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Biosecurity BriefingEmergent BioSolutions Wins NIAID Grants, Sanofi to Acquire AcambisBy Kunal Rambhia, August 4, 2008 On July 24, 2008, Emergent BioSolutions, Inc., announced in a news release that it has been awarded two grants totaling $4.5 million from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) for the development of botulism and next-generation anthrax vaccine candidates.1 The first grant is for the development of a serotype A and B recombinant botulinum toxin vaccine, rBOT. So far, the vaccine has shown efficacy in animal trials and is demonstrating stability for commercial manufacturing processes. Emergent’s anthrax vaccine candidate, AV7909, is composed of BioThrax [Anthrax Vaccine Adsorbed (AVA)] and an immune-boosting adjuvant (VaxImmune™). In clinical trials, two doses of the adjuvanted vaccine “elicited the same level of antibodies against anthrax protective antigen as were elicited by three doses of BioThrax alone.”1 The rBOT grant will fund continued development of the vaccine over a 3-year period, and the AV7909 grant over a 5-year period.1 In related news, on July 28 the Associated Press reported that sanofi-aventis will acquire vaccine-maker Acambis PLC for $551 million in a deal slated for September.2 As previously reported by the Biosecurity Briefing, Acambis won a 10-year government contract in April to deliver its ACAM2000 smallpox vaccine to the U.S. Strategic National Stockpile (SNS). Acambis will become part of sanofi-aventis’s vaccine business, sanofi pasteur. References
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