The U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) awarded Altimmune a contract valued at up to $120.2 million over 5 years to fund the clinical development of NasoShield, the company's anthrax vaccine candidate. Under the contract, Altimmune receives $14.3 million to fund its Phase I trial for the product and options to receive up to an additional $105.9 million to fund further preclinical, clinical, and manufacturing development activities.
NasoShield has been supported by BARDA as a development-stage medical countermeasure and is designed to provide rapid, stable protection after one intranasal administration. In a head-to-head comparison with the existing approved anthrax vaccine in a gold-standard animal model, a single intranasal dose of NasoShield showed complete protection from inhalation anthrax and was noninferior to multiple doses of the existing approved anthrax vaccine, while providing for a more rapid and stable immune response, according to the company.