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A clinical prototype of Altimmune Inc.’s NasoShield anthrax vaccine. (Altimmune Inc. photo)
A biopharmaceutical firm in Gaithersburg will receive an additional $3.7 million on a federal contract to develop an anthrax vaccine.
Altimmune Inc. on Wednesday announced the award from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, saying that the funds would mainly be directed toward a Phase 1b clinical trial of NasoShield, a single-dose, intranasal anthrax vaccine, to evaluate alternative methods of intranasal dosing.
Last year, BARDA gave Altimmune $2.5 million to develop the vaccine, including a comparison of different methods of administering it.
Results from a Phase 1 study may have shown better effects if a modified way of administering the vaccine had been used, Altimmune said in a news release. The Phase 1b study, expected to begin this year, will evaluate modified administration methods.
