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Biotech / Medical : SIGA Technologies Inc. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: caly who wrote (29)	9/25/2006 5:57:50 PM
From: caly	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 160

baltimore.bizjournals.com PharmAthene wins $213M biodefense contract Monday September 25, 5:06 pm ET PharmAthene said Monday it had won a contract from the Department of Defense potentially worth up to $213 million to develop a drug to combat bioterrorism. The Annapolis biotechnology company has been awarded a multi-year contract by the Defense Department's U.S. Army Space and Missile Command to commercialize Protexia, a treatment for exposure to nerve agents. The contract win is a huge boost for PharmAthene, which won $50 million in venture funding to develop new defenses in the war on bioterror only to be kept on hold while the federal government -- its primary customer -- took longer than anticipated awarding lucrative contracts. The company will get $34.7 million initially to test Protexia and launch clinical trials for the drug. If a Phase I trial is successfully completed, the government could exercise options to fund additional development, and eventually procure 90,000 doses of Protexia. PharmAthene CEO David Wright said in a statement Monday the contract win underscored the "intense commitment and strong technical capability PharmAthene has demonstrated in assembling and rapidly advancing a comprehensive portfolio of biodefense-focused therapeutics to meet the urgent biosecurity needs of our nation and allies." Wright, a former top executive with MedImmune and Guilford Pharmaceuticals, was one of several seasoned biotech executives hired to lead PharmAthene's efforts developing vaccines for killer agents such as anthrax, botulinum toxin and smallpox. The company's science, rooted at the Harvard University Medical School, uses a highly purified, genetically engineered protein technology called recombinant PA to prevent the proteins in anthrax's lethal toxins from binding to cells and opening them up to infection. Wall Street looked with favor at companies such as PharmAthene in large measure because of Project BioShield, a $5.6 billion effort passed by Congress after President Bush launched a push for billions of dollars in federal funding to develop and stockpile a range of vaccines and treatments against lethal pathogens. But the money has been allocated in dribs and drabs, frustrating the entrepreneurial ventures that emerged after the BioShield announcement. PharmAthene expects to become a public company this quarter through a reverse merger with Siga Technologies, a New York biotech firm.