Latest Biodefense Stories

ANNAPOLIS, Md., Sept. 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- PharmAthene, Inc. a biodefense company specializing in the development and commercialization of medical countermeasures against chemical and biological threats, announced today that it has received notification from the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) that the Company's proposal for its recombinant protective antigen anthrax vaccine, SparVax(TM), has completed a comprehensive technical and business evaluation by DHHS and has...

BERKELEY, Calif., Sept. 9, 2008 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- XOMA Ltd. (Nasdaq:XOMA) today announced that it was awarded a $65 million multiple year contract from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to support XOMA's ongoing development of drug candidates towards clinical trials in the treatment of botulism poisoning, a potentially deadly muscle paralyzing disease. The contract is the third that NIAID has awarded...

DOR BioPharma, Inc. (OTCBB: DORB) ("DOR" or the "Company"), a late-stage biopharmaceutical company, announced today that one of its academic development partners has initiated a second human clinical trial of RiVax(TM) in healthy volunteers. RiVax(TM) is a recombinant subunit vaccine designed to induce protection against exposure to ricin toxin, a category B biothreat. This new trial is intended to evaluate the safety and immunogenicity of an improved formulation of the vaccine containing an...

By David Wood, The Baltimore Sun Aug. 2--WASHINGTON -- Fort Detrick, where scientist Bruce E. Ivins worked for more than three decades, is the largest U.S. government research center focused primarily on biodefense. Set on a former airfield north of Frederick where the Maryland National Guard once based a fleet of biplanes, it houses dozens of labs. Chief among them is the military's main research facility on biological weapons, the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious...

ANNAPOLIS, Md., July 31 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- PharmAthene, Inc. a biodefense company specializing in the development and commercialization of medical countermeasures against chemical and biological threats, announced today that it has submitted a response to a Request for Proposals for an Anthrax Recombinant Protective Antigen (rPA) Vaccine for the Strategic National Stockpile (Solicitation Number: RFP BARDA 08-15) for SparVax(TM), the Company's novel rPA anthrax vaccine. On February...

DynPort Vaccine, a CSC company, has received a contract from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, to establish and operate a Phase I clinical trial unit for infectious disease therapeutics. The contract is valued at approximately $32.3 million over a seven-year period. DynPort Vaccine (DVC) is teaming with Quintiles Transnational to complete this work. Under the terms of the agreement, DVC and Quintiles will manage a Phase I...

By Justin M. Palk, The Frederick News-Post, Md. Jun. 30--The U.S. Senate is considering legislation aimed at improving oversight of laboratories that handle dangerous pathogens such as Ebola, smallpox and anthrax. The Select Agent Program and Biosafety Program Improvement Act of 2008, introduced by Senators Richard Burr, R-N.C., and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., would reauthorize the Select Agent Program, which expired in late 2007. Administered by the Centers for Disease Control and...

Dr. Phillip Gomez, Former Director, Vaccine Production at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases/National Institutes of Health (NIAID/NIH) Vaccine Research Center (VRC), has joined PRTM as a principal in the firm's Biodefense and Public Health Practice. He has more than 15 years of experience in bringing drugs and biologics to market through his work in industry and the public sector. Prior to joining PRTM, a global management consulting firm that helps create and...

By Adam Tanner HAMILTON, Montana (Reuters) - Montana's Bitterroot Valley, surrounded by mountains, has long offered a respite from the modern world, an area of small-town values with rivers beloved by fishermen and a thriving log cabin business. The bucolic setting between two mountain ranges in western Montana will soon host one of the nation's few biowarfare defense labs, a controversial $66.5 million building where scientists will research dangerous pathogens in an effort to stem...