BARDA awards Vaxin $21.7M contract to accelerate development of novel anthrax vaccine

Sep 17 2011

Vaxin Inc., a clinical stage vaccine development company, today announced that it has been awarded a contract valued at up to $21.7 million by the Office of Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) within the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for pre-clinical assessment, final manufacturing process development and the supply of clinical materials to support an IND filing and first-in-man dose ranging study of the company's proprietary anthrax vaccine, AdVAV. This award supports BARDA's mission to advance improved medical countermeasures for some of the highest priority threats, including anthrax.

“We are honored to work with BARDA to accelerate the development of our novel AdVAV vaccine candidate and to help the U.S. government in its commitment to actively address public health threats”

"We are honored to work with BARDA to accelerate the development of our novel AdVAV vaccine candidate and to help the U.S. government in its commitment to actively address public health threats," said Bill Enright, President and Chief Executive Officer of Vaxin Inc. "This is a unique opportunity for Vaxin to apply our vaccine development experience to a critical need and we thank the team at BARDA for this contract to advance this potentially important new technology."

In proof of principle studies, Vaxin has demonstrated several key characteristics, important for consideration of the AdVAV vaccine candidate as a medical countermeasure: 1) protection with a single dose in multiple animal species; 2) excellent safety profile in animals 3) easy, patient-friendly, needle-free administration; 4) rapid onset of and long-lasting immunity; 5) stability for more than two years at both refrigerated and frozen temperatures; 6) rapid and cost effective manufacturing using an established, cell-culture process. These "proof of principle" studies were supported by grants UC1AI067198 and 1R43AI47558 from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.