Avant OKs Anthrax Vaccine License

By Associated Press

October 10, 2001, 5:18 PM EDT

NEEDHAM, Mass. -- Avant Immunotherapeutics Inc., a Needham biotechnology company, announced an agreement Wednesday to license vaccine technology that a scientific adviser said could be useful against anthrax.

The company announced a licensing deal that will give DynPort Vaccine Company LLC access to Avant's advanced vaccine patents.

A company spokeswoman said the Defense Department had asked Avant not to discuss possible uses related to anthrax, but Dr. Mark Davis, a Stanford University Medical School professor and a member of Avant's scientific advisory board, told The Boston Globe it could be useful against the disease.

"They're going great guns with travelers' vaccines such as cholera and typhoid," he said. "Anthrax would just be another bug."

The company's Web site says the company has conducted preclinical work in vaccines for anthrax among other diseases.

Details of the agreement were not disclosed.

In 1997, the Defense Department signed a contract with DynPort, a subsidiary of Reston, Va.-based defense contractor DynCorp, to develop vaccines.

"Bioterrorism is a worldwide concern," said Michael W. Henry, Avant's vice president for business development. "... Effective vaccines are an important medical countermeasure against biological warfare to protect U.S. military forces and others at risk around the world, and we believe that our vaccine technology can contribute significantly to this effort."

The current anthrax vaccine requires six shots over many months, and the plant where Lansing, Mich.-based BioPort Corp. makes the vaccine was shut down by the government three years ago.

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On the Net:

http://www.avantimmune.com

http://www.dyncorp.com/dynport/ Copyright © 2001, The Associated Press

-- Anonymous, October 11, 2001