PORTON Biopharma Ltd has been given approval to advance its next generation anthrax vaccine.

It announced today that it has signed a modification to its contract with the US National Institute of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to advance a next generation intra-nasal anthrax vaccine.

The contract modification is worth US$5.6 million.

PBL’s contract supports the advanced development of candidate vaccine components and technologies that accelerate the immune responses for use following the intentional release of the Category A priority pathogen Bacillus anthracis, the bacterium that causes the disease anthrax, or in response to naturally occurring outbreaks of the disease.

PBL is working with Public Health England and US Company NanoBio Corporation’s novel adjuvant technology to produce a more effective product than current licensed vaccines by enabling immunity to be achieved in fewer doses and via intra-nasal delivery, instead of injection.

PBL and its partners will now progress to manufacturing the vaccine for evaluation in a pre-clinical study, followed by a Phase 1 clinical trial.

Dr Roger Hinton, the managing director of PBL, said “NIAID’s approval to progress funding of the contract is testament to the tremendous amount of hard work and dedication that has gone into the development of this novel product to date by PBL and its partners in collaboration with NIAID’s technical team.

"It both recognises the knowledge and expertise of our staff and demonstrates the ability of PBL as a young and growing company to deliver.

"This programme is a continuation of our track record of developing and manufacturing life-saving and protecting products many of which are sold in worldwide markets which includes the UK anthrax vaccine."

The total value of the contract could be worth up to US $24million over its eight year term, if all options are exercised.