US announces three biodefense vaccine contracts

The federal government announced three contracts worth up to $68 million on Thursday to make three new vaccines against dengue fever and anthrax.

The contracts, to Maryland-based Emergent Biosolutions, privately held PaxVax Inc of San Diego and privately held Inviragen Inc of Fort Collins, Colorado, are meant to help the companies develop better vaccines using simpler technology, including needle-free systems.

They include work on a new dengue vaccine delivered by a needle-free device, an oral anthrax vaccine and improvements to an existing anthrax vaccine using an agent to stimulate the immune system, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said.

“Our goal is to improve vaccine delivery and the resulting immune response in a way that could be used to protect large numbers of patients,” Dr. Michael Kurilla of NIAID, one of the National Institutes of Health, said in a statement.

Total funding of the three contracts could reach $68 million, “depending on the successful completion of defined project milestones,” the NIAID said.

Anthrax occurs naturally but is considered a likely biological weapon. Its spores can be made into a fine dust that could be spread in the air and by the time patients know they are sick, it can be too late to treat them with antibiotics.

An attack using anthrax spores delivered in letters killed five people in 2001, soon after the Sept. 11 attacks.

U.S. military personnel are vaccinated against anthrax using Emergent’s vaccine, but experts agree it could be improved. Emergent will work to add the immune-stimulating agent to its vaccine.

“PaxVax Inc of San Diego will develop and test two formulations of an anthrax vaccine,” the NIAID added.

“Both formulations contain a gene known as rPA, which codes for a protein that protected animals from anthrax in previous studies.” A virus called adenovirus 4 will be genetically engineered and people would take the vaccine in the form of a capsule.

The dengue vaccine being developed by Inviragen is designed to protect against any of the four related viruses that cause dengue fever.

“A needle-free system, developed by PharmaJet of Golden, Colorado, will be used to deliver the liquid vaccine through the skin at a high speed,” the NIAID said.

Dengue is the most common virus transmitted by mosquitoes, infecting 50 million to 100 million people every year and killing 25,000 of them.

It can cause classic flu-like symptoms but can also take on a hemorrhagic form that causes internal and external bleeding and sudden death. There is no licensed vaccine and no drugs to treat it and while it is rare in the United States, cases have been reported in Texas and Florida.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters)