BARDA awards contract to develop Pfenex Expression Technology

Pfenex Inc. today announced that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) has awarded Pfenex a contract providing for up to a total of $18.8 million in funding, provided that certain milestones are achieved and that all contract options and extensions are exercised by the government. The contract will 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. Pursuant to the contract, Pfenex will apply its proprietary Pfenex Expression Technology platform 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 will also evaluate the performance of the protein in IND enabling preclinical studies.  

"We are pleased to be awarded this contract for our rPA development program, which may offer a dramatic improvement in the nation's ability to rapidly produce large amounts of a stable anthrax vaccine at a very competitive cost to the U. S. Government," stated Bertrand C. Liang, Chief Executive Officer,   "A recombinant solution for the production of this strategically relevant product has been sought after for a number of years and we are confident that Pfenex's platform will deliver that solution."