VaxGen crows to stock market about $8m government backing for AidsVax trial
Documents obtained in 1999 by Brian Deer during his Sunday Times investigation, The VaxGen Experiment,of California Aids vaccine company, VaxGen Inc, resulted in federal prosection of Dr William Heyward, who as HIV vaccine chief at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cheer-led for VaxGen's technology and arranged $8m in grants for its controversial product whilst secretly engaged to join the company. VaxGen's stock price soared in the quarter following the press release below, which many investors took to imply government endorsement of the company's product. Also on this page is an extract from a May 2001 SEC filing, indicating that although the $8m was not paid directly to the company, it covered clinical trial costs that would otherwise have been incurred by VaxGen
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Centers for Disease Control Joins VaxGen Study; Awards $8 Million Contract to Supplement HIV Vaccine Research
PRNewswire - October 29, 1999
BRISBANE, Calif., Oct. 29 /PRNewswire/ VaxGen Inc. (Nasdaq: VXGN) today announced that the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will contribute funds to support additional research at five of the 56 clinics in the United States currently conducting Phase III clinical trials of VaxGen's AIDSVAX vaccine.
The CDC will contribute $2 million annually, for four years, to the selected clinics. The focus of the additional research supported by the contract is "to answer critical questions about how this and future vaccine trials may impact the attitudes and behaviors of both trial participants and the communities involved," according to the CDC.
"The CDC's support of our trial opens key avenues towards achieving our goals of ending the AIDS epidemic," said Dr. Donald P. Francis, president of VaxGen. "VaxGen will benefit from the vast experience of CDC, the U.S. government's premier HIV prevention organization. In turn, we will be sharing data and data analysis with the CDC."
The five clinical sites that will receive the CDC funds are San Francisco Department of Public Health, Fenway Community Health Center in Boston, Ohio State University, Howard Brown Health Center in Chicago, and the University of Washington in Seattle. The contract calls for CDC to assume clinical expenses for trial volunteers at these sites. Each participating site will continue to implement VaxGen's Phase III protocol, as well as conduct the additional research.
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May 03, 2001
VAXGEN INC (VXGN)
Quarterly Report (SEC form 10-Q)
Excerpt:
"In October 1999, we entered into a collaboration with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ("CDC") to support research at six of the 56 clinics in the United States currently conducting Phase III clinical trials of our AIDSVAX(R) vaccine. The CDC selected the six sites in the fourth quarter of 1999. Contractual arrangements between the CDC and the clinics were completed in the second quarter of 2000. The participating sites will continue to implement our Phase III protocol, as well as conduct epidemiological, social and behavioral research, which will be shared by the Company and the CDC. The sites will be compensated directly by the CDC for the clinical costs, which would have been incurred by the Company, and for conducting the additional research. The CDC has agreed to contribute approximately $8,000,000 to the participating sites over a four-year period."
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