SIGA wins $2.3 million in Air Force biodefense projects
Company is known for its SIGA-246 smallpox drug, but its competencies are far ranging; new contracts call for drugs to counteract Dengue viruses, biowarfare pathogens, and orthopox viruses other than smallopox
Corvallis, Oregon-based SIGA Technologies continues to impress in the biodefense world. Readers will recall our ongoing reporting on the company’s SIGA-246 anti-smallpox drug, for which it recently received a three year, $16.5 million development contract from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the National Institutes for Health (NIH). Now the company has announced two new contracts, this time with the U.S. Air Force, to develop countermeasures against other dangerous pathogens.
The first, a one year $1.4 million deal with the Air Force Medical Service, will develop drugs to counter biowarfare pathogens, Dengue viruses, and various water-related viral agents. Dengue, an acute febrile mosquito-borne disease, is a particularly interesting target because no approved drugs or vaccines yet exist, leaving American troops vulnerable in areas prone to flooding. The second contract is a one-year $900,000 agreement with Air Force Special Operations Command to focus on orthopox virus targets other than smallpox and not succesptible to the SIGA-246 anti-smallpox treatment.
-read more in this company news release
