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DowpharmaSM Announces Commercial License Agreement for Pfnex Expression Technology™ with Iomai Corporation Midland, MI and Gaithersburg, MD - June 23, 2005 DowpharmaSM contract manufacturing services, a business unit of The Dow Chemical Company, today announced that it has entered into a commercial license agreement with Iomai Corporation for Dowpharma's Pfnex Expression Technology™, a Pseudomonas-based technology that accelerates speed to market for vaccines and biotherapeutics by surpassing the quality and yield capabilities of existing microbial expression systems. Under the terms of the agreement, Iomai will employ the Pfnex Expression Technology™ for the production of heat labile enterotoxin (LT), a key component of Iomai's transcutaneous immunization platform technology for the delivery of vaccines to the skin. Iomai will initially produce LT for use as a vaccine to treat enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC), the most common cause of acute diarrhea among travelers to developing countries. The Pfnex expressed LT will be used in subsequent vaccines that will be delivered using Iomai's transcutaneous immunization technology. The deal consists of milestone payments and commercial royalties on product sales. Additional financial details of the agreement were not disclosed. Pfnex Expression Technology™ is built around specially modified strains of Pseudomonas fluorescens bacteria that increase cellular expression of recombinant proteins and peptides while maintaining critical solubility and activity characteristics. "This agreement validates the biopharmaceutical industry's need to produce therapeutic proteins using an expression system that delivers higher yields and provides a faster route through process development to reduce the overall cost of goods for vaccines or biotherapeutics," said Nick Hyde, business director, Dowpharma. "In the studies we have conducted, Pfnex consistently outperforms other commercially available microbial expression systems such as E. coli. Pfnex will enable improved production of Iomai's heat-labile enterotoxin, a molecule that historically has been very difficult to express. Bringing Pfnex and Iomai's technologies together will allow Iomai to economically manufacture better vaccines for the prevention and treatment of infectious disease." "We are in Phase II clinical trials with our ETEC vaccine to treat travelers' diarrhea," said Stanley C. Erck, President & Chief Executive Officer at Iomai. "We believe that Pfnex will enable us to increase the expression of our protein and deliver higher yields to support the advancement of our ETEC vaccine towards regulatory approval. We're looking forward to working with the team at Dowpharma and leveraging their experience and knowledge to enhance our process development activities and to smooth our ultimate transition into manufacturing with this product." About Dowpharma About Dow About Iomai Corporation For Editorial Information: Kathleen Davis Kathy W. Sweeney |
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