Ichor gains Navy contract for anthrax, plague vaccine development

San Diego, USA-based Ichor Medical Systems, whose advanced electroporation system is being used worldwide to increase the effectiveness of DNA drug and vaccine delivery, has been awarded a two-year contract valued at over $2.3 million by the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency. Ichor will assist the Biological Defense Research Directorate of the Naval Medical Research Center in Rockville, Maryland in the development of a DNA vaccine for anthrax and plague.

The new contract builds on Ichor's ongoing collaboration with the Department of Defense, exploring the potential of electroporation-based delivery to increase the effectiveness of a number of biodefense-related DNA vaccine candidates. In March, the company was awarded a $900,000 contract by the DoD to assist the US Army in the development of a DNA vaccine for equine encephalitis.

Ichor will collaborate with Stanley Goldman, department head of the Vaccine Group at BDRD, in the assessment of a collection of DNA vaccine candidates for anthrax and plague developed by the Navy and administered using Ichor's proprietary TriGrid Delivery System.