The patch: not just for nicotine addicts anymore.
Gaithersburg-based biotech company Iomai Corp. announced Tuesday it was receiving a small grant, just under $1 million, from the U.S. Army Medical Research and Material Command for work on a patch-based anthrax vaccine.
Recommended Stories
The grant is to fund a year’s worth of research on the project, using an antigen developed by a British pharmaceutical company to produce the patch. The firm said in a statement the patch would be an alternative to the existing anthrax vaccine, which has to be taken as a series of six shots over 18 months and must be refrigerated. Iomai did not return calls asking for comment.
“Almost all vaccines need a needle and syringe, and this entails a whole array of technical, expense and safety issues,” said Dr. William Schaffner, chairman of the Department of Preventive Medicine at Vanderbilt University. “This is something people have been working on for a long time, but the research is very ‘two steps forward, one step back.’ ”
If successful, the patch would be the size of an adhesive bandage, according to Iomai.
Iomai is not the only Maryland-based biotech company to do work on anthrax. Emergent Biosolutions of Rockville manufactures BioThrax, the only FDA-approved vaccine against anthrax. Spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt said the company is in the process of developing a next-generation anthrax vaccine with such characteristics as room-temperature storage and an extended shelf life.
