hVIVO, a company pioneering a human-based clinical trial platform to accelerate drug and vaccine development in respiratory and infectious diseases, has signed two new agreements with a global biopharmaceutical company, it was reported yesterday.

The contract has been signed for two respiratory syncytial virus human challenge studies. Both studies are expected to deliver a total of GBP9m in revenue, with most of the revenue being recognised in 2019. These contracts are in addition to the RSV human challenge study contract, with a large research and development-focused biotechnology company to the value of GBP11.9m that is due to start in a quarantine unit later this month. The revenue from this study is also expected to be fully recognised by the end of 2019.

hVIVO executive chairman, Dr Trevor Phillips, said, 'We are pleased to have signed these two contracts with this global biopharmaceutical company. The recent significant new contract wins reinforce our leading position in human disease models based upon viral and allergen challenge and are a testament to our industry leading RSV-human challenge model. We have the strongest sales pipeline we have had for several years. We remain actively engaged in several discussions with other pharmaceutical companies for contracting studies across our current challenge portfolio, including allergen, asthma, human rhinovirus, influenza and RSV. We continue to experience high levels of interest from leading global pharmaceutical companies for the development of new challenge models in RSV, asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. With the significant demand for our services across the entire portfolio, we expect to convert a growing number of these opportunities into contracts that will further validate our service offerings and enhance our revenue in 2019 and beyond.'