Glide Pharma awarded contract from Pfenex Inc. to develop a solid formulation of recombinant anthrax vaccine

Apr 30 2013

Glide Pharma® today announced the award of a sub-contract from Pfenex Inc. to develop a solid formulation containing the recombinant Protective Antigen (rPA) from Bacillus anthracis expressed in Pfēnex Expression Technology™ suitable for delivery with the Glide SDI® (solid dose injector). This approach will address two important logistical constraints of the currently available vaccine, namely, long term stability during storage and ease of administration.

The Pfenex project has been funded in whole with Federal funds from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, under Contract No. HHSN272201200033C.

Under an existing Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) contract, Pfenex has successfully developed a novel rPA that is highly immunogenic and protective in animal studies, with a scalable production process and robust yields.

“Glide Pharma is pleased to be working with Pfenex on this contract from NIAID. We believe that a combination of Pfenex’s proprietary rPA-based anthrax vaccine and Glide Pharma’s novel formulations and delivery technology will provide a product suitable in response to an anthrax biothreat.” stated Dr Mark Carnegie-Brown, CEO, Glide Pharma.

“We are pleased to award this sub-contract to Glide Pharma. Their novel formulation and delivery technology allows us to expand our anthrax vaccine program,” stated Bertrand C. Liang, CEO, Pfenex. “Leveraging the Glide SDI® technology to develop an alternative delivery method of the Pfenex anthrax vaccine further supports our efforts to provide a safe, feasible and cost-effective solution to the United States government’s quest to stockpile sufficient vaccine doses to rapidly respond to an anthrax biothreat.”

About Glide Pharma®

Glide Pharma® is a pharmaceutical development and device company focused on the easy, safe and convenient administration of solid dose formulations of therapeutics and vaccines. The company has a range of in-house and partnered programmes based on its proprietary solid dose injector, the Glide SDI®. Glide Pharma has a strong management team with extensive experience of the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device sectors. The company has successfully completed five investment rounds, and is supported by a consortium of institutional and private technology investors, including Invesco Perpetual, Oxford Technology Venture Capital Trusts, Oxford Capital Partners and Hygea VCT. For more information please visit www.glidepharma.com

About the Glide SDI® solid dose injector

The Glide SDI® is an innovative needle-free delivery system. The reusable injector uses a spring mechanism to administer a tiny solid dosage below the patient’s skin, where it dissolves and releases the pharmaceutical. Glide’s solid dose formulations eliminate the risk of needle-stick injuries and avoid time-consuming reconstitution. They also have the potential to modify the release of medicines and to improve stability, removing the need for refrigeration. The one-click action, pen-sized device is extremely easy to use, with medicines supplied in pre-filled disposable cassettes, making it ideal for self administration. In clinical testing, volunteers strongly preferred the Glide SDI to traditional needle and syringe.

About Pfenex Inc.

Pfenex Inc. is a biotechnology company developing biosimilars and innovative vaccines to address unmet and growing global healthcare needs. Utilizing the company’s core technology, Pfēnex Expression Technology™ for recombinant protein expression, Pfenex is able to rapidly develop and produce high quality therapeutics. In addition, Pfenex also produces and markets research proteins and reagent proteins for the research and drug development community through its Reagent Proteins division. For more information please visit www.pfenex.com