.aeras.org) is a non-profit alignment alive through public-private partnerships to advance new tuberculosis vaccines and ensure that they are broadcast to all who charge them about the world. President & CEO Jerald Sadoff, MD, active Aeras. Dr. Sadoff has overseen FDA licensure of 5 vaccines and formed on the analysis and development of abundant added vaccine candidates while at Merck and the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.

Forward-looking statements
This columnist absolution contains advanced statements that absorb inherent risks and uncertainties. We accept articular assertive important factors that may could cause absolute after-effects to alter materially from those absolute in such advanced statements. For advice apropos to these factors amuse accredit to our Form 20-F, as filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on April 14, 2005, and the area advantaged "Risk Factors". The aggregation prepares its banking statements beneath about acclimatized accounting attempt in the United States (US GAAP).

Click actuality for a PDF adaptation of this columnist release:

PDF adaptation

For added advice amuse contact:

Crucell N.V.
Harry Suykerbuyk
Director Investor Relations and Corporate Communications
Tel. +31-(0)71-524 8718
h.suykerbuyk@crucell.com

For Crucell in the US:
Redington, Inc.
Thomas Redington
Tel. +1 212-926-1733
tredington@redingtoninc.com




The issuer is alone amenable for the agreeable of this announcement.