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Materials

Firms Ink Biodefense Pacts

by Michael McCoy
October 7, 2013 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 91, Issue 40

Government research into biodefense agents means business for three drug companies and contract manufacturers. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has awarded Moderna Therapeutics up to $25 million to research and develop messenger RNA technology to make antibody-producing drugs that protect against infectious disease and engineered biological threats. Moderna says its approach is an alternative to vaccines that involve exposing people to a weakened or inactivated pathogen. Pfenex, meanwhile, has won an $8 million extension of a contract with the Biomedical Advanced Research & Development Authority to develop an anthrax vaccine based on a recombinant protective antigen. The extension brings Pfenex’ total funding under the pact to $23.9 million. And Albany Molecular Research Inc.’s U.K. subsidiary has been awarded a seven-year contract to manufacture an unidentified active pharmaceutical ingredient that is under evaluation by the defense departments of the U.K., Canada, and the Netherlands. AMRI notes that it has been a subcontractor for the U.S. Defense Department for more than a decade.

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