VAXGEN PUBLISHES RESULTS OF ANTHRAX VACCINE TRIAL

VaxGen announced that peer-reviewed data from the company's Phase I trial of its candidate anthrax vaccine rPA102 were published in the journal Vaccine. The paper, titled "Immunogenicity and Tolerance of Ascending Doses of a Recombinant Protective Antigen (rPA102) Anthrax Vaccine: A Randomized, Double-blinded, Controlled, Multicenter Trial," presents data that demonstrate a clear relationship between the rPA102 dose administered and the subsequent immune response. All injections were administered four weeks apart, and at each dose level examined three injections of the vaccine candidate yielded higher antibody titers than with two injections. No clinically serious or dose-related toxicity was observed in this study.

The company's vaccine candidate is a recombinant protective antigen protein vaccine that was initially developed by the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases. It contains protective antigen produced using recombinant technology from a strain of B. anthracis bacteria that is genetically modified to prevent the production of spores, toxins or virulence factors. The vaccine cannot cause anthrax infection.