Pfenex Awarded HHS Contract to Develop Anthrax Vaccine

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), has awarded Pfenex, Inc. (San Diego, CA) a contract to support the development of a robust Pfenex expression technology-based production strain and process for the production of bulk recombinant protective antigen (rPA) from anthrax.

Pfenex will apply its proprietary Pfenex expression technology platform, based on Pseudomonas fluorescens, to identify high producing expression strains capable of producing high titers of stable rPA. Pfenex will then leverage its process development and scale-up capabilities to develop a cGMP process at commercial production scales and also will evaluate the performance of the protein in IND-enabling preclinical studies.

The contract provides for up to $18.8 million in funding, provided that certain milestones are achieved and that all contract options and extensions are exercised by the government.