ZURICH (Reuters) - SGS and Bavarian Nordic are teaming up to develop a virus challenge strain to combat a common respiratory illness.
The companies aim to develop the respiratory syncytial virus challenge strain in order to help advance progress towards a universal vaccine against the virus, SGS said in a statement on Thursday.
RSV is a significant cause of respiratory illness in all agegroups, and is the most common cause of lower respiratorytract infections in children worldwide, resulting in a high number of hospitalizations.
SGS cited WHO estimates which said RSV infects more than 64 million people globally each year and causes a similar number of deaths to those caused by influenza.
(Reporting by Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi, editing by John Revill)
