PharmAthene Presents Update on SparVax; Preliminary Estimate Of Efficacy Over 90%-100% Protection

PharmAthene, Inc.

announced today that Dr. Thomas Fuerst, Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer, presented a comprehensive update on the Company's novel SparVax™ rPA anthrax vaccine program at the 2012 World Vaccine Congress, held at the Gaylord National Convention Center in Washington, DC, April 11-14, 2012. SparVax™ is being developed to meet the government's need for an improved second generation anthrax vaccine that is safe, convenient, more cost-effective, and capable of providing rapid manufacturing scale-up in response to a national security emergency. New data based on a recent analysis of previous human clinical trial immunogenicity data and non-clinical animal study results for SparVax™ suggested a preliminary estimate of efficacy in humans of over 90% protection and nearly 100% protection based on a 6- and 12-month booster dose, respectively. This analysis is based on a correlate of protection established under the Animal Rule in accordance with FDA guidelines. "The benefits of rPA-based anthrax vaccines are well established and we believe our program is at the forefront of efforts in this field," remarked Dr. Fuerst. "We are very excited about the progress we continue to make in our SparVax™ program. Beyond our clinical successes, a key differentiator is our robust manufacturing process, which enables production of a highly characterized, highly purified and stable vaccine in sufficient scale required to meet the government's mandate for a modern, second-generation rPA-based anthrax vaccine. We look forward to commencing additional Phase II clinical testing of SparVax™ later this year and to continuing a very productive collaboration with our partners in government to address this important national security requirement."