ImmuneRegen offers Homspera as anthrax vaccine

You may recall that back in late spring the Bush administration finally decided to pull the plug on its nearly $877.5 million contract with South San Francisco-based VaxGen to develop an anthrax vaccine. VaxGen’s failure to deliver and live up to the terms of the contract was not a surprise: The company has what analysts call a checkered past, and many in Congress and the biotechnology sector warned that the company was just not up to the task. What was inexplicable was the administration’s decision to give this sole-supplier contract to a comany with VaxGen’s track record.

The search for an anthrax vaccine continues, though, so we note that Scottsdale, Arizona-based research and development biotechnology company ImmuneRegen BioSciences, a wholly owned subsidiary of IR BioSciences Holdings, has responded to a Request for Information (RFI) from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) of the Department of Defense for therapeutic countermeasures against CDC Category A and B threat agents. ImmuneRegen made its submission 20 August 2007 with information on its potential treatment, Homspera. Homspera is currently in development as a therapeutic and prophylactic countermeasure against a variety of pathogens including multiple biological, chemical, and radiological threats. For the purposes of this request, the RFI submission focuses primarily on anthrax countermeasures.

“We believe that Homspera is at the forefront of the development of Category A and B countermeasures,” commented Michael Wilhelm, cofounder and CEO of ImmuneRegen. “Our studies have shown Homspera to be effective in protecting experimental animals against the lethal effects of ionizing radiation, infection with anthrax spores, infection with influenza virus, and to be an adjuvant in influenza vaccine studies. We believe Homspera’s mode of action includes an immunostimulatory activity that results in enhanced host defenses against multiple pathogens.”