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To: Eagle who wrote (39401)	2/24/2009 9:09:30 AM
From: MichiganBrew	Respond to of 48461

SIGA news: ST-246(r) in Combination With the Smallpox Vaccine ACAM2000(tm) Confers Protective Immunity in Primates NEW YORK, Feb 24, 2009 (GlobeNewswire via COMTEX) -- SIGA Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq:SIGA), a company specializing in the development of pharmaceutical agents to fight biowarfare pathogens, today announced the results of a non-human primate study by the Southern Research Institute (SRI) that suggests that ST-246(r) can be used in combination with a well-known smallpox vaccine and may improve the safety profile of the vaccine. The study investigated the efficacy of concurrent administration of ST-246, SIGA's smallpox antiviral candidate drug, and Acambis' ACAM2000(tm) smallpox vaccine in non-human primates. When concurrently administered, ST-246 appears to reduce the size and intensity of the lesion formed at the vaccine administration site while the vaccine still confers similar levels of protection in the test animals compared to animals given vaccine alone, based on a subsequent challenge with lethal doses of monkeypox virus. Pending immunological evaluations will shed further light on the overall impact of concomitant ST-246 administration on vaccine efficacy. This favorable initial primate data should spur further studies to investigate this drug/vaccine combination approach. The results of the study will be presented by Dr. Peter Silvera of SRI on February 24, 2009 at the 7th Annual ASM Biodefense and Emerging Diseases Research Meeting in Baltimore, Maryland. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, funded the SRI study under contract no. N01-AI-30063. Dr. Dennis E. Hruby, SIGA's Chief Scientific Officer, commented, "We are encouraged by these favorable findings, particularly as the results show that ST-246 administration may reduce lesion size and intensity at the vaccination site, as well as the occasionally serious side effects that the smallpox vaccine can cause. We are gratified by this support for our belief that our antiviral drug candidate has the potential to lessen or even prevent some of the more severe side effects."